NO SPOILERS! THIS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW!
*Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo
*Starring Robert Downey Jr, Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Elizabeth Olsen, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Paul Bettany, Sebastian Stan, Pom Klementieff, Benedict Wong, Danai Gurira, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Chadwick Boseman, Letitia Wright, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Idris Elba
The Plot: The mad Titan, Thanos, is on the hunt to collect 6 Infinity Stones, which he would then use to power up this gauntlet and then use the power of these stones to overpower the universe. In the meantime, the Avengers are split up and make new allies along the way to overcome some of Thanos's obstacles and prevent his task from becoming a reality.
10 YEARS in the making, folks! All the build-up, all the anticipation finally molded into this movie while the previous films made us fall in love with these characters and got us excited for the films to come. A very hyped film and most of the time since there's so much excitement surrounding a film like this that it's hard not to buy into the hype and have high expectations. It was one thing back in 2012 seeing the Avengers characters in their own solo films and then come together for the ultimate movie, but to see more of the characters cross over amongst the Avengers, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians of the Galaxy was all the ingredients of an amazing comic book movie extravaganza. And they would all team up to fight the big baddie that has been teased to us in previous films being Thanos.
So the excited and nervous feeling was there for myself on first viewing, not knowing what would happen and staying off of social media to make sure of that. Of course, a couple things were leaked because it's the Internet, but still the trailers revealed little to nothing of what would happen and I just could not wait for the ride I was in for. Long story short...this might be one of the greatest achievements in comic book movie history for the story told felt so important and had such riveting scenes that made the experience feel so wholesome and viewers still left wanting more. Avengers: Infinity War delivered on so many different levels that kept me on edge and definitely took me on so many emotional places.
I don't want to ruin any moments or motivations by any characters because this is a movie that you should be moved by because of certain scenes that happen and how they happen. Of course, it's really exciting to see characters together that we've been anticipating ever since the previous Marvel films were made. Seeing the complexities between Tony and Peter Quill or even Tony and Strange was interesting because they all have similar flaws in their egos, but what mattered is how they would convey that. There was still the team dynamic amongst all the characters in the movie and while some of you might have a general idea of how certain people are split up from trailers, for the sake of those who don't, I won't quite say how and why for it could lead to mild spoilers.
But seeing more of the team dynamic develop or seeing the different interactions with other characters made the film very compelling and not to mention that every character was still written and acted out like they should've been as we saw in previous installments. A few times one could say motivations of certain characters felt a little too altered and inconsistent with previous installments, but I saw it as characters being taken to new heights and new situations we hadn't seen them encounter before. And for me personally it called for some of the most compelling scenes I've ever watched in a Marvel film.
Also, I mentioned earlier how Thanos had the biggest tease besides the cross-over amongst all the characters and the way he was handled in the grand scheme of things was absolute perfection. Thanos may very well may be one of Marvel's finest villains ever to hit the silver screen. There were layers to read into and ways in which he challenged other characters. Villains like Loki were able to do that. I'd argue Zemo in Civil War did that pinning our heroes against each other. It also bears repeating that The Joker in The Dark Knight found ways to break a hero like Batman psychologically. Even Bane in The Dark Knight Rises broke Batman, obviously, physically, but emotionally as well. The list certainly goes on and on, but the villains I remember are the ones that have empathetic motivations that make them believable and can have an affect on our heroes and Thanos will certainly be a villain long remembered because of those aspects.
The conflict amongst the characters and even how the antagonistic aspect is challenged was brilliant, but what some may consider a standard superhero film, this movie is easily one of the most compelling fantasy epics of all time. If the stakes didn't feel that important and there weren't any characters to understand then would I bother, or anyone else who loves movies and loves these characters? No, but this film succeeded in raising its stakes and having compelling material with how character driven it was and because of that the action was also able to stick very well.
Speaking of which, the action in this movie might've been some of the best in the entire Marvel series and there's a certain battle scene that goes down that gave me Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy vibes. That emotional gravitas was there and it hit hard! So it might be awesome to see such breathtaking visuals and action sequences, but at its center there's a conflict and characters to care about, which doesn't make these scenes stale and a mindless action spectacle.
I'm just so glad that every scene had purpose for being there to get the ball rolling on how to solve this conflict and the journey of getting there. No meaningless and meandering scenes that take away from the story and characters, but enough of a lovely sense of humor and dramatic elements conveyed by the characters to make the journey of this story all worth it in the end. And not to mention the journey of the previous films that took us to get to this chapter made all the difference in the best possible way.
Avengers: Infinity War was an important and spellbinding masterpiece of a space fantasy epic that balances out all the characters in this pivotal chapter and will leave you wanting more based on how emotionally fulfilling this installment was.
Final Verdict:
5/5
This movie is already breaking records, but keep going back to see it, or if you haven't already, because even though it's awesome to see these characters alive and well, the heart of this movie is why I flock to movies. It made the biggest opening weekend achievement of all time, but let's have it continue to break more records, shall we?
Thank you to all who read this review and look out for my SPOILER-FILLED thoughts this weekend where I can get into more in-depth thoughts of this movie.
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I look forward to giving you all more movie-loving content and continuing on this journey. You guys rock! As always see some great freakin' entertainment, take care, and love yourself because you're amazing! And remember #ThanosDemandsYourSilence. From the bottom of my heart don't spoil this movie for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. Rock that golden rule!
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