Avengers : Infinity War Movie Review

Avengers: Infinity War

The marvel cinematic universe kicked off 10 years ago with a couple of standalone superhero movies. At that point no one could have anticipated the kind of revered pop cultural status that it would acquire over the years. Only in 2012, when the first Avengers movie came out, did it start becoming something of a global phenomenon, catching the imagination of millions. It is then that people realised that the stand-alone films were only pieces of a larger puzzle.

10 years and 18 movies have now culminated in to the largest puzzle from the marvel mills yet; Avengers: Infinity War. The Marvel universe has been built up impressively over this period with characters having been introduced in separate movies and having story arcs and plot points being explained thoroughly. Everything has been built up to this one major event and, unsurprisingly, it doesn’t falter.

The story revolves around Thanos, the character who marvel has been teasing the audiences with since the first Avengers movie, who is on the lookout for the 6 infinity stones that can grant him immense power to achieve his evil-scientist-esque vision. Thanos moves from one part of the universe to another seeking these powerful gems and subsequently interacts with various characters (Superheroes) of the franchise, moving the story forward. Needless to say, our heroes do not agree with his views and must stop him from obtaining the stones.

The impressive part about the movie is having a plot that concerns all the characters that we have seen till now. Every character’s presence is justified in the movie. Their individual purpose coincides with those of others bringing them to work together towards a common cause.

Infinity war is definitely the magnum opus of the franchise, with its grand design and an exceptional ensemble. It is remarkable to see how there are dozens of comic book characters in this movie and how they are still able to retain their unique identity and flavour. The music, the tone, the look everything changes as we move from one set of characters to other.

The movie,Infinity war really comes together because of Thanos. Every superhero film is only as great as its villain. And Thanos is the greatest yet. A powerful being with a purpose and a vision. He did come off as a run of the mill power-hungry villain initially but as the film progresses we do see shades of grey. It seems there is more to him than meets the eye. And that’s why it works.

Josh Brolin deserves all the credit for this. CGI characters sometimes lose their charm in translation, but Brolin does a splendid job of portraying the mad titan. He brings a sense of fear every time he is on screen, among both the characters and the audiences alike.

Coming to the negatives, some of the plot points just felt like fillers. At some point it feels like there is too much happening in the movie and not everything is important. Better editing could have done away with a few side quests to make it a shorter movie.

A downfall of having such a huge ensemble is having titular characters not having bigger or more impactful roles. Fan favourite Captain America, has barely anything to do in the movie except rain a few punches. Dialogue, for most of the heroes, is also swapped in favour of humour than generating emotional connect and thus is forgettable.

Another downfall is that instead of so many characters working together we have group of characters working in silos, each oblivious of the other. This creates spaces of vacuum between the teams and sometimes doesn’t feel like a crossover. It somewhere lacks the feeling of earth’s (Universe’s?) mightiest heroes coming together that we have all grown to love. A sense of synergy is somewhat missing unlike the previous Avenger movies. But this could be part of the design and can be overlooked due to the sheer number of characters present.

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A special mention about the ending of the movie. It is highly ambitious and very innovative to pull off but it cannot yet be classified as bold. It can be labelled bold only if they stick with this decision. The overall theme in marvel movies is of fun and light heartedness, so having such a grim ending is speculative at best since the franchise has not witnessed genuine deaths before. But as it stands right now, it is extremely well done.

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Overall, The action is great, the humour is on point (though sometimes forced), the stakes are high and the visuals are astounding. It is a fun and emotional joyride that entertains everyone and does justice to all its characters. Infinity war is a definite must watch for marvel fans of all ages.

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