There will be a spoiler section at the end of this review. It will be clearly marked. Do not read past the warning if you have not yet seen Infinity War.
Infinity War is an event that has been 10 years and 18 movies in the making. Every MCU entry before this did its own part, no matter how big or small, in getting the story to this point. The result was one of the most anticipating movie releases of all time. I’ve certainly never been more excited to see a movie than I was for this one. The only possible comparison for me was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and yet my excitement for Infinity War still dwarfed that. I was going in with such great anticipation and high expectations, I wasn’t sure it could live up to what I was envisioning in my head.
Well folks, let me tell you. It not only met those expectations, it blew them out of the water. As good as I thought this movie could be, it’s better. It has everything. Action, that trademark Marvel humor, great visuals, surprising emotional depth. There’s no reason to bury the lede: Infinity War is the best entry yet in the MCU. And that’s now the second time in the last two MCU releases (Black Panther) that I’ve said that. Sure, Infinity War has its problems, like any movie will, but the rest of the movie is so good that it’s easy to look past those few issues.
What better place to start than with Thanos, the Mad Titan, the biggest big-bad. Like Killmonger in Black Panther, Marvel gave us another fantastic villain. That has been one of the most common complaints of the Marvel movies since the beginning of the MCU. But Marvel has just maybe finally figured that problem out. Vulture was a very solid villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Hela was fine, if not spectacular in Thor: Ragnarok, and I already mentioned Killmonger, who, along with Thanos, is a top two MCU villain. Thanos is another villain with a “morally righteous” end game. He truly believes what he is doing will benefit the entire universe in the long run. He is doing what he believes has to be done to save the universe. His intentions could be seen as commendable, if not for the fact that his methods are horrendous and murderous and genocidal.
Thanos is obviously one of the main draws of the movie. Any villain that requires (almost) every hero we’ve seen so far to come together as one to fight him deserves our attention. And obviously you can tell I thought it was an A+ job in that department. But a lot else had to work for the movie to be good. With so many characters having to come together, there was the very legitimate fear that the end result would feel too jumbled or over-crowded.
I did not feel that way at all. Sure, there are characters I would personally have liked to see more of, but that’s just from me liking those characters so much. No screen time or character interactions were wasted, and the Russo brothers allowed each character’s full personality to be on display. I don’t know that it’s the right time yet for a superhero movie to give us a Best Director win, or even nomination. But with what they were able to accomplish here, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I thought the Russo brothers should at least be very seriously in the conversation when it comes time for the Oscar nominations.
The last big question (or at least the last big spoiler-free question) I had was whether or not Infinity War would end up feeling too much like Part 1 of a two part movie, rather than its own standalone movie. This one is a little murkier. Mostly it feels like it should, as its own movie. But there are a few moments that do seem to exist to set up next year’s Avengers 4. Though to be fair, Avengers 3 & 4 were originally announced as Infinity War Part 1 and Infinity War Part 2, so this should have been expected. However, these instances weren’t egregious enough to affect my overall opinion all that much.
Saying any more might not be spoilery, strictly speaking, but going in knowing as little as possible is the way to do it. The bottom line here is that Infinity War is a behemoth of a movie that delivers on all fronts. If you haven’t seen it yet, get out there and see it as soon as humanly possible. Now if you have seen the movie, or are the kind of sick person that wants spoilers ahead of time, read on past the movie info below.
Movie: Avengers: Infinity War
Starring: *deep breath* Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Christ Pratt, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Tom Hiddleston, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Peter Dinklage, and even more in smaller supporting roles.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Superhero
Rated: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language, and some crude references
My rating: 94/100
Should you see it? See the rating above. YES.
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Seriously, stop reading if you have not seen the movie.
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You’re still here? Okay then, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Let’s get into some spoiler talk.
Did the “right” characters die in Infinity War?
My answer is no…for now. Avengers 4 will continue the Thanos storyline so that’s where the real stakes should be, as far as character deaths. Infinity War certainly didn’t shy away from deaths though, as we see 16 major ones: Loki, Heimdall, Gamora, Vision, Black Panther, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Bucky Barnes, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Star-Lord, Groot, Drax, Mantis, Nick Fury, Maria Hill.
Some of those characters will obviously be coming back. A Spider-Man sequel is coming out next summer, so we know Spidey will return. Black Panther was an enormous box office and critical success, so while there’s no sequel confirmed, it’s still all but a certainty that we’ll see more of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa. There are plans for Guardians 3, so some combination of those characters will be returning.
Many had pegged Steve Rogers and Tony Stark as likely deaths, and that still may happen. If their deaths are going to be permanent, as some believe, it would make more sense for those to happen in the final installment, rather than in part one. While it was a bit of an emotional gut punch seeing some of these characters die, it sure wasn’t a lasting feeling, knowing some, or all, are due to return sooner or later. Now that the villain problem has at least temporarily been solved, death is quite possibly the biggest continuous issue within the MCU. At some point, one or more major characters needs to die and stay dead.
Where were Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Valkyrie, and (most importantly) Korg?
Hawkeye and Ant-Man each got a brief shout-out, as we learned they took a plea deal for the sake of their families and were under house arrest. It remains to be seen if that is in fact true, or if it was a cover-up for something else. Whatever the case, they are both confirmed for Avengers 4, so we’ll be seeing them again. And that makes sense, as the team will start that movie down a number of key players.
As for Valkyrie, that remains to be seen. There was no glimpse of her on Thor’s ship at the beginning of the movie, and there was no mention of her at any point thereafter. I’m going to abide by the old rule of “If you didn’t see the character die on screen, the character didn’t die.” She was a major enough character that she would have deserved some sort of mention had she not survived.
Korg, well I hope more than anything that Korg survived. He quickly became one of my favorite MCU characters in his Thor: Ragnarok appearance and it would be simply delightful to see him show up again. I can’t quite follow the same rule as with Valkyrie, as he seems to be on the border of deserving to have his death shown on screen. Nothing would please me more than to see a Korg appearance in Avengers 4.
Post Credits Scene
In the traditional post credits scene, we see Nick Fury and Maria Hill driving through New York as the culling begins. Both characters end up disintegrating, but not before Fury is able to send out a distress call to an unnamed contact. We see a red and blue star logo appear on the device Fury was using. While I didn’t recognize the logo, knowing which films are coming next in the. MCU, I correctly assumed it was the Captain Marvel insignia. Her solo movie will be coming out next March (and taking place in the past) and she will seemingly have a major role in Avengers 4.
What’s next?
The upcoming MCU release slate sets up nicely for Avengers 4. Ant-Man and the Wasp is the next to come out on July 6 of this year. It will be interesting to see how that movie relates to the events of Infinity War. It’s also possible (likely?) that it takes place before the events of Infinity War. Then the only other release before Avengers 4 is Captain Marvel. And we know that movie will be taking place in the 1990s, so it won’t have to concern itself with any of the events or repercussions of Infinity War.
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