Zoe Saldana and Josh Brolin in Avengers: Infinity War (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2018)
Before Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009, comic book and superhero movies looked very different. Comic book movies were more of a mixed bag of quality rather than a streamlined set of interconnected films. Whether it was the unanimously loved Spider-Man (Sam Raimi, 2002), the Oscar Award-nominated The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008), or the horrendous X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Gavin Hood, 2009), comic book movies were filled with inconsistency. Nearly ten years after Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008), the first Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film, Marvel and Disney have done the impossible. No company has ever made eighteen consecutive interconnected films that have not only seen record-breaking economic success but are also loved by critics, comic book fans, and general moviegoers everywhere. From featuring characters as popular as Captain America to bringing obscure characters like Rocket Raccoon to the mainstream, Marvel and Disney have created an enterprise of serial-like entertainment that owns the cinema. Nearly ten years later and with eighteen connected films under its umbrella, the nineteenth MCU film Avengers: Infinity War released on April 27, 2018. With years of MCU characters and anticipation rivaling Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015), Avengers: Infinity War is the biggest movie event of the generation–already, it’s the fastest film to make one billion dollars at the box office. Aside from its economic success, Avengers: Infinity War is a fantastic film that is incredibly fun, perfectly paced, and overall rewarding. Through its dark tone, sense of consequence, and unique character dynamics, Avengers: Infinity War is a well-balanced film that matches its astronomical anticipation with even more extraordinary entertainment.
Picking up right after Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi, 2017), Avengers: Infinity War revolves around the immediate conflict between the Earth’s mightiest heroes and the mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin). Ever since the original The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012) Thanos’s name has been synonymous with the boogeyman–a godlike entity who will destroy the galaxy by wiping out all of existence. After brief failures of intergalactic domination by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Ronan (Lee Pace) in The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn, 2014), Thanos now takes matters into his own hands as he searches for the infinity stones that can be used to destroy half of all life when combined with the infinity gauntlet. Avengers: Infinity War brings together a decade’s worth of heroes including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), the Guardians of the Galaxy, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) as they try to stop Thanos from finding the infinity stones and changing the course of the universe.
Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper in Avengers: Infinity War (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2018)
Simply put, Avengers: Infinity War is an ambitious movie. The film culminates nearly eighty Marvel characters, the setting takes place across multiple planets, and the conflict with Thanos is more grandiose than any film in the MCU. On a scale of production, Avengers: Infinity War is the second most expensive MCU film (costing approximately 321 million dollars versus the 495.2 million budget of Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon, 2015)) and comes with a runtime just shy of two and a half hours. As dictated by past films such as Batman v Superman (Zack Snyder, 2016), Spider-Man 3 (Sam Raimi, 2007), and Justice League (Zack Snyder, 2017), films of this large-scale caliber often fall into the trap of having too many characters and inconsistent plots that affect the characterization, pace, and tone. That being said, Avengers: Infinity War is able to balance this ambitiousness through splitting the film’s plot up into three unique, character-driven storylines. The first storyline involves Captain America, Black Panther, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hulk, and Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) as they try to stop the Children of Thanos from recovering the mind stone embedded in Vision’s (Paul Bettany) head. The second storyline has Iron Man, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the Guardians of the Galaxy fight Thanos on the moon, Titan. While the third storyline involves Rocket Racoon (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) teaming up with Thor as they look to forge a new weapon to defeat Thanos–while splicing in scenes of Thanos’s tirade throughout the galaxy. By splitting up the narrative into three distinctive storylines, each character is able to have ample screen time that energizes the pace of the film. No storyline feels overworked or uninteresting due to the nuanced character dynamics and pace of action. For example, Thor and Rocket’s storyline is incredibly well-written as the two personalities are both cheeky, cocky, and overall hilarious. Thor, a less deep and dynamic Marvel character, is able to become more interesting and whole through his interactions with Rocket. This is most apparent when the two are traveling to Nidavellir and they discuss Thanos’s recent purge of Thor’s crew. In this scene, Thor expresses his sense of loss to Rocket while Rocket confides in Thor that he could “lose a lot” if Thanos succeeds. This scene provides emotional affect through both Rocket and Thor, two characters known for laughs and fearlessness rather than emotional resonance and self-doubt—allowing both characters to gain a sense of wholeness in one another. By splitting the film into three distinctive, character-driven parts, Avengers: Infinity War is able to always feel fresh, invigorating, and unique as each narrative provides a different look at each character’s growth and dynamic through their interaction with the others. The film is never afraid to let the emotional resonance sit rather than have that emotion and seriousness be deflated by a joke or an action set piece. Though the film is by far the darkest in the MCU, Avengers: Infinity War executes the careful balance between comedy and tragedy flawlessly.
Chadwick Boseman in Avengers: Infinity War (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2018)
Aside from the apparent standouts of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki (The Avengers, Thor: Ragnarok) and Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger (Black Panther), villains in the MCU have been consistent letdowns. Whether it was the lackluster Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) in Iron Man 3 (Shane Black, 2013), the depth-lacking Ronan in The Guardians of the Galaxy, or the one-note Hela (Cate Blanchett) in Thor Ragnarok, MCU villains are consistently flat, poorly written, and ultimately uninteresting. Alternatively, Thanos is an incredibly deep and interesting character that provides the franchise with a sense of consequence and risk (at least for the time being) that allows the MCU to finally have repercussion and emotional fallout. Before Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos had only appeared in three films, with no more than an hour of combined screen time. Unlike every hero on screen in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos has not been given a full film length to explore his dynamic and motivation as a character–being depicted as the overseeing, foreshadowed entity rather than a fully developed part of the MCU. Fortunately, Avengers: Infinity War understands this issue and provides Thanos more screen time than any other hero aside from Thor–allowing the film to fully explore Thanos as a character. Though Thanos’s tirade of overtaking the galaxy by wiping out half of all life is conventional, his interaction with Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is where Thanos truly grows into a deep and complex character. This exploration is most apparent when Thanos is depicted on Zen-Whoberi with Gamora in a flashback scene. In this scene, Thanos adopts Gamora and gives her a double-sided knife–a symbol representing their connection as father and daughter. This knife is depicted in later scenes of Gamora’s childhood, a tool representing Thanos’s ideology of bringing balance to the galaxy through the death and destruction of innocent lives. In the present time of Avengers: Infinity War, Gamora uses the knife to rebel against Thanos and break the bond they once had as daughter and father–rejecting his thirst for bloodshed and prophecy. In these scenes, Thanos is not portrayed as a one-dimensional villain fueled by prophecy, but a multilayered character struggling between his destiny and his love for his daughter. Unlike past villains, this emotion of love allows Thanos to become an ideologically deep and multidimensional villain that rivals the developed heroes of Avengers: Infinity War. This focus and depth of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War allows Thanos’s end scene to feel well-earned and rewarding–ripping the hearts out of audiences everywhere (at least until part II in 2019).
Avengers: Infinity War is a film that not only lives up to its massive expectation but exceeds it prosperously. Through the film’s character-driven narratives, emotional resonance, and well-balanced dark tone, Avengers: Infinity War never feels overcrowded, boring, or thematically inconsistent at its near two-and-a-half-hour runtime. Avengers: Infinity War is an exceptional film that finally provides substantial and satisfying consequences to the MCU.
9/10
Author Biography
Jason Husak is a University of Alberta film studies graduate who currently resides in Edmonton, Canada. He hopes to pursue his passion for film by doing a graduate degree in film studies at the University of Toronto. For more in-depth film reviews, discussion, and analyses, you can follow Jason on his personal Twitter and Instagram or his film and entertainment podcast Boring People, Bad Opinions on podcast and social media services.
Film Details
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
USA
Director Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Runtime 149 minutes
