AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR REVIEW

NON-SPOILER REVIEW #Thanosdemandsyoursilence

I have had the privilege of seeing Avengers: Infinity War (IW), the climax event of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), I call it a privilege cause it truly is; to have watched every single entry in the MCU leading to this, and having the 'grace' to witness the colossal cinematic moment that all those films were building up to. Suffice to say, there will only be a handful of monumental events like this in cinema history and I'm glad to have witnessed one.

Infinity War is the culmination of  the past 10 years and 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which kicked off with Iron-Man, so if you aren't well versed with this Universe you may want (to speed binge) to get up to speed, since there are tons of references and history you might miss otherwise. Infinity War picks up right after Thor: Ragnarok, and hits the ground running (trust me though, it's the end that will have you talking), which sets the pace for the rest of the movie. With a runtime of 2hrs 40mins, it is Marvel's longest entry thus far, but this is by no means a bad thing, cause you'll only be craving for more when the final credits start to roll.

Over the years Marvel have perfected the art of blending humour and action elements in their movies, and Infinity War is no different, with it's well placed one liners and action packed scenes - which had you grabbing at your seat's armrest, it is one huge and fun ride, but it's much more than that, the stakes have been raised and this can be seen visually, as Marvel added a darker spectrum to their usually optimistic and upbeat themes. IW is probably the darkest Marvel movie made till date, with the Russo brothers superbly merging light and dark tones so well that the finished product doesn't feel coerced or mismatched; balancing the usual campy nature of Marvel with the more sombre side of film making to give the right sense of gravity- a feat that despite its attempts, the DC Extended Universe has been unable to properly execute.

The Avengers assemble for Infinity War after they were dishonorably disassembled at the end of Captain America: Civil War, now faced with the biggest universal threat since Loki's invasion in the first Avengers film, they are seamlessly joined by the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Black Panther in the fight against Thanos in his search for all the Infinity Stones which he intends to use to 'balance' the universe. Our heroes are in very different places since we first met them, having evolved over the course of several movies, and this makes for some really great heartfelt interactions.

Thanos and the Black Order (or The Children of Thanos as used in the film) made their first live feature debut in Infinity War and it was glorious (more for Thanos than the Black Order). Corvius Glaive, Proxima Midninght, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian proved to be formidable opponents for the Avengers and put up quite the spectacle, but they didn't have the sort of impact I hoped they would and were like, most of the characters in the film largely overshadowed by Thanos himself, something we can thank the lack of their character development for.

Thanos has been teased as the big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since his first appearance in the Avengers, and he sure lived up to his imminent coming. First things first, Infinity War is a Thanos movie, as importance is subtly removed from Earth's mightiest heroes to this unstoppable force of willpower, his motivations aren't evil for the sake of it and if anything Thanos might simply be misunderstood. Not a lot of time is dedicated to the backstory of the Mad Titan, however we are given snippets which serve as peepholes into the character's deeper persona; He is driven, ruthless, calculated and stoic but is capable of warmer emotions. Earlier in the year I praised Black Panther's Erik Killmonger for being the best Marvel villain ever, Thanos surpasses this and gets my praise for being a well crafted and thought out villain; powerful, uncompromising, dedicated, moderate, and logical. It only seems right that the Avengers biggest adversary is the MCU's best.

With its sheer magnitude of importance and huge roster, Infinity War faced some potential risk of being overstuffed with content and being overcrowded - Key characters like Thanos, Thor, Iron-Man, Captain America, Spider-Man and Dr Strange had more screen time devoted to them, while inevitably some characters suffered prime time collateral damage. Bucky, Okoye, Falcon, and Shuri to name a few are treated to a handful minutes of screen time. The film also suffers some negligible pacing issues, but despite these, it does enough to treat every character earnestly, given the seismic scale of ongoing events and since we've become familiar with most of these characters for the better part of a decade, there really isn't any fleshing out required (after all, we're expected to know them quite well by now).

Infinity War was expected to have casualties and it did, I mean with an event of this scale it would have been criminal for Earth's mightiest heroes to come out in one piece. Ever since inception of the MCU, I've been a big critic in this department, chiding them for not having little stakes and having heroes coming out of their encounters relatively unscathed, so much so, that when they finally gave me what I wanted it seemed unreal, (This isn't Game of Thrones you know). However, I'm unconvinced that many characters will stay dead (you know the ones I'm talking about), presumably it's safe to say that we'll be seeing some resurrections in the sequel, and with that in mind my integrity was solid when most of the audience lost it.

So strap in and brace yourself for the roller coaster affair that is Infinity War, It's not a perfect movie; it has loopholes and lazy plot fillers that will leave you with questions or unsatisfying answers, but then again you can't have it all, can you? Infinity War might as well be the biggest cinematic event of the year as I don't think any of the forthcoming releases will come close to it.There's no doubt that I'd be seeing this a couple more times before the end of summer.

PS: You'd think after 10 years and 18 movies, folk have learned to wait till the very end for after credit scenes. Alas you'd be wrong.

RejectRating: 8.5/10