Avengers: Infinity War – It’s All Led to This

In 2008, when Robert Downey Jr.’s character Tony Stark announced to the world “I am Iron Man,” he (and we as an audience) had no idea what was going to unfold. Now, ten years later, we’ve seen eighteen movies and multitudes of characters grow and develop, defeat enemies and fight amongst each other. It’s all led to this moment – the moment where the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Kings of Asgard and Wakanda come together to protect the world from the biggest threat its ever faced (as well as finally seeing all six Infinity Stones used, for good or ill). With such a large film, there were a lot of expectations that were years in the making, added to by previous team-up films and sequels that attempted to add in and build up more characters (sometimes successfully, sometimes not). You won’t be disappointed by the scale – this is a battle that takes place on entire worlds, rather than just a few blocks in New York. Heroes have pulled together because the villain really is as dangerous and terrifying as he appears to be. And, despite how much material there is to get through and how much we have to settle without, the film never feels like it’s too much. Sure, you’ll be brain-fried at the end of it, but just because that’s how the story is meant to be. As Doctor Strange says: “We’re in the end game.”

Picking up where Thor: Ragnarok’s end credit scene left off (and two years after Captain America: Civil War), the mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) has tracked the Tesseract to the ship of Asguardian refugees, piloted by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), on its way to Earth. Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who was also on board, manages to escape to Earth and warn Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) and Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) about Thanos’ impending arrival. Strange promises that he can protect the Time Stone he carries, but they also have to worry about the Mind Stone, currently in the possession of the android Vision (Paul Bettany). Vision is in contact with Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), part of the group of Avengers who’ve been in hiding since Civil War, and they bring Vision to Wakanda in the hopes of finding a way to protect the Mind Stone, meeting up with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). Across the Universe, the Guardians of the Galaxy have also learned of Thanos’ quest for the Infinity Stones, and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who knows better than most what it would mean for Thanos to have that level of power, urges them to step in and help.

Think that’s a lot of names up there? That’s not even half of it – I cut it down for space! Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of ten years and eighteen movies, so it is on a whole other level compared to what we’ve seen before, even more than previous large-group efforts like Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). Unlike Age of Ultron, however, the weight of the film does not collapse in on itself. Marvel learned their lesson and took their time to balance out all the stories, and it shows (it helps that the Russo brothers took the helm, along with James Gunn and Jon Favreau helping to produce – those three have the best track record of multiple films thus far). Thanos’ threat is a large one that affects many different fronts, but you can see how each story entwines with the others and the tale holds up spectacularly. There are drawbacks, of course –  there are a LOT people in this film, so not everyone gets time to shine. For some characters, this is nothing new – Anthony Mackie’s Falcon, though a fun character, has never really been given a chance to develop himself since he was introduced back in 2014.
For others it’s an anomaly – Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has been a Marvel mainstay since Iron Man 2, and we’ve come to expect a certain level of involvement from her as a character. It’s even more surprising that she has very little to do in this film because of where we last saw her – she fought alongside Iron Man in Civil War but went on the run when she helped Cap and Bucky (another character who does less than we would have expected) to escape from Germany. Another issue is the fact that Wanda and Vision are two of the largest parts in this huge cast, and yet are still some of the shakiest. These two are so powerful it’s been hard for Marvel to handle them well, and their romance (which hits its peak in this film) still doesn’t feel earned. While other relationships, like Gamora and Quill’s, have grown well organically (even with a four-year time jump), Wanda and Vision still feel as though they are struggling to convince themselves (and us) that they are indeed a relationship to root for (the two year jump for them certainly didn’t help). For the most part, though, the interactions and growth of characters are handled as gracefully as they can be with such a large range of people. The strength of the characters is in the meetups we’ve been waiting for – Iron Man and Doctor Strange, Thor and the Guardians, Banner returning to the fold. Singular character growth happens when it can, but this is a group project – growth happens as a team first.

Marvel has always been a little shaky with their villains – Loki and Killmonger are perhaps the only two who do their job well, even if Vulture and Hela are fun to watch and Ultron’s voice is both soothing and terrifying. Since Thanos has been built up as one of Marvel’s greatest villains since the end credit scene in The Avengers (2012), there was a lot riding on his appearance in Infinity War. While his four flunkies (who have names but I’m fairly certain we never actually learn them) are your run of the mill, devoted but not quite intimidating, sidekicks, Thanos himself actually manages to meet our expectations. His motivations, as evil and psychotic as they are, are relatively understandable, and they are big enough to fit with a character as imposing as Thanos. So many of the Marvel villains either dream very small, or they want to rule the world for the sake of ruling it. Thanos has a bigger picture in mind, and his utter determination to reach that picture, whatever it takes, makes him far more dangerous than many of the other foes our heroes have faced – even without the Infinity Stones. We get plenty of time to look into his life, his beliefs, and his history with other characters (especially Gamora), and that is leaps and bounds ahead of what we got for some others. In comparison, Kaecilius from Doctor Strange was a literal paper cutout. It does make the battle of Wakanda a little less exciting really, since for the majority of it, our heroes are facing Chitauri-esque enemies (actually they could be Chitauri, they’re more dog-like than the ones that came through the portal in 2012 but they aren’t called anything else, so who knows), which we’ve already seen. We can enjoy them getting their butts kicked for a little while, but it’s been made apparent to us before that the Avengers (especially put together) are capable of that. What we really want to see is them vs. Thanos, because that’s where the REAL power is. When he shows up, all bets are off.

You wouldn’t think that a two-and-a-half-hour movie’s biggest problem would be a time crunch, but it is. As long as this film is (it edges out the original longest Marvel film, Civil War, by one minute), there’s still so much that some things need to be looked over quickly in the script because of all the material (I definitely recommend seeing it a couple of times, there’s so much happening). At its most simple, there are three different areas of concentration throughout the film (and that’s when all the characters are in the same places, and there are times when some split off for other reasons). There are so many characters to wrangle and so many events to show that some get pushed to the side, even if they may have been interesting. When Thanos first attacks Thor’s ship (as hinted at the end of Thor: Ragnarok), we see that he already has the Power Stone, which the Guardians of the Galaxy left safely on Xandar at the end of their first adventure. Four years have passed between then and Infinity War, so even though Xandar is important in the Guardians mythology as the place where they came together (maybe an adoptive homeland, almost), there’s no time to really dwell on it. So Thanos’ attack on the planet to retrieve the stone and what may have happened to the people there is tossed away in a single line and a look of horror from Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), but no further discussion. Is Banner having a problem with the Hulk because of the events in Thor: Ragnarok (2017), or because Thanos is such a badass even the Hulk is scared? Well we don’t have enough time to figure that out. For as much time as we’re given, there is still so much happening that we can’t focus on everything. It is a bit of a parallel with the story, if you chose to be optimistic – there is a greater threat coming, and there isn’t time to stop and mourn. That can be saved for later.  This process continues when it comes time to explain where Hawkeye and Ant-Man are, as well as what Team Cap’s been doing for two years. There is not any wasted moment or emotion, however. It would be easy to think that adding the Guardians, who have been a breath of fresh air and comic relief to the MCU, would be detrimental when the Avengers have been dealing with darkness for so long would make the tone of the film flimsy, maybe even completely ridiculous. The Russos managed to find a balance between the two, fun when it needs to be but not afraid to explore how serious the situation can be. And, as you can expect, Infinity War gets plenty serious. The group can joke all they want, but there is going to be fallout, and Marvel has learned that they can’t always keep their characters alive. You may be surprised what they are able – and willing – to pull out of their hats for you.

4.5 / 5

Now we just have to wait for Part Two…hopefully Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel will be able to keep us sane until then!