Ten years. Eighteen films. 14 billion dollars in ticket
sales. The attention of an entire generation. That is the legacy of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, a series with a simple mission: to make a shit ton of mon-I
mean, take the interconnected continuity driven narrative of superhero comics
and translate it to the big screen. They’ve had some highs and lows (there are
only three Marvel movies that I’d consider “bad”, and even then, their biggest
crime is mediocrity), but overall the series has been an overwhelming success. And
one of the ways it’s maintained that balance is keep the worldbuilding and
foreshadowing of future installments in the background, mainly as Easter eggs
or offhand mentions that are easy enough to catch if you look for them. But all
of those background hints, mainly that purple guy from the end of The Avengers and those glowing space
rocks that everyone says are important but don’t show up unless they need to, it’s
all been leading up to Infinity War.
The Avengers face their great foe yet: Thanos (Josh Brolin),
a galactic conqueror seeking out the Infinity Stones, six magic rocks created by
the Big Bang that have played minor to major roles in many Marvel movies prior.
Wielding one stone will grant power equal to a god. Wielding all six, and you
can reshape the entire universe as you see fit. The location of five of them
are known, with two of them being on Earth. Now the race is on for the Avengers
to find, protect, and in one case attempt to destroy the stones before Thanos
gets his hands on them. They’ve been fractured into three separate teams: Iron
Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Doctor Strange (Benedict
Cumberbatch) have hitched a ride on one of Thanos’s ships, Thor (Chris
Hemsworth) and the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave
Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel and Pom Klementieff) attempt to find the
ones in space, and Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johannsson),
The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), The Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine
(Don Cheadle) Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), all
wanted fugitives, recoup and seek help and sanctuary from Black Panther
(Chadwick Boseman) in Wakanda.
The Avengers movies have always been built on two things:
the interactions with the characters, and how those interactions sometimes work
against them. The First Avengers was
about seeing how these varied conflicting personalities will put their differences
aside for the greater good and to fight a common enemy. In Age of Ultron, they were pitted against an enemy of their own
creation. In Captain America: Civil War,
which was more “Avengers 2.5” than a Captain America movie, they’re forced to
face the consequences of their actions, and when they disagree on how to handle
it, the team falls apart. This time around, the challenge is getting this
broken team back together with the literal fate of the universe at stake and
shaking up the status quo. And how do they raise the bar? By killing a lot of
main characters. It’s uncertain how permanent death in the MCU is compared to
the comics where death is treated more like a temporary inconvenience, but they
show they’re not screwing around from the get-go. I won’t tell you who kicks
the bucket, but they set the tone by killing off one of the most popular
characters in the series in the first five minutes.
Needless to say, this has the biggest scope of any Marvel
movie to date, and while there are tons of characters and plot threads to keep
track of, everything is relatively streamlined, and it doesn’t really get too
confusing. The key to keeping it all tethered to Earth having the scenes focus
on one character and having the tone reflect it. (The Star Lord bits feel like
a Guardians movie, the Wakanda scenes
are more in tone with Black Panther
etc.) Nearly everyone crosses paths at one point or another, and that presents
the series’ other greatest strength: the interactions with the characters.
There’s a mix of old and new friends that make for new combinations. Iron Man
scolds Spider-Man for being in over his head in one scene while wrapping his
head around being in the presence of a wizard in the next. The Guardians of the
Galaxy marveling at the mere existence of Thor (every instance of Drax being
onscreen is a riot). Everyone else dropping their jaws when they first enter
Wakanda. Even then, there’s room for a few surprise cameos. One character in
particular who hasn’t been seen for several movies shows up and nearly everyone
in the audience leapt out of their seats. It didn’t make much sense at first
for them to be there and do what they did, but it was still great to see them.
I don’t think anyone was expecting to see them again.
Surprisingly, the thing that keeps this whole thing balanced
is Thanos. He’s been lurking in the shadows from the beginning and everything
until now has been setting up the pieces for his arrival, and he doesn’t
disappoint. Incidentally, his character has gone through a big makeover from
the comics. His goal is still the same (conquer the universe by collecting a
bunch of magic space rocks), but his backstory went through a significant
rewrite. The big draw: he’s a villain who thinks he’s the good guy. It’s not
quite as relatable as Killmonger, whose motivations are completely justifiable
even though his actions and methods are why T’Challa is the hero and he’s not,
but you can clearly see the logic behind his justifications for the awful
things he does, and Josh Brolin plays him more like a stoic, contemplative
sociopath than the rest of Marvel’s over-the-top rogue’s gallery. It’s like
someone heard the “needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” line from Star Trek and took it in the exact
opposite direction that Gene Roddenberry intended when he wrote it. Between
this and Killmonger, I think Marvel may have solved their villain problem.
The only real big flaws are those inherent to a movie with a
big “To Be Continued” finale built in. While we do get a plethora of
show-stopping, cathartic moments and firework displays, a few threads are going
to be left hanging. And of course, everyone knows they’re all probably going to
be tied up in Part 2, which is when everything will come together. Even then,
everyone still gets at least one moment to step up and be a badass, and the
whole thing drops the mic with a massive barn burner of an ending that left
everyone in the audience an emotionally exhausted wreck.
Bottom line, Avengers:
Infinity War is a tremendous crowd pleaser ten years in the making and
didn’t disappoint. While it’s only one half of a massive saga, it sets the
stage for the torch to be passed. If you’ve been suffering from superhero
fatigue, I wouldn’t blame you if you sat this one out, but for everyone who’s
been on the ride from day one, the wait is worth it. Can’t wait for Part 2.
8/10
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