When the release date for Avengers Infinity War was pushed forward a week I was excited. However, the early release meant I would be on vacation when the film made its debut. While it didn’t stop me from buying tickets as soon as they went on sale, it does mean I don’t have as much time to write about it on the back end. A second viewing of this movie is definitely in the cards, just for the sheer dearth of information, and maybe that will help frame my opinion more acutely. Nonetheless, I wanted to at least share a few thoughts.
The scale of this movie exceeds the marketing. The trailers and promotional material suggested something drastic, but failed to capture the true gravity of the situation…that’s a good thing. Describing it as “epic” is accurate but that’s a term thrown around with such frequency that it’s lost importance. Infinity War was an effort of monumental ambition.
Joe and Anthony Russo understood the gravity of the situation and gave the movie a last appeal that will linger with audiences long after leaving the theater. A big part of that is because they did an excellent job balancing the wide assortment of characters and their personalities. Bringing all these people together was the easy part, allowing them to be themselves and showcase all the things we love about them, especially in the face of one another, was special.
Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus were a big part that success. No strangers to the MCU, they crafted a screenplay that captured all the best attributes of these characters. More importantly, they made a villain worth watching. In previous Avengers films, Loki was enjoyable but ultimately petty as the villain. Ultron was a good idea, but far too cartoonish, needlessly comical and petty as well. Thanos changed all that, he represents a significant step up in competition for the Avengers. More importantly, he represents a greater challenge for the audience. Thanos is so far outside the understanding of the established MCU, his view of the universe is almost incomprehensible. His physical character design was a bit plain and a bit monotone, but Josh Brolin did a good job providing the voice acting.
It pretty much goes without saying, but the film is visually stunning. Whether it was earth or space, or any number of foreign locations, this was the most expanded vision of the MCU we have ever seen. Beyond that, implementing how the Infinity Gauntlet itself would work and how exactly Thanos would wield it was a challenge as well. The interpretation worked enough to tell this story, but ultimately didn’t capture exactly how powerful the Gauntlet is. Maybe the characters themselves don’t even know and there is more to be seen down the road. Maybe it’s my familiarity with the comic crafting my own ideas about how it can be utilized. Either way, I expected more but I didn’t leave the theater dissatisfied.
Unfortunately, the filmmakers seem to struggle with how to use all the characters. This is the third time in three movies that our heroes battle a faceless army of drones that can be slaughtered violently and morally. First it was the Chitauri, then the Ultron drone-bots and now it’s whatever those multi-limbed creatures. While these large scale battles make for some action packed sequences, we’ve seen it all before…even Black Panther had one. There is so much more to these characters than battling faceless armies and that’s what made the comics so endearing. Personally, I would have liked to see Thanos and his primary lieutenants provide sufficient challenge to the Avengers without the recycled free for all battle. Obviously they do provide plenty of challenge, but I would have appreciated more of a centralized battle akin to Civil War rather than the large scale war that we’ve already seen numerous times in other films.
When the dust settles, there is a lot of change. How much of that change will be permanent remains to be seen. I will have more in depth review when I get back from vacation. Cheers from Hawaii.
Recommendation: I need to go see this a second time. Go see it for yourself, especially if you’ve been following along the last 10 years. Even without that, you can still enjoy the scope and grandeur of the movie.
Grade: TBD