Avengers: Infinity War review (spoiler free)

Avengers: Infinity War is a movie ten years in the making (or six years if you’re starting with the first glimpse of Thanos). There is so much going on in this movie, it’s hard to know where to start. (Note: this will be a spoiler-free review).

Let’s start with the Mad Titan himself. I said in my post on Captain America: Civil War that Thanos could make or break this movie. I am happy to report that Thanos most certainly makes this movie. He is definitely among the best of Marvel’s rogues gallery, perhaps at the top of the list. Josh Brolin brought the Mad Titan to life revealing just how threatening he is within the first moments of the film. The “I want to kill 50% of the population” plot could have been really cheesy but Thanos’ motivation was chillingly understandable.

The Russo brothers had the unenviable task of balancing more than 20 heroes and numerous side characters from the previous films and I don’t think they could have done better. Each character gets a moment to shine and the movie is chockfull of the humor that Marvel movies are known for.

Clocking in at just over 2.5 hours, this movie is long. But with so much to do and so many characters involved, having it much shorter would have not done the story justice.

Avengers: Infinity War is great but not without its flaws. An ever-growing criticism of big, CG-heavy movies like this one is that there are more than a few times when the CG effects look bad and this movie has the same problem. Much of the effects are great but when the CG is jarring enough to take you out of the movie, it needs a little more work.

My other big criticism is actually with the marketing. When this movie was first announced it was announced as a two-parter. Avengers 3 was Infinity War part one and Avengers 4 was Infinity War part two. Then a few years later Marvel dropped the “part one and two” and told us it would only be one movie. Here might be the closest I come to giving a spoiler but this movie ends on a cliff hanger. Avengers 4 will indeed be part two and it annoys me that Marvel tried to convince us otherwise.

That said, if the next Avengers movie is anything like this one, these two movies will be at the top of many peoples’ favorites list.

My last criticism is wondering how we’re suppose to go from this movie which is by far the darkest and most somber MCU movie to one involving a giant Hello Kitty Pez dispenser in just a couple of months. The shift in tone from Infinity War to Ant-Man and the Wasp is sure to be jarring.

I’d like to go deeper with the review but that would require spoilers so maybe I’ll do a follow up post in a couple of weeks. Until then, what were your first impressions of Avengers: Infinity War?