Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

SPOILER WARNING: This film is, in my opinion one of the greatest films that I’ve ever had the pleasure to see. From beginning to end, Joe and Anthony Russo excelled in essentially every way possible. However, I am going to start this review off with a critique. With everything that happened in the opening scene of the film between Loki, Heimdall, Thor, Thanos and the Black Order, the one thing that stood out the most to me was the choice of words that Thanos uses early in the scene. When speaking to Loki about his choice between his brother, Thor, and the Tesseract he uses the word “assume.” While attempting to build this villain up to be the biggest and the baddest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I thought that his lack of ability to be able to know, definitively, that Loki would have chosen Thor over the Tesseract when all was said and done didn’t sit well with me. This being is meant to be all-knowing and all-powerful, yet he isn’t able to read the man who, eight years ago, worked for him. While this was small in the grand scheme of things, it was something that I considered after seeing the film for the fifth and sixth times. However, I felt that, with everything that went into this film, with the abundance of characters and the immense storyline that takes place in this film, that it easily could have been over, or under, done. The Russo brothers took ten years of information and they condensed it into two and a half hours almost perfectly. Back to the opening scene: with the exception of Thanos’ word choice, I thought the opening scene was beyond incredible. Thanos effectively ends Loki (something that proved to be impossible over the course of the past ten years) and Heimdall with ease in a matter of minutes. This solidified Thanos as top dog in the MCU and proved that he was, without a doubt, the biggest threat that we have ever scene in a Marvel film (and one of the greatest villains ever to appear on the big screen). There were some complaints that I heard about the film not depicting the point in which Thanos retrieves the Power Stone; I, however, felt that jumping to the point that he already possesses the stone shows how quickly he moves and allows the audience to understand, even more so, that he is an incredible threat to the heroes that everyone has come to know and love. From this point forward, we grow to almost love Josh Brolin’s Thanos. He is arrogant, yet he is smart, witty and dedicated, along with numerous other incredible qualities, making him, in general, a great character, and not just an amazing villain. Moving forward with my thoughts on the characters, I thought that each and every character had their moment to shine, even the characters that were only on screen for a minute or two. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts, Benedict Wong’s Wong and Jacob Batalon’s Ned were three characters that, combined, had a total of five minutes screen time and yet the characters made a huge impact on the film. While Potts and Ned had roles that in almost no way affected the plot, they added emotion to the film that was necessary for the scenes in which they were a part of. Then there was Idris Elba’s Heimdall. Heimdall, while only being in the film for thirty seconds or so, greatly affected the plot. Without him, the Avengers would have had little to no chance against the great Thanos from the moment his “children” arrived in New York. Tom Vaughan-Lawlor’s Ebony Maw was a character that I felt that many viewers overlooked. People obviously recognized that, like Thanos (however, not to that extent), Ebony Maw was a force to be reckoned with. Like Vaughan-Lawlor, I felt that Ariana Greenblatt’s Young Gamora was a character that did not receive the recognition that they deserved. For such a young actor to come in and portray a character that audiences had come to love and respect, and to absolutely kill it, is incredible.  There were characters that were almost forgotten about, not put on screen until halfway into the film. Characters like Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa/Black Panther and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier/White Wolf were not even mentioned until an hour into the film making it appear that these characters would not play a pivotal role in the film, yet, when they appeared, they made an incredible splash. Pom Klementieff’s Mantis is potentially the most underrated character in the MCU. Her character is subtle and funnier than I feel most people give her credit for. While there are far too many characters to mention, each and every one of the characters brought something different to the table. They brought incredible amounts of emotion to the film, ranging from excitement sadness and anxiety to something bordering depression. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man and Chris Hemsworth’s Thor helped headline a cast that, with the exception of the Avengers sequel next year, will certainly never be rivaled. Each and every one of the characters was compelling, exciting and more than anything exactly what we’ve come to expect (with the exception of Paul Bettany’s Vision, who somehow managed to become the biggest bitch between Captain America: Civil War (2016) and this film). Moving forward with the emotion, the Russo brothers, like everything else, threw more into this film than anyone could have imagined. The mood of the film changes from second-to-second, making this film like none I had ever seen before. From scene-to-scene and character-to-character the mood changes. For example, in almost every scene that focuses on the Guardians of the Galaxy and Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill/Star-Lord, the audience is overwhelmed with humor and an overall sense of enjoyment, yet, just seconds later, while focusing on most other characters, the mood changes and we are made fully aware of the severity of what is taking place in the universe. To be able to effectively bounce back and forth between happiness and depression throughout the course of the film is an incredible feat in itself. One of my favorite scenes is the one that takes place between Thor and Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon while they are on their way to Nidavellir. Thor, while often full of rage, is not known for his emotion. Like Thor, Rocket is not a character that is particularly fond of emotion. He, more often than not, is focused on ways to better his well-being. This scene, however, depicts two characters that have realized what exactly what is happening around them and they have been able to understand what is at stake and what has already been lost. While Thor pours his heart out to the “rabbit,” he begins to cry, forcing the audience to understand how incredibly hard everything has hit the God of Thunder. Things like animation appeared, at least to me, to take a backseat to much else in the film (at least in regard to being talked about). Many of the characters, including Brolin’s Thanos and Vaughan-Lawlor’s Maw were one-hundred percent CGI. Others included Carrie Coon’s Proxima Midnight and Ross Marquand’s (who did an almost perfect job of filling the shoes of Hugo Weaving) Red Skull. These computer generated images were flawless, down to the hair. If it were in any way possible that these characters could exist in our world, I truly believe that they could not look any better than what the special effects and animation departments did in this film. With this, the make-up department excelled and made characters like Zoe Saldana Gamora look amazing. Even more with visual effects was the fight and action sequences. There were a number of scenes that were full of action and, I’ve found, that this can sometimes take away from the film because it doesn’t allow the film’s story to develop as well as it should have. These scenes did not, in any way, do this. I felt that the action scenes were tasteful in regard to what was happening in the film and completely appropriate in helping to move the film forward. One thing I feel that I complain about the most when reviewing films is the pacing of the film at hand. This film, however, was paced in a manner that was perfect for what the writers and directors were trying to accomplish. Introducing more than sixty characters is surely a difficult task, but the way in which the Russo brothers introduced them and brought the entire film together at the end was exactly what the film needed in order to succeed. In relation to this, because there was so much happening at once, the transitions from event to event needed to be done tastefully. At no point did jumping from scene-to-scene feel rushed or out of place. There are some other, random things, about the film that I find incredibly important to touch on. For one, Thor, from the start of his tenure in the MCU, has grown from entitled youth into the ultimate badass. Some things, such as almost eerily comical things that were said, such as T’Challa’s quote: “...he will have nothing but blood and dust” make the film even better. One of my favorite things about the film is the plethora of odd couples that work together throughout the course of the story. Pairs like Rocket and Thor, Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and Danai Gurira’s Okoye and Dave Bautista’s Drax and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange add a dimension of camaraderie that was essential to the film. Along with this, I felt that one of the underlying themes of the film was family. The entire film is about working together to solve a problem, however, there is one scene in particular that makes me believe that it was the Russo’s intention to focus greatly on family in this film. The slightly combative conversation between Star-Lord and Thor while they are comparing their self-destructive families made me think of the huge role that their families and the Avengers “family” plays in this film. Another theme that I thought was subtle, yet important to the tone of the film was that of internal struggle. Almost everyone struggles with this at some point in the film. Stark struggles with his decision to bring Parker on board and put him in harm’s way and Thanos struggles with the fact that he, in order to fulfill what he believes to be his duty, will have to lose the one thing in the universe that he loves. However, the biggest struggle of this sort that spans almost the entire course of the film is that of Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner and Hulk. The two are, in some ways, separate from one another and they battle back-and-forth throughout the entire film. While parts of this struggle were incredibly funny, the struggle between the two very different characters was real and very intense, making it one of my favorite things from the film. I heard a lot of backlash regarding Thanos’ plan to eradicate half of humanity rather than to make food and such more readily available to the universe. While I do not agree with the idea that half of all life in the universe needs to die, I feel that, based on Thanos’ beliefs of the universe he lives in, he chose the better of the two paths. He feels that everyone is greedy and that they lack the ability to put others before themselves. By simply allowing them the ability to live longer and work less for nourishment, Thanos would be allowing them the ability to be lazy and to take for granted everything they were given. Nothing would get better; humanity would only become more selfish. One of the most interesting things about the film was the fact that it was, essentially, a Thanos film. While there was so much happening with the broken-up Avengers, Thanos was truly the star of the film. There were scenes that really stood out to me, that hit me hard with emotion. 1. When Steve Rogers, for just a second, is able to grab a hold of Thanos’ hand and slow him down, showing the world that perseverance can sometimes work wonders, even if the results are only temporary. 2. The scenes in which Thanos stabs Tony Stark and Thor stabs Thanos. This proves that even the mighty can sometimes fall. 3. The scenes where Thanos throws Gamora from the cliff, when Thanos explains that doing what he did cost him “...everything” and when Groot begins to fade and says “I am Groot” (which effectively translates to “Dad”) to Rocket because they show that sometimes, even the strongest of characters (emotionally) struggle at times. 4. The scene where, while in Stark’s arms, Peter Parker, begins to fade away. This scene, especially because Tom Holland chose to have the scene unfold in this manner, is so hard and was so emotionally trying--more so than most films I have seen. From casting, to acting, to graphics and so on, the Russo brothers and the entire crew did everything in their power to make sure that this film was a success. The box office is concrete proof that this film succeeded. However, even more than financial success, this film--a film about fictional characters and superheroes--was able to make the audience take a step back and evaluate things in real life. This film had audiences gasping for characters that don’t exist in the real world and contemplating if there was a better, more morally acceptable way to make the universe a better place. I hate to add anything negative at the end of this review, however, if I had to complain about one more thing, it would be that I wanted more. I could have sat and watched this film for four hours and been perfectly alright with that. I can’t express enough how much I enjoyed this film and how many more times I will watch it over the course of the next nine months (until Avengers 4 comes out). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/?ref_=nv_sr_1