***** outta *****

5 outta 5

Avengers: Infinity War is one hellova chunk of movie.  It is sort of a cross between a multi-character superhero epic, fantasy and outer space quest film, disaster/war movie, and psycho killer thriller, making for a gigantic finale. Years of teases in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have led somewhere dramatically satisfying. This has a sense of inevitable dread but still has nicely timed Marvel humour drops and spectacle.  And it’s joyful to see all the Marvel characters stand together.  

Across the galaxy, the Mad Titan, Thanos (Josh Brolin), is searching for six Infinity Stones for his gauntlet that, once he has them all, he will use to instantly destroy half of all life in the universe.  The arrival of his minions on Earth searching for the stones is incredibly messy and Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and master of the mystic arts Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) end up in a spaceship heading to a far away planet.  Also out in space, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) smashes into the spaceship of the Guardians of the Galaxy, which includes Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the adopted daughter of Thanos who hates, and is terrified of, her maniac father. On Earth, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and the Vision (Paul Bettany) are on the run because Vision happens to have an Infinity Stone in his head and they seek help from Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and the king of Wakanda, T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman).  All of these Marvels will collide in a desperate attempt to stop Thanos from ravaging the galaxy. 

A passing familiarity with the Marvel Cinematic Universe will certainly help.  Seeing all of the films throughout the years makes the dramatic moments land with maximum impact.  What is remarkable is how the movie is able to briefly introduce each character so that it still works as a singular, very gigantic, narrative.  Almost every character has shown up in Marvel movies before.  The only new characters some of Thanos’ killer children who really look and sound scary.  Standouts are Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughn-Lawlor) who spends a good chunk of movie preaching about the glory of Thanos, snidely dismissing powerful heroes, and generally making Doctor Strange’s life hell.  Carrie Coon plays Proxima Midnight and Coon adds interesting variations of menace. 

But none of Thanos’ children are a powerful, and freaky, as Thanos, one of the more compelling and horrifying baddies in the MCU.  The FX work to create the CGI character is some of the best get in the series and there are a lot of layers to Brolin’s performance.  His quest to destroy half of all life in the universe he sees as environmental resource management.  If half of it goes the other half will prosper and as he explains it he sounds rather rational. His scenes with Gamora are really dramatic with a great payoff and Saldana plays it wonderfully. Despite being a Mad Titan, he still seemingly loves his daughter and the flashback moment of his first meeting with her is quite twisted.  Thanos’ other daughter, Nebula (Karen Gillian) is used by Thanos to manipulate Gamora and, in one of the movie’s best, freakiest visuals, she is introduced literally being stretched apart. 

The movie is basically divided into three main subplots and each has a standout moment. Thor is on an epic quest and also dealing with some significant emotional fallout and his sidekicks are Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) who make for interesting contrasts because they’re so weird.  Thor gets a whole section where he has to meet a giant imp played with bravado by Peter Dinklage who has bits of both humour and pathos.  Iron Man’s outer space adventure has him amusingly bickering with Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, and also moments where Downey Jr. shows the weight of their quest on Stark’s soul.  Evans’ Captain America has to protect Vision and there’s a hugely impressive final desperate stand in Black Panther’s homeland, Wakanda. Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner is having issues with his rampaging Hulk personality which lets Ruffalo play puny Banner as a guy who for once wants the big green guy to show up. 

The movie gets to the action quickly, opening with Thanos assault on Thor’s ship establishing the high stakes early on as Thor’s brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) confronts his former master Thanos.  The creeping doom in this scene continues throughout the movie as Thanos’ crew seems genuinely unstoppable like when their ship first shows up in New York.  Later on Iron Man meets the Guardians and has a whole lot of funny reactions to them and there’s some really great stuff when Star-Lord gets face to face with Thanos.  All of these plots culminate in a surprisingly twisty final sequence, setting the stakes for next year’s concluding Avengers film. The direction by Anthony and Joe Russo takes the dynamic framing of superhero comic books and brings it to life with stunning images. Tonally the movie bounces between extremes of dark and light and manages to juggle it all wonderfully.  There’s even an Aliens reference that is just pure gold. 

Avengers: Infinity War manages to make good on years of promises and teases as the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe comes together.  It has literally crowd-cheering moments sprinkled throughout, a scale unlike anything these movies have seen, with heart, drama and a galaxy wide scale.  With lots of superhero punching.