Review of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) by 43In2014 — 26 Apr 2018

The short review: The character and story development are inadequate, many fights scenes felt like nothing new, and the plot felt predictable, but there is enough comedy, anticipation and suspense to make this a good but not great film.

Related media: I have seen all the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, so this review is based on knowing what had happened before.

What's it like?: Something happened before the film starts that makes Thanos and his henchmen decides it is finally time to take matters into their own hands to assemble the Infinity Stones themselves. So they move from one location to the next, fighting and killing the current holders of the stones. Will he succeed?

Post-credit scene: One at the very end but it’s a must-see.

Negatives: 1) A major irritation with this film is the slow pacing, sometimes caused by too much pondering and exposition. Thanos’s destruction of one character/location after another has made the mood gloomy, but when the story transitions to another location, it takes too long for the next thing to happen. 2) The film suffers from what critics have been warning for a long time – too many major characters in one film. Marvel was able to avoid the failures of DC Comics with Suicide Squad and Justice League, and in fact had major successes with Avengers 1 and 2 and Captain America: Civil War, but I think Marvel has reached a tipping point with this film. With so many characters, they could not spend more time with each character and cover character developments other than moving from one fight to the next. 3) (Cont’d) An example of this is the fight between Iron Man and a villain. It degenerates into the usual thing of Iron Man shooting lasers and missiles, while being thrown about and smacked with objects. There is nothing new! It becomes another throwaway skirmish, of which there are many in this film.

4) A real problem with any story where the villain is trying to gather a number of powerful objects, which upon completion would render him/her invincible is, where the story goes from there onwards. This problem is made worse here as Thanos becomes more powerful as he acquires each Infinity Stone, rather than needing to collect them all before getting any power from each stone. This principle makes it ever easier for him to acquire each succeeding stone, such that it is guaranteed that he would complete his task. I am really worried as to how the story writers are going to fix this in Avengers 4.

5) There are some opportunities to stop Thanos somewhere in the film but they are wasted because of the stupidity and selfishness of some characters. Some character(s) even surrendered the stones. I think these situations were there just to milk out some drama but they were not well done.

6) The massive attack on Wakanda with Thanos’s army – it’s in the trailer – does not make sense, considering that prior attempts to acquire the stones had only involved a few super-villains but were executed very expertly. It smacks of a cheap attempt to insert a major battle into the film just to satisfy the fans, when it wasn’t necessary at all.

7) The scenes where the heroes who do not know each other meet up for the first time, was not done well. It seemed like the heroes trusted the other side and become friends too easily.

8) Thor and Peter Quill had developed greater powers in recent films, but neither of them used these powers here. Disappointing.

9) Thor remains insecure about not having a hammer and goes to get a new one. The entire sub-plot on this venture felt contrived and felt like an attempt to show a MacGuffin.

10) The strange ending was another gloomy scene. The audiences in the same theatre as me, felt drained, depressed and confused when the lights were turned on. Hang on! This could be just what the directors intended, which would make this a positive!

11) Overall, the story felt predictable and this points to the linear and average story-writing. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 felt the same, but Thor and Civil War were surprising.

Positives: 1) Despite this film being rather gloomy, there were still many funny moments, something that almost all of the DC Comics films never managed. 2) The film did try to cover the backstory of Thanos, which I wasn’t expecting. Film critics cannot thus argue that this film did not have any character development.

3) The beginning of the film had some of our heroes losing continuously and badly to Thanos and his henchmen. When our heroes won decisively for the first time, it felt really great!

How would the different age groups rate it?

Children: Excellent;.

Teens: Excellent;.

Young adults: Good; Medium age adults: Good; Old adults: Average; Rating: 4/5 (no half scores). Pay to watch it in the cinema.