Avengers: Infinity War Review - Infinite Excess for Better or Worse

So here we are 10 years after the original Iron Man movie and my initial response from that film: "That was pretty average, it won't catch on." Well colour me very very wrong, at least on the second part of that sentence. We've had 17 other Marvel films of varying quality since then and now they all culminate in the 19th film - Infinity War, with a plot that has had its various threads slowly (and not always deftly) woven into the preceding 18 films.

Full disclosure (although you may have already gathered from the above paragraph) I'm not a massive Marvel movies fan. I've enjoyed quite a few of them (The first two Captain America movies, the original Thor, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming) but I've also seen a fair few I just have not liked or have thought are blisteringly average (Iron Man 2, Guardian of the Galaxy, Civil War, Black Panther).

Why I list these movies for you is to give you a basis for this subjective criticism as I imagine that for some of you, namely the hardcore Marvel fans (not an insult, honest) will find certain aspects of my opinion inapplicable. For example - in my mind, the constant punning and deflation of tense moments in Guardians of the Galaxy is a real bugbear for me (case in point: that stupid dance off...). And in Infinity War the Guardians feature quite heavily so their scenes often scuppered the films attempts to drum up tension by quipping inanely (the film only got one laugh out of me and it wasn't due to the Guardians). However, I realise and accept that I am in a tiny minority on this point so when you see me bagging out certain aspects of this film I fully realise that for the hardcore Marvel fan it probably isn't going to matter and that these aspects are actually winners for you (Full disclosure again - my heart lies with Batman although at least Marvel movies are watchable unlike DC's output since Nolan's tilogy ended [still the standard I'll judge all other superhero movies by] bar Wonder Woman).

But I digress, on the surface, Infinity War's plot is very old fashioned: evil being wants to get his hands on fancy jewellery to control all elements in the world. On first glance Thanos, the villain of the piece played by mo-cap wearing Josh Brolin, is Sauron of Lord of the Rings infamy by another name. Thanos is searching for the Infinity stones, many of which have been key McGuffins in previous Marvel movies and if he collects all of them he will have the power to snuff out life with the click of his fingers. Naturally, this doesn't sit well for our array of heroes and so starts the multi-threaded story of narratives as they all encounter Thanos and his minions on their galaxy spanning quest to stop him getting his power gloved hand on the stones.

One of my major complaints for Marvel movies in the past has been a lacklustre villain. The key problems are often that they are either not devoted enough meaningful screen time (Hela in Ranarok, Kaecilius in Doctor Strange), they lack any real threatening presence (Loki past the damned Hulk-smash scene in The Avengers), or as I am genuinely struggling to remember any more names, they are just forgettable. Now 19 films in Marvel have finally cracked it. From within 5 minutes of the film Thanos is righting wrongs from these past movies - he has screen presence, he has an aura of threat, he has gravitas, and his actions have meaningful consequences. What's more - he has the only character arc in the movie, with proper emotional depth to his motivations. Going into this movie he was my chief concern - I thought we would get a big CGI shouty boss character who's motivation is just kill and power for killing and power's sake. I was completely wrong.

However, the light of Thanos and Brolin's portrayal of this character can only go so far and when we spend too long dallying over the many sub-plots each with their own mini-objectives to get to, the 2 hour 40 minutes runtime of the film makes its presence felt. I can't remember how many splintered groups of heroes and subplots we have to keep track of during the course of the movie but in summary it is too much. At one point we flicked back to one sub-plot after what felt like 40 plus minutes since we checked in with them and until a character did a bit of exposition I had no idea why the characters were doing what they were doing.

What's more is that whilst Marvel have tried to paint a fairly consistent tonal canvas across their previous 18 films, when you chuck them all together and flit between them, the tonally whiplash is far too much at times. Now, bearing in mine I don't like the insistent quipping full stop, when you are jumping from universe ending destruction and deaths of long-standing characters, only to come crashing back down with a sassy one liner from Starlord, it takes me out of the movie. One scene fairly early on in which a character awakens with the recent knowledge that he has suffered a great many terrible loses, devolves into puns and quips.

The other issue with so many various sub-plots is that inevitably some lack the dramatic weight and purpose to keep the film afloat. The middle portion of the film really starts to sag, with one character's quest to find a weapon really feeling like unnecessary padding - and particularly so when the finale of the film cuts between two dramatic conflicts and occasionally back to this character's weapon quest.

The victim's of Thanos in the film are also a victim to the film's very nature. Whilst Thanos does do terrible things with apparently grave consequences, they become somewhat deflated when you know you've seen Marvel release plans for a second, third, fourth (insert name of Marvel character name here) film, you have a safety net of "Well I know they must survive." Now, I'm sure Marvel could be tricksy and make films for these characters prequels if they do die in Infinity War but nevertheless at one huge moment in the film I was taken out of it a few seconds later when I thought "But hang on...don't they have more films planned?"

Now the above must seem to be very negative but I reiterate I don't think these criticisms will apply to your hardcore Marevel fan, plus on the whole I thought the film was pretty good. The action scenes are all consistently epic in scale but always followable and the finale manages to avoid the trope of city wide destruction and instead flits between two conflicts of different scale and tone. Thanos' 4 henchmen all serve as strong physical antagonists for the heroes to face when Thanos isn't able to take centre stage, and whilst never stated explicitly, there is even some hidden depth to their otherwise cliche henchmen roles.

It may seem strange that I am not talking about the heroes in question but I want to avoid going into much detail on what each one does so as to avoid spoiling the surprises of what they actually do and because talking about specific ones may give too much away in terms of their potential importance and final outcomes in the films. What I will say is that Black Panther is still the most boring hero in the MCU. There I said it.

By smashing together all these characters fans will get to see unusual mix ups of their favourites which of course comes with each hero sassing their new hero friends and laughing at their outfits, names, and powers.

In conclusion, the minds behind the MCU should be applauded for bringing a plan 10 years in the making to a satisfying end point and for finally hitting it out of the park with a villain. Tonal whiplash and bloated runtime ignored, the final act is a knockout with a truly memorable ending that does, probably for the first time in a Marvel movie, have me interested in seeing what happens next. Yes, I've been very negative on some aspects of the film but at no point was I actively disliking it, I just think it needs an editor. Someone who can snap their fingers and wipe out half (well really not that much) of the films run time.