You cannot possibly review this movie with any kind of clarity without SPOILERS so be warned. They’re coming. Overall, I enjoyed the movie, but it’s really only for those that have seen the vast majority of the Marvel films, especially Thor: Ragnarok. The 12 year-old me would’ve described this as the perfect movie. Wall to wall superhero battles. However (SPOILERS)…
The movie begins right after Thor: Ragnarok ends. The inhabitants of Vahalla are flying on what Thor calls “A Refugee Ship”. They are attacked by Thanos, who is after the second Infinity stone. He already has one. What follows is mayhem, death and destruction. The movie could’ve easily been called Avengers: Meanwhile since the movie has to cut between Thor, The Guardians of the Galaxy, the Avengers, the other Avengers and Wakanda.
The characters don’t have time to develop or breathe, which is fine if you’re all caught up. If you’re not, you’ll be sitting there saying to yourself, “Who are all these people and why are they killing each other?” “Why can’t Bruce Banner turn into the Hulk when he wants?” “Who is the Vision again and why doesn’t he own a cellphone?” “Why is Peter Dinklage the tallest guy in this movie?”
Thanos wraps the entire movie together and the plot revolves around him, but ultimately Josh Brolin’s brilliant acting can’t make an insane character with an insane plan all that interesting. There’s just not enough scenes establishing why his character is the way he is. There isn’t even a scene to establish why all the Asgardians are important to Thor. Later, it has to be explained in a weird scene with Starlord. It worked for me, but only because I had seen all the previous movies.
Ultimately, this is all just a huge set up for the final Avengers movie and the upcoming movies in between. Antman and the Wasp are out of the Infinity War, but Captain Marvel will be a direct tie-in, which then leads back into Avengers 4 next year. The Venom and Spiderman movies won’t connect, although the Venom and Spiderman movies may eventually do so. It remains to be seen.
My advice, fanboys, is that if you’re not a fanboy— See all the Marvel Movies first before you see this. Then it will be fun. Otherwise, you will probably be lost. Another massive plus of this movie is that it is over 2 and a half hours long, but it moved pretty fast. There is an important after credit sequence that leads into the next Marvel Movie.
I give Avengers: Infinity War 7 out of 10 keggers.
