If Avengers: Infinity War is one thing, it’s impressive. It’s a movie that has no right being as good as it is. The concept of this being as loaded as it is, as drawn out of a franchise this is, and yet still living as one of the better outings in Marvel’s cinematic universe, is incredible.
I was very much unsure of this movie in the beginning. It kicked off with a great fight sequence, but already exhibited some subpar dialogue, questionable logic from the characters, and a plot convenience. This improves pretty much the longer the movie goes on, but one thing the beginning does do well is establish who the movie belongs to, and that’s the villain, Thanos.
Thanos is the glue that holds this movie together. It’s his desires and motivations that brings the characters together and keep the story moving. In hindsight, it makes a lot of sense. In the first two Avenger films, there was never really a main character to latch onto. With that being a problem in the first two movies, it would’ve been too easy to fall into that trap, especially when the character roster is bigger than before. And while he’s definitely not the protagonist, the movie starts and ends with him, and every plot-point in the movie is a direct reaction to what Thanos does. It’s a simple fix to the problem, but an effective one.
But of course, none of that would work if he was a weak underdeveloped antagonist. But the character of Thanos manages to be intimidating and complex, with a motivation that’s difficult to argue against. The acting of Josh Brolin is decent enough. He does a good enough job where you always buy his character, but never really does anything amazing. That’s mostly everyone in the movie. The closest thing to a standout performance wise is Ebony Maw, one of Thanos’ henchmen. This movie actually treats their disposable villains pretty well, even the hordes of faceless, black aliens the Avengers fight in the third act managed to be memorable, with their dog-like designs, brutality, and complete lack of regard for any life whatsoever.
The heroes don’t get short shrifted either, sure, a lot of the smaller characters from other movies take much more of a backseat, but there are some larger characters that still get development in the movie, and plenty of it. Some were built up, and some were broken down to a point where you’re frustrated and pity them. But two in particular needed more focus in the movie, because they were always side characters in other movies and then when the movie puts them in a position that could have made them the heart of the movie, it fails. They become plot points. The only reason why I was invested in one of them is because I was a fan of the character in the comics, not in the movies.
The movie does make some other missteps, but they’re mostly minor. There’s a side story that feels very unnecessary, especially for a movie that’s as big as this, but it makes up for it with fantastic character dynamics. The movie also would have the occasional poor editing, where one of the ending fights was a little bit hard to follow, and one scene that was supposed to be extremely emotional ended up being funny because of how overdone the editing was, and the overwhelming music being played didn’t help. I do appreciate that the score was trying to stand out more compared to other Marvel films, and it does work for the most part, but other times it took me out of the movie. At those times, it reminded me of the score of The Cloverfield Paradox, where the music seemed like it was trying to make me feel an emotion, instead of simply letting the movie do it for me. At one point there was an actual dun-dun-dunnnnn sound cue that was played completely seriously.
This also ties into my problems at the beginning of the movie. The beginning isn’t bad, but it’s a rocky start. It feels telegraphed, there’s cliche dialogue, there’s hamfisted exposition, and there’s a weird balance of tone. All of this (for the most part) disappears after the second fight sequence, and the movie doesn’t stop until the credits start rolling.
Avengers: Infinity War was a trainwreck waiting to happen. And it would be easy to say that the decade of films that preceded it stopped the disaster from happening, and that would be partially true. But what the movie does on its own is what helps it rise above the typical Marvel and become a solid film on its own right. It’s the antagonists and smooth shifts through a range of tone that helps the film rise above being just decent. Avengers: Infinity War is a 7.5 out of 10.
★★★★★★★½☆☆