I'm not a big fan of the Avengers movies. They're fine for what they are, but I never felt compelled to watch any of them more than once and left the cinema feeling not a great deal more than 'That was entertaining'. If I were to rank the movies within the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, The Avengers movies would be at the bottom of the list along with Thor 1 and 2. So needless to say, I wasn't wonderfully excited about the third film, despite it being the culmination of all of the world building that Marvel had been doing on the big screen for the past decade.
I'm not trying to be an arsehole here and be all 'Pffft. I don't care about this fucking movie', although I'm sure this is how its coming off a mere one paragraph into this shit. I just wasn't as thrilled to see this film as the billions of others were. And I say this from the perspective of somebody who has seen every film within the Marvel cinematic universe, including the Netflix series' and a fan of Marvel. What Marvel have sought to achieve with the MCU is remarkable. And I love many of the films that have come out of it. Very few, if any of them, are flat out bad. Even this one. Despite the ominous tone that may suggest that I didn't like it. But Infinity war wasn't great to me and not since Doctor Strange have I found myself picking an MCU film apart in such a manner.
Now, I'm not going to pretend to be the biggest Marvel fanatic. I know of the franchise, I've read a couple of Marvel branded comics, am a huge fan of the Capcom cross over series of video games (or was until Marvel vs. CapcomL Infinite came along) and have followed it for years. I'm not up on the Infinity gauntlet saga. I know bits of it and know one of the ways in which it ends. But by no means was I going into the cinema with this grand expectation of the story, which I knew wouldn't follow the comics directly anyway. I was along to see the pay off that Marvel had been teasing for years. Only, I didn't get it. I didn't feel as though this movie did the biggest justice of what the MCU had been building up to for 10 years. Maybe it will come in Avengers 4. But I still felt that this movie could have given us a bit more than it did, especially when the sums of its parts had managed to give so much more despite being a paved road to this film.
I find Infinity war to be technically sound, but that's really about it. And even then, I'm like... *Looks directly into the camera*. There are some pretty dodgy CGI moments which shouldn't be in a Marvel movie with this type of budget. But, here we are.
The Avengers does a great job with all it has to work with and get crammed into one film. For a story which takes place across so many locations and involves so many damn characters, it's pretty cohesive. It's stupid and nonsensical at times. But it's cohesive. The film also does a great job at respecting the tone of each of the characters and the respective films they came from, despite them all being helmed by different directors, writers and having completely different tonalities. The film (as all of the MCU films do) shifts between tragedy and comedy in the most masterful of ways. You don't realise just how good Marvel are at this balancing act until you watch the likes of DC fall flat on their face with its attempt in Justice league. It's an art. It's not exclusive to Marvel by any means, but they've really nailed the formula. The emotional moments hit. Every punchline and joke lands. The film has you feel everything that you're supposed to, when you're supposed to.
Infinity war has a consistent rhythm which is a a grand achievement given just how much happens in this film and that the story features multiple arcs which all intersect. Visually, it's also a gorgeous looking film. With so much going on in the action scenes, there's never a sense of not being able to follow what's going on. Tying so much together and making it work is commendable and the Russo brothers do a fantastic job.
But the film is also a bit of a mess. Not a Justice League type of mess. But a mess none-the-less.
I'm going to drag Justice league quite a few times throughout this review and for that, I do not apologise.
I couldn't help but think that much of what happened in this film should have been spread across more than one film. The final Harry Potter film and The Hobbit were crucified for taking what could have been one film and splitting across two and three respectively. And whilst the Infinity gauntlet story arc is spread across two films, THIS Infinity war film probably should have been two movies. So much is condensed for the sake of getting the story to a certain point and it all feels rushed. It's taken hundreds of characters, 10 years and some serious sacrifices to get just a couple of these stones. And yet Thanos swoops in on some mechanical doughnut and manages to find them all with such ease. I get that he is all powerful and shit. But if it were as easy for Thanos to acquire the stones as it appears to be in this film, why did it take him so long?
The brevity at which things happen in this film does wonders for the pace and holding interest, but is also what lets it down. Many of the sub-plots in this film come and go, when under any other circumstances, they'd probably be two acts worth of story building and even justify being films within themselves. It pokes holes in much of what has been laid out in the movies leading up to it. Because, just as Thanos seems to be able to acquire the stones so quickly, there is a lot that the heroes themselves are able to do within one scene in this film that they took a whole film to do a couple of years ago.
Power scaling is a massive issue in Infinity war. Thanos is depicted as being stupidly powerful, even without all 5 infinity stones at his disposal. At various points during Thanos' acquisition for the stones, he fights some of the Avengers. But the powers of the individual Avengers seem to serve no relation to Thanos' various states of power as he goes through the process of utilising each stone. Thanos beats Hulk to a point of being shook of ever showing his face again with just one stone. But Scarlet Witch is able to hold Thanos back with one hand when he has 4 stones, whilst attempting to destroy an infinity stone with her other. Daddy America is also able to physically stop Thanos' fist from fucking up his pretty face with his bare hands and no real super power, when he has 4 infinity stones. But Hulk couldn't stop him with just one. Also (Back to this Scarlet Witch bitch), she was unable to contain an explosion long enough to stop it from killing people in Nigeria and struggled to stop an ATC tower from falling in Berlin. But in some bush in Wakanda, she's able to destroy an infinity stone and stop Thanos simultaneously? It makes no fucking sense. Characters are power scaled in this film to service the story in the most convenient way possible and it's wonky as hell. It's going to be interesting to see how this is addressed in Avengers 4 when Captain 'Powerful as all fuck' Marvel joins the fray
Superhero films often suffer from final showdown syndrome. For a while, portals opening up in some city and heroes having to fight waves of enemies whilst one hero goes off on some sacrificial crusade to stop it all, was a standard trope we got across multiple films across both the DC and Marvel universes. Unfortunately, Infinity war plays the same set of tropes. But what makes the final showdown in Infinity war more of a letdown for me is that it felt like deja vu with it all taking place in Wakanda. I immediately felt 'I've seen this before'. Waves of enemies get wasted across some field, with force-fields going up, goin' down and ships flying all over the place. It all felt far too familiar. The final battle had some great set piece moments. But it didn't leave me on the edge of my seat in the same way that the square off with Thanos on Titan did, which was a far more tense affair and visually gorgeous to look at.
There are also instances of characters making bad decisions in this film unnecessarily, which made me dislike a couple of characters and I'm sure they had some of you goin' 'THE ACTUAL FUCK!?' There are two moments in the film where characters could have gotten an upper hand on Thanos, but they fucked up. If Wanda had just fucking shot her red mist at Vision's super powered bindi from the start, we wouldn't have had an issue. If Peter had just sucked it up, the Avengers could have yoinked the gauntlet from Thanos. But the worst culprits are Vision and Wanda. Their whole love story is some bullshit and it takes up far too much screen-time. Not to mention that these are the 2 characters in the mix that I couldn't care any less about. I find it hard to root for Wanda when she was a bad guy in Age of Ultron, killed black people in Civil war and puts everyone in danger because the robot dick is so bomb. And let's not forget that Vision also paralysed a black man. I'm not saying they're low key racists or anything. But it's hard to root for these 2 when they've made big fuck-ups, and fail to show that they have any redeeming character qualities other than being pretty powerful. Of all the characters to place at the centre of the film and to eat up into so much of the first act, it would have been nice for it to have been a set of characters that more people care about, whose journey's we've become invested in. This is what made Civil war so powerful. It's also what makes Loki's death so tragic.
Infintiy war was a problematic film for me, because whilst it was entertaining, it felt too convenient and too brisk. When I think of films like The Winter soldier and Civil war in comparison, Infinity war didn't cut the cake. Both of these films not only had perfect pacing and multiple arcs, but they had great pay offs at the end, whilst leaving room for you to interpret what happens next until Marvel confirmed as such, if they ever decided to. Infinity war presents a ride with no surprises, no turns, no pay off and an ending which feels pointless trying to even interpret or understand because we know it will all get undone in the follow up film.
Since seeing Infinity war on opening day, I have watched it twice at home and I did liked it more on repeated watches than I did initially. There are lots of great moments and details which go straight over your head on a first watch because of how much is going on. It's not a terrible film by any means. I guess I just expected more, even as somebody who wasn't the biggest fan of the first 2 Avengers movies.
Verdict: See it, with managed expectations.