Avengers: Infinity War manages to (mostly) be successful in cramming in all the Marvel heroes together and even manages to surprise. A balancing act that had a huge degree of difficulty and regardless of the content of the film it’s a feat that should be applauded. However, back to the film at hand…
There won’t be any spoilers in this review nor will there be a recap of the action with the exception of something everyone already knows – Thanos is coming and he wants the Infinity Stones.
The Avengers and added on heroes are all split up all over the place and pairings are spot on. Thor with Rocket and Groot, Stark & Parker with Dr Strange and the Guardians with their adventures coming across quite a few other characters, all the interactions between characters work well and the one liners come thick and fast, however don’t think that this is going to be a non-stop laugh fest – this is the darkest Marvel film yet.
It’s been said that Marvel’s biggest problem lies with the villain and Infinity War goes a long way to rectifying this because Thanos and the Black Order (or the Children of Thanos) do not mess around. The film is dominated by Thanos, in that he is in the film and on screen a lot. Within the first minute you’ll find Thanos setting the tone for the film and keeps the downbeat feeling throughout and Thanos’ actions back up this tone constantly. Thanos isn’t a one note villain, showing emotion behind a couple of decisions and as a result his character (for a purple CG character) is more rounded and fleshed out.
Of the heroes Thor gets the best character arc and arguably the best character moment too. All your favourites get their moments too but some of them don’t feel as earned as Thor’s. Which leads me to the inevitable issue, that in a dark film where there are actual stakes (something not seen in any Marvel film previously) it is hard to get those payoff moments to land in a way that feels organic given the sheer amount of characters in the film.
A film that has some amazing action sequences and still manages to shock – in particular the ending. Avengers: Infinity War goes for it and pretty much pulls it off – hopefully the next Avengers film doesn’t cheapen anything that has happened in Infinity War, it’ll be a hard job but it is in good hands.
Ryan Morrissey-Smith
