Avengers: Infinity War
By James Davidson
“Avengers: Infinity War” is the culmination of 10 years and 18 previous movies made by Marvel Studios. Because of this, it is the most anticipated movie of the year and perhaps of all time. The movie follows The Avengers, a group of superheroes charged with protecting the universe as they attempt to stop Thanos; an alien from Titan who wants to bring balance to the universe by murdering half of its inhabitants.
The movie has a star-studded cast with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, along with many other superstars from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) reprising their respective roles. With so many characters and star actors, I was afraid that the movie would become crowded and hard to follow. There are multiple subplots going on and the movie does seem to jump around a lot, but the directors (Anthony and Joe Russo) do a great job at bringing them all together and not letting one character or one plotline take over the entire movie.
The film establishes Thanos as a legitimate threat when he soundly defeats the Hulk, who is considered the strongest Avenger, in a fight early on in the movie. Thanos is attempting to gather the six Infinity Stones and place them in a special glove called the Infinity Gauntlet. The gauntlet harnesses the power of the stones, giving Thanos unlimited power and allowing him to kill half of the inhabitants of the universe with a snap of his fingers.The Avengers have hidden the stones around the universe and are trying to protect them from Thanos.
I found Thanos to be a very complex, deep, and compelling character and one of the best Marvel villains yet. Thanos’ motivation for killing half of the universe is that he believes there are not enough resources for everyone to survive long-term. Instead of letting everyone suffer, he wants to kill half so the rest can live comfortably. You can really tell that believes what he is doing is for the best and not only views it as merciful, but thinks that people will praise him for it. However there are scenes where we are supposed to believe that Thanos has made a huge sacrifice to obtain one of the stones. I never felt as though this part of Thanos’ character was developed and had a hard time believing that Thanos really sacrificed anything.
I really liked how the filmmakers didn’t waste any time reintroducing us to these characters and jumped right into the story. They assumed that most of the audience has seen most of the other MCU films and understand the characters already. If you haven’t seen any of the other films you may find yourself a bit lost or not understanding the characters.
The movie is pretty long at two and a half hours, but does not seem long at all. The story progresses well overall, though it can seem a little choppy due to the amount of characters and storylines. The action scenes are very well done and a lot of fun to watch. The computer generated images are well done, but as with many comic films does feel a little overdone.
“Avengers: Infinity War” is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, language, and some crude references which I believe makes it inappropriate for younger audiences.
“Avengers: Infinity War” is one of the most anticipated movies of all time and in my book definitely delivered. It has an ending that will leave you screaming at the screen and grabbing for your phone to look up fan theories for the next movie. It can be a little choppy due to the amount of characters and content squeezed into two and a half hours. But still a lot of fun and a must see for any movie fan, Marvel fan or not. It earns 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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