Infinity War: A Marvel Epic that’ll satisfy any hardcore fan(Spoiler-Free)

   

     For ten year straight, Marvel has been pumping out film after film that adapts many of their beloved and iconic characters onto the big screen in the form of a Cinematic Universe. While not every film they have made has been good, there’s always a little bit of an interest towards an MCU film. With the third Avengers movie, Infinity War, there’s some doubt that this could become a disappointment and not live up to the massive amount of hype it has received. Luckily for Marvel, Infinity War just manages to live up to the hype. It’s not an outstanding movie and even for Marvel’s standards, there have been plenty of better films out there, but for the type of movie it is aiming to be, Infinity War manages to be an ambitious and over-all blast of a movie even with its shortcomings.

     Infinity War of course stars all of the major Marvel superheroes, this time all teaming up in their own ways and taking down the one big bad guy who can potentially destroy the universe, in the form of Thanos. A film with so many characters from so many different movies that have tones that are so contrasting to one another, it’s fair to be fearful that a movie as grand as Infinity War would be overstuffed and crowded with so much going on to the point of overload. To be blunt, it actually does feel slightly overcrowded unfortunately, as the film honestly doesn’t feel like one big consistent film, it feels more like 2-5 films meshed into one. With so many characters and tones that conflict with one another, Infinity War at points feels less like a third Avengers movie, but instead feels either like the fourth Captain America movie, the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie or even to a lesser extent, the second Spider Man, Black Panther or Doctor Strange movie. It does make the film a bit on overload when the shift goes from funny and light with the Guardians of the Galaxy to sudden a scene with a more dramatic tone with Captain America and his team. This might sound like Infinity War is a mess of a movie and add to the fact that the movie does feel incredibly Marvel-y; it may sound like this film is a weak Marvel movie. What saves the movie from being a mess and instead a very good film is that despite how the tones of going from Captain America to Guardians of the Galaxy can clash with one another, the Captain America and Guardians of the Galaxy movie being shown to us, is actually a good one. Even when the film has some moments that don’t pack on the emotional punch as they should and have moments where a character is cracking a joke at an inappropriate moment, there are more than enough moments where the film actually succeed in the dramatic and comedic moments. Not to mentioned, it is a film for all of its faults, takes a ton of risks. Without spoiling anything major, the film goes into a direction that is rarely expected out of a blockbuster, and for a film like that to take a bold and epic risk like that is something to be admired, and makes up for whatever faults the movie has. It’s an ending that will get a reaction out of people, especially longtime fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and when an ending like that comes around for a movie this big, it deserves to get a little bit of credit for sure.

     As mentioned earlier, the film is filled with a plethora of character to follow, so there’s also a fear where the film can’t keep up and the characters are not as well realized or developed as they are expected to be. However the film surprisingly manages to balance these characters pretty well. When a character shows up, they don’t feel different in any sort of way, they actually do feel like the character you loved and cared for in their own subsequent film, which helps gives weight to when a traumatic thing happens to these characters. Not to mentioned, this is the first major Marvel film where there are plenty of character interactions through-out with characters who have yet to meet in the MCU, and when those moments appear they are a delight. The characters interactions are written so well, that it’s a joy to see characters like Peter Quill and Tony Stark or Rocket and Thor to interact with one another just for how well written and clever their dialogue is for their character dynamic. There isn’t as much characters interaction as one would expect, but with future Marvel movies, it should be expected that element of certain characters interacting will be fulfilled in future films. The real character that should be concerning is the big man himself Thanos, a character who has been built up for so long, it’s easy to be fearful that he could be a lackluster villain, especially with his design being a big CGI Purple Shrek looking Alien. The good news is, Thanos manages to be one of the better Marvel villains, he doesn’t quite have the relatability and complexity of someone like Killmonger and him looking like he’s wearing a tank-top still looks rather silly, but the character is actually fairly well written. Thanos, isn’t just a dude who wants to take over and destroy things for the sake of it, he does have legitimate motivates that make him more interesting as a character and seeing some of his interactions and dynamics with certain characters, he ends up being more manipulative and threatening than one could ever expect a Purple Shrek look alike could ever be.

  

     While on the subject of a CGI character, it’s fair to talk about how Infinity War stacks up as a visually pleasing film and it actually is an impressive movie in the aesthetic department. As mentioned earlier, Thanos may look slightly silly with his tank top design, but the good news is, for being a giant alien, the CG is as good as it could have been for a character like him, being textured enough and also having enough scale to him to make him look more threatening than initially expected. As for the rest of the film, it is one of the best looking Marvel movies with so many impressive visuals around and it does have a ton of CG, but the effects team put in their A game giving us a film that is aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, with shots and effects that make this film feel as epic as it tries to be. Not to mention, out of all the Marvel films, Infinity War might just have the best action ever seen in a film of this caliber for Marvel. Every character tends to showcase their moves incredibly well when fighting against other characters and the film is shot in a sense where not only can we see this glory through incredibly well-crafted cinematography, but also feels exactly like a comic book coming to life, seeing these characters epic moves highlighted in the same way they would in a comic book. Add in the bright colors and a pretty well done score for Marvel, this film is aesthetically one of the best looking and impressive Marvel movies they have ever done, making an already rather epic film, all the more epic.

     

     Avengers Infinity War is everything a Marvel fan could ask for and so much more. It is not the best film ever made by any means, even films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Civil War and Winter Soldier were more consistent and over-all better as a film. With that said, it is a film for all of its hyped being attached to it and all the skepticisms that were made prior to it, it is a film that has enough great things and elements that have yet to be seen in a Marvel movie like this, it’s a film that deserves some sort of respect. It takes risks, it is epic and it just an over-all exciting time to witness, especially for anyone who has loves Marvel from the moment they first read a comic from them or even seen a movie from them.