Avengers: Infinity War Review (Spoiler-Free!)

Perhaps no other superhero film is as highly anticipated as Avengers: Infinity War, and it’s all with good reason. This Infinity War review explores just why the movie is so darn awesome—all spoiler-free, of course.

The past 10 years of Marvel Studios steadily building everything up into one, epic, not-such-a-conclusion-just-yet film all pay off in this ambitious endeavor. As much as I’m a DC fan, I just can’t see DC being able to top—or even be at par with—this kind of grand scale. Unfortunately, because the hype around this movie has reached explosive proportions, I can’t really say anything about the film without inciting the wrath of the most unforgiving fans on the planet.

Even professional critics doing an Infinity War review all around the world have been politely requested/demanded/threatened/shocked to silence by Marvel itself, spreading around the apt but terrifying hashtag of #thanosdemandsyoursilence. As I don’t want an angry, pitchfork-wielding mob to break down my door at any minute, there’s not much I can say about this hush-hush film, except that it does deliver—which is really the understatement of the year.

Avengers: Infinity War starts smack-dab in the middle of the action, and it just might be a tad difficult for newbie viewers to understand anything that’s going on. Because the movie itself already expects you to have followed everyone’s storylines up to this moment, it wastes no time in getting straight to the point, doing away with the traditional slow start where everything and everyone is reintroduced and reacquainted.

Right off the bat, the film begins its no-holds-barred operatic drama by forcing you to chuck any semblance of complacency out the window. This proves just how serious the Russo brothers (Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: Winter Soldier) are in declaring with apparent finality that nobody in the MCU is safe. Expectations are met, exceeded, and even thrown completely off-course to keep you guessing, and by the time the final credits roll (stay for one post-credits scene, by the way), viewers will be left confused, heartbroken, highly entertained, and in utter despair because of having to wait a full year before the sequel comes out.

In what I personally see as a star-studded Marvel cast party, Avengers: Infinity War brings back all these superheroes we’ve all come to know and love through the years, even including a few new faces into the fold (like Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage in a secret but memorable role). When you throw in all of these extremely different personalities into one, big, Marvel-family mixing bowl, sparks will inevitably fly and egos will undoubtedly clash—none more so than Tony Stark’s and Stephen Strange’s in what seems to be a battle of who gets to be the most arrogant-but-loveable hero in the world.

Hopping from one planet to the next, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes side with the noble warriors of Wakanda and the most unlikely band of space travelers like the Guardians of the Galaxy in their quest to stop big baddie Thanos from wiping out half the universe. But despite these high stakes, the film still takes time to hit emotional and comedic beats perfectly. I occasionally had to curse a few hidden ninjas cutting up onions in the theater, because it’s just…darn those ninjas.

However, even with Spider-Man being all friendly-neighborhood-y and Thor’s muscles being all muscle-y, having all these heroes in a single movie just makes each of them a little less special. Still, it’s a necessary price to pay when you’re trying to cram all these characters in just a little less than three hours, and it’s probably a conscious decision for the directors’ part in order to give way to the true strength of the movie—its big, purple villain.

Genocidal, poetic, and absolutely mad, the soft-spoken Titan is nothing like the past cardboard-cutout villains of the MCU. Thanos is on a personal mission to collect all six Infinity Stones for a reason he whole-heartedly believes is noble and true, and no Infinity War review would be complete without talking about him. The movie takes its sweet time developing Thanos’ expansive history and heartrending backstory, all brought beautifully to life by the stunning visual effects done on what would have been a fake CGI character. Josh Brolin’s facial tics and wide range of emotions are expressed perfectly in a stunning display of outstanding motion capture, making me truly believe in Thanos’ character underneath all the computer-generated sorcery. I honestly thought that the Black Order members were interchangeable and ultimately forgettable, but it didn’t really matter—not when Thanos was so masterfully done.

Overall, Avengers: Infinity War has successfully accomplished what all the previous Marvel movies have been leading up to all this time. The breathtaking cliff-hanger of an ending hints at a poetic end where the heroes could possibly throw a Hail Mary pass in the sequel (or, heavens forbid, an annoying deus ex machina), but who are we kidding? It’s a movie worth re-watching—and one that definitely ups the ante and sets us all up for even more anticipation for Avengers 4 next year!

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