Look, being fair here, I wasn't expecting Infinity War to be a masterpiece the way, say, "Citizen Kane" or "The Disaster Artist" were. It's a money-machine Superhero Blockbuster with a cast 30 characters strong, so I was mostly just expecting two and a half hours of mind-boggling action and over-the-top visual fare.
And yet, Infinity War manages to present a mostly coherently plotted film, where Thanos' quest for balance is at the center of the story, and all other relevant Character Arcs are caught in its immediate gravity. Thanos fully lives up to the hype and very much stars as the main character in the film, as Josh Brolin plays him with great pathos and gravitas, and his backstory and motivations are arguably ones that Real Life will someday be confronted with itself. Virtually every other character gets to take part in a memorable action scene, express themselves in poignant dialogue, or at least pull a memorable joke out of their sleeve at some point, and while there are inevitably some characters that get comparatively shafted all of them at least feel like they are being themselves. The movie does admittely bounce around between several groups of characters a bit too much in the middle part of the film, but that in itself does help underline the sense of urgency this film presents us with.
There is a fair share of good old Marvel humor in this movie, but it is mostly born in the chemistry between various characters (some of which never met), or visual jokes, rather than forcibly awkward quips as it was the case with Age of Ultron or Justice League. In the entire 2,5 hour movie there were maybe two jokes that I felt actively detracted from the film.
This humor does, however, NOT undermine the sense of darkness and gravity that the should carry with it. I've seen some people express Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy over this movie, from its Downer Beginning to its Downer Ending, but I feel that this movie should be dark, and its villain should win , as he did. Marvel Studios has been building up to this movie and character for up for a decade, and it is technically only the first in a two-part story, so really the way things played out was the only way to do this movie justice.
All in all, Infinity War is as good of a movie as it could have been, which is to say that it has brilliant acting, writing, and special effects, but its storytelling suffers under the sheer scope of this event, even if it could have been far worse.
As a cinematic viewing, however, Infinity War rises above and beyond as one of the all-time greats: Watch this movie in a theather that will likely have other MCU fans invested in these characters, and enjoy as you collectively laugh, cry, gasp, and immerse yourselves. During the very climax of the movie you could hear a pin fall in the theatre I went.
8/10 Movie, 10/10 cinematic experience.
Look, being fair here, I wasn't expecting Infinity War to be a masterpiece the way, say, "Citizen Kane" or "The Disaster Artist" were. It's a money-machine Superhero Blockbuster with a cast 30 characters strong, so I was mostly just expecting two and a half hours of mind-boggling action and over-the-top visual fare.
And yet, Infinity War manages to present a mostly coherently plotted film, where Thanos' quest for balance is at the center of the story, and all other relevant Character Arcs are caught in its immediate gravity. Thanos fully lives up to the hype and very much stars as the main character in the film, as Josh Brolin plays him with great pathos and gravitas, and his backstory and motivations are arguably ones that Real Life will someday be confronted with itself. Virtually every other character gets to take part in a memorable action scene, express themselves in poignant dialogue, or at least pull a memorable joke out of their sleeve at some point, and while there are inevitably some characters that get comparatively shafted all of them at least feel like they are being themselves. The movie does admittely bounce around between several groups of characters a bit too much in the middle part of the film, but that in itself does help underline the sense of urgency this film presents us with.
There is a fair share of good old Marvel humor in this movie, but it is mostly born in the chemistry between various characters (some of which never met), or visual jokes, rather than forcibly awkward quips as it was the case with Age of Ultron or Justice League. In the entire 2,5 hour movie there were maybe two jokes that I felt actively detracted from the film.
This humor does, however, NOT undermine the sense of darkness and gravity that the should carry with it. I've seen some people express Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy over this movie, from its Downer Beginning to its Downer Ending, but I feel that this movie should be dark, and its villain should win , as he did. Marvel Studios has been building up to this movie and character for up for a decade, and it is technically only the first in a two-part story, so really the way things played out was the only way to do this movie justice.
All in all, Infinity War is as good of a movie as it could have been, which is to say that it has brilliant acting, writing, and special effects, but its storytelling suffers under the sheer scope of this event, even if it could have been far worse. As a cinematic viewing, however, Infinity War rises above and beyond as one of the all-time greats: Watch this movie in a theather that will likely have other MCU fans invested in these characters, and enjoy as you collectively laugh, cry, gasp, and immerse yourselves. During the very climax of the movie you could hear a pin fall in the theatre I went.