Film Review: Avengers Infinity War (2018)

Smile though your heart is breaking . . .

Avengers: Infinity War (12A)

Starring: Pretty much everyone from every Marvel film ever

Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

The Plot: The mad tyrant Thanos has finally stepped into action to claim the six infinity stones that will make him all-powerful, and able to carry out his plan to wipe out half of the universe. Already in possession of the Power and Space Stones, he and his acolytes the Black Order spread their assault and the collective heroes of the Marvel universe find themselves divided and terrifyingly outmatched: Iron Man, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange are transported to Titan as they attempt to defend the Time Stone; Vision, badly damaged during an attempt to take his Mind Stone, is joined by Captain America, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Hulk as they take him to the relative safety of Wakanda to join Black Panther and Bucky; Thor, having been found by the Guardians of the Galaxy, leaves with Rocket and Groot to head to Nidavellir, in the hope that he can forge a new hammer, while Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax and Mantis head to Knowhere to stop Thanos from claiming the Reality Stone from the Collector. With the sixth, the Soul Stone, unaccounted for, the stakes have never been higher . . .

Check out the trailer for the film here.

Review: Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Right, now that I've collected myself, I can begin. Infinity War is the first part of two films (the second film, coming next year, has a title that's yet to be released) that conclude "Phase 3" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is the studio's magnum opus, their biggest film yet in terms of scale, spectacle, cast size and run time, gathering together virtually every hero and character from the previous eighteen films in the series and concluding a grand storyline that can be traced right back to 2011's Thor, where we glimpsed one of the infinity stones for the first time. It's both an incredible challenge and risk for Marvel to attempt, even with their incredible success of the last ten years, but as you've no doubt guessed from my opening line, they've knocked it out of the park again.

This film is staggeringly good.

(Before I go any further, I'll point out the obvious fact that there are SPOILERS ahead. Huge ones. So if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now and go see the film. Then come back.)

There are many, many reasons why this film is as good as it is. But two of the biggest ones, which I want to talk about first, are the writing and direction, as these are two things that can't be understated here. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are the writers who had the unenviable task of putting this script together, trying to balance this huge cast of characters and tie up all of the story threads that have been weaving through the previous Marvel films, and they've done it, producing an epic tale that blends action, humour and tragedy (oh, the tragedy! We'll get to that later) incredibly well. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo then had the responsibility of turning that script into reality, with the colossal weight of expectation on their shoulders - it's fair to say that the eyes of the world were upon them - and they've stepped up to the plate and delivered, and then some. It no doubt helped that these four men previously brought us Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, two of the best MCU films in my opinion (Markus and McFeely also wrote the first Cap film as well), and having clearly proved that they're capable of telling grand, emotional stories with large casts, they were an ideal choice for Infinity War.

Even so, this was a very important film for Marvel to get right, given how grand the concept is and the sheer scale of the story. And right from the get-go, it's clear that Marvel is not only up for the challenge but also unafraid to shake things up - the film opens with an incredibly bold, emotional scene where Thanos has slaughtered the Asgardian refugees aboard Thor's ship, the thunder god defeated and helpless to watch as the villain beats down the Hulk without breaking a sweat, before murdering both Heimdall and Loki and claiming the Space Stone. This is within the first five minutes of the film. Buckle up, kids.

I've already used the word "scale" more than once, and it's very apt when discussing this film as pretty much everything is bigger and better than anything Marvel have shown us before (and they've shown us some very impressive stuff already). The visual spectacle and action in Infinity War is astonishing, featuring some of the finest effects work and action sequences in the franchise to date and providing a real visual treat for the audience. Tony has an impressive new suit of armour that uses nano technology, giving him some great new abilities, and (as predicted) we also get to see Peter try out the Iron Spider suit that was teased at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, which includes the extra arms - it's awesome! There are some great moments where heroes that we've never seen fight together before team up, such as Star-Lord jumping across magical stepping-stones created by Doctor Strange and Black Widow joining with Okoye in an impressive three-way battle against one of Thanos's acolytes, and also some particularly eye-pleasing "wow" moments where both Scarlet Witch and Thor have incredible demonstrations of power. In the fight scene between Tony and Thanos, Thanos literally pulls a moon down from space with the Infinity Gauntlet to hurl at Tony. A fucking moon! It's jaw-dropping stuff. For all of this incredible spectacle though, one of the finest moments for me personally was one seen in the trailer for the film, where Cap blocks a gauntlet swing from Thanos and desperately struggles back against it, to Thanos's disbelief, in a very symbolic moment that harks back to our first introduction to the character where his motivation to fight is that he doesn't like bullies, whoever they may be. It's a fantastic moment that shows off not only Cap's physical strength but the strength of his character as well, which had taken a hit at the conclusion of Civil War.

The biggest surprise of the film, and one of the main reasons it works so well, is Thanos himself. Marvel recently gave us one of their best villains yet in Black Panther with Killmonger, driven by a terrific performance from Michael B. Jordan, but here in Infinity War Thanos is a step up again, and it's a combination of great effects work, acting and writing. Motion captured and performed by Josh Brolin, the CGI used to bring Thanos to life is incredibly impressive - it's almost photo realistic in places, and simply put this helps make the character believable (as believable as a purple giant can be, at any rate). One of the biggest problems in Justice League last year was the terrible CGI for the villain Steppenwolf, which made for a laughable experience for the audience, but there are no such issues here. But what really makes him work so well is the material that Brolin is given to work with here: Thanos gets a fleshed-out back story that explains where his obsession to extinguish half of the universe's life comes from, but we also get a fascinating exploration of his relationship with Gamora that reveals, surprisingly, that he actually does love her like a daughter, which sets up a powerful scene that I'll talk about later. Thanos is clearly insane but not in a stereotypically "crazy" way - he doesn't want to kill all life, and he doesn't even want to rule over it (his reward for completing his mission, he tells Doctor Strange, will be to sit back and watch the sunrise), but the fact that he's absolutely convinced about his concept of bringing balance to the universe by wiping half of it out, and showing absolutely no remorse for the staggering amount of death and destruction that he's caused (and will cause) makes him incredibly effective as a villain, especially when coupled with his power.

It wouldn't be a Marvel film without humour, and as I mentioned earlier the script balances this aspect of it very well. Given the seriousness of the story the moments of humour are both welcome and necessary, and you won't be surprised to learn that the majority of the comedy comes courtesy of the Guardians of the Galaxy. There are some hilarious moments such as Star-Lord putting on a deep voice to try and imitate Thor, jealous of the attention that Gamora is giving him, Thor continually referring to Rocket as "Rabbit", and Drax's claims of invisibility after interrupting a tender moment between Star-Lord and Gamora. And Mantis, oh how I love Mantis, who continues to be both hilarious and adorable whether she's putting on her game face, bouncing around in the low gravity of Titan or, when asked by Peter what it is that the Guardians do, replies with "Kick names, take ass!" Now that's not to say the rest of cast don't get their moments, as there's some good banter between Tony, Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange's cloak and Peter (which gets even better when Star-Lord joins them), while back on Earth there's a continual funny battle of wills between Bruce Banner and the Hulk, who refuses to transform, and Cap, introduced to Groot with "I am Groot" on the field of battle, replies with "I am Steve Rogers." There are plenty more funny moments and lines throughout the film which I won't spoil, but they're a good thing to have, because oh boy is it about to get sad.

I chose the tagline "Smile though your heart is breaking" because oh boy, this film is going to break your heart. It features some of the most emotional, sad and shocking moments of the series so far, and even though I went into the film expecting to see some the of the characters die, I was not prepared. Given that I'm posting this review over a week since the film came out you may have seen the twitter reactions and memes, as this film has put a lot of people through the emotional wringer. There's the aforementioned opening scene where we lose not only Heimdall but Loki - Loki! - whose final act is an attempt to stop Thanos and save his brother, a fitting attempt at retribution, but Marvel is only just getting started. The relationship between Scarlet Witch and Vision is handled very well and puts the couple in a horrible dilemma: Vision believes his Mind Stone should be destroyed, which will kill him in the process, and Wanda is the only one of them with the power to do it - to save untold billions of lives, she may be forced to kill the man she loves. There's a powerful moment where Tony falls to Thanos after their epic fight, stabbed with what appears to be a fatal wound, and Thanos stands over him and eulogises him, stating "I hope they remember you." But the real kicker for me was Star-Lord and Gamora. Oh man, this cut me deep. If, like me, you're a fan of these two characters together, the film is incredibly bittersweet - we finally get to see them kiss, and finally hear them declaring love for each other, but Gamora, in possession of the Soul Stone's location, makes Star-Lord promise to kill her should they fail, to prevent Thanos extracting it from her. This leads to a highly charged scene where he's forced to try and do just that, but that isn't Gamora's end - that comes at the hands of Thanos himself, who throws her to her death from the top of a mountain to claim the Soul Stone. It's a shocking moment that speaks volumes about Thanos, who sheds tears as he does it, and Star-Lord's reaction on learning of Gamora's fate is an extraordinary display of grief and fury.

If any pieces of your heart are left, the films ending will surely shatter them when (spoiler alert again) Thanos accomplishes his goal. With all six stones and a simple click of his fingers, he wipes out half of all life. Dozens of heroes die, dissolving into ash before the disbelieving eyes of those around them. It's a truly jaw-dropping moment - the cinema screen I was in was audibly shocked and hushed - and perhaps none of the deaths are more affecting than Spider-Man, who clutches Tony in a desperate hug as he begins to dissipate, telling his father-figure "I don't want to go."

Given everything I've told you about, it won't be a surprise to learn that the performances from the cast are top-notch, across the board. There were a number of stand-outs for me: RDJ, who basically is Tony Stark, is fantastic, bringing the character's usual humour (his exasperation with Star-Lord is great) but also getting a very serious side, clashing with Doctor Strange and allowing Tony's fears to surface. Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana are terrific as Star-Lord and Gamora, in both their tender moments and heartbreaking ones, and Saldana particularly gets some additional emotional scenes including the fateful moment with Thanos, and another where she's forced by him to watch Nebula be tortured mercilessly. Josh Brolin, as already mentioned, is terrific as Thanos himself, and I was impressed with both Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda and Tom Holland as Peter.

As brilliant as the film is, I'd be doing you all a disservice if I called it perfect. There are a few negatives to be found, but when you consider the things I'm about to talk about are the only criticisms I could make, I think it speaks strongly about the quality of the film overall. The first thing is probably to be expected: given the sheer size of the cast, there's a number of characters that are given very little to do - Falcon, War Machine, Black Widow, Bucky, Groot, Black Panther, Shuri and Okoye don't do much apart from participate in the film's final big battle. It's kind of understandable, as despite how good a job has been done with balancing the characters in the script and the long run-time, the sheer size of the cast means not everyone is going to get huge amounts of time. Of the characters given short thrift, Bucky is the most disappointing given how well his character was presented in Winter Soldier and Civil War, however for some of them there's the impression that they'll be given more time to shine in the second film. There were also some big moments that fans expected but either didn't happen or weren't explored fully: Cap and Tony don't meet at all in the film, which you know is going to be a huge moment, and the long-awaited reunion between Bruce and Widow is a single moment of greeting, which Falcon comments upon as being awkward. Again, hopefully these things will get to happen/get more time in the second film. Hawkeye and Ant-Man are absent from the film, and this is explained in a single rather throwaway line, and there was no explanation for the absence of Valkyrie, who was missing from Thor's ship and wasn't mentioned at all - a shame, given how great her character is. Finally, while this was no doubt due to time constraints, it's a shame that we didn't really learn anything about Thanos's acolytes the Black Order, who have cool names like Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Cull Obsidian and Corvus Glaive.

I think, after waffling on this long, that you catch my drift. This is an absolutely phenomenal film, quite possibly the best that Marvel have done yet, and a remarkable achievement given the scale of the story, the multiple story arcs within it, and the sheer size of the cast. The performances from the cast are fantastic, the visuals are stunning, and the writing and direction are both strong enough to successfully pull off what is the grandest ambition from Marvel Studios to date. And this is only the first part - the conclusion arrives next year, and it has an incredibly tough act to follow. The film thrilled me, shocked me, broke my heart and put it back together again. I've seen it twice now, and I'm still affected by Star-Lord and Gamora and that truly shocking ending. It's already broken all kinds of records and is on course to be the highest-grossing film for Marvel to date, after only a week of release. It deserves it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece. Visually stunning and emotionally devastating, this is the best superhero film I've ever seen and a true triumph for Marvel, who continue to push the boundaries of their cinematic universe and continue to deliver. You owe it to yourself to see this film. Just be ready for the emotional fallout . . .