Time: 149 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange
Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes/War Machine
Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther
Paul Bettany as Vision
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/White Wolf
Tom Hiddleston as Loki
Idris Elba as Heimdall
Peter Dinklage as Eitri the Dwarf King
Benedict Wong as Wong
Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord
Pom Klementieff as Mantis
Karen Gillan as Nebula
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
Zoe Saldana as Gamora
Vin Diesel as Groot
Bradley Cooper as Rocket
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan/The Collector
Josh Brolin as Thanos
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

For a while, Avengers: Infinity War had firmly placed itself as my favourite film within the MCU. I wouldn’t say that it’s my favourite anymore, but it still does rank amongst the best movies in the franchise.

The Avengers’ biggest task was bringing these characters established in separate movies together for a team up and for it to work. Infinity War has to weave together and juggle so many more characters in separate storylines and locations together into one big movie. It was an ambitious task, but they pulled it off. I enjoyed the character dynamics between the groups of characters who are sharing screentime for the first time in the MCU like Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man with most of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the interactions between the characters felt natural. Iron Man, Spider Man, Doctor Strange and Thor get the most to do here, and they were the highlights for me. Most of the other characters are streamlined, even major MCU players like Captain America get a backseat, but that’s to be expected. There’s only a few characters who I would say are actually mishandled, that being Paul Bettany’s Vision and Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner/Hulk. It jumps between multiple plot threads and characters across its 2.5 hour runtime and manages to be engaging throughout and keeps up the pace well, while allowing some character moments. The humour is hit or miss as per usual with most MCU movies. Some of the jokes were funny, other jokes kind of missed, but generally they didn’t deflate the intended emotion. In fact, Infinity War remains committed to its more emotional and dramatic aspects. This of course includes the ending, in which Thanos succeeds in his goal to collect all the Infinity stones and erase half of the universe. While they undo that in the next movie with most of the prominent dead characters returning (even non-dusted characters like Loki, Gamora and Vision have found ways to return), it’s bold that they actually did this. It straight up ends with the Avengers losing and Thanos winning, with the only bit of hope being the Captain Marvel tease in the credits. I remember at the time feeling that much of the quality of Infinity War would be dependent on how Endgame paid everything off, as it seemed to be a Part 1. But thinking about it, Infinity War really does work as its own movie separately from its follow up.

Leading up to Infinity War’s release, it was said that Josh Brolin’s Thanos is basically the main character, and that turned out to be the case. This is his movie, he’s one of the more compelling villains in the MCU with a motivation behind him, and was effectively menacing and intimidating. Perhaps the big focus on Thanos took attention away from many of the other characters, but it paid off in the long run. Of the Avengers heroes, Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange are standouts, and this is probably the best that Chris Hemsworth’s Thor has been in these movies. Generally, the cast are all good, even if some of them get more attention than others. There’s only really a couple of characters whose handling wasn’t the best. Vision is a key part of the movie with him holding the mind stone that Thanos is after, but he felt considerably depowered here (even more so than in Captain America: Civil War) and was kind of a plot device. Also, Bruce Banner/Hulk is treated as a constant joke throughout the whole movie. The one thing he has going on is that the Hulk was scared after his failed fight against Thanos at the beginning and refused to come out even when they are faced by aliens. There’s a moment in which the Hulk could’ve actually come out during the third act fight (and even concept art of that happening) which would’ve at least made this running joke worth something, but it didn’t happen. Beyond that, his role is just telling everyone about Thanos.

Generally, I liked the direction from The Russo Brothers, even if I have a lot of issues. The visuals are a mixed bag, and oddly enough it’s the action scenes on Earth that fare the worst. Early examples are the part in the city in which Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and Wong have to fight off aliens and everything looks grey, then there’s scenes in which Wanda and Vision are attacked by the other half of Thanos’s children and everything looks very dark. Some of the other settings do fare better though. The CGI can also range in quality, things like the nano tech on Iron Man don’t look that good, and when he and Spider-Man have their helmets off, Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland look like they have floating heads just stuck on the tops of their suits in front of green screen backgrounds. On the other hand, a lot of the CGI is great, the effects on Thanos are particularly impressive. The action is generally really good, in fact it has some of the most memorable action sequences in the MCU.

Despite some issues, Avengers: Infinity War pulls off most of its ambitions, and is by far the best of the Avengers movies so far.