Love It or Hate It, 'Avengers: Infinity War' is the Ultimate Marvel Experience

(Marvel Studios)

10 years and 18 movies have been leading to this. Well, maybe more like 11 years and 21 movies will have been leading to the still-untitled fourth Avengers movie dropping next May. Whatever the case, Avengers: Infinity War has arrived, a colossal event film with perhaps the largest ensemble cast in motion picture history.

For better or worse, Marvel Studios has changed Hollywood. Every studio now scrambles to recreate their winning shared-universe formula. None have succeeded. Call it a carefully executed plan, call it lightning in a bottle, call it a fluke, it makes no difference. Infinity War is the ultimate culmination that—depending on whether you love this franchise or loathe it—will either delight or bore.

This isn’t just the apotheosis of recurring story threads, it’s every aspect of Marvel’s identity crammed into one film. The hilarious back-and-forth banter, the bright neon colors, the team-ups, the applause-worthy heroic beats, the McGuffins? All here. You should already know going in if this movie was made for you.

Without divulging anything beyond what has been revealed by the (very smart) marketing, Infinity War sees purple-faced giant Thanos (Josh Brolin) on his quest to gather all six Infinity Stones and assemble the Infinity Gauntlet. His goal? Wipe out half the universe to maintain balance. Enter the Avengers, throw in a few Guardians of the Galaxy, friendly neighborhood Spider-Men, and Sorcerer Supremes, and you have yourself a movie.

But is it really a movie? The episodic nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the supposed finality of this particular entry means that, more so than ever before, it is completely dependent on the viewer having seen its predecessors. With so many characters, there’s no time for introductions, no reminders of where we last saw certain players, and no handholding for the uninitiated. On the one hand, Infinity War breaks a lot conventional rules of filmmaking (structurally, it’s entirely rising action). On the other hand, there’s something special about the fact that Marvel can pull it off. I could never endorse this as the new norm, but for what it’s worth, there’s an experimental quality to it that’s commendable.

What problems Infinity War has stem from its enormity. The more characters you add to an ensemble, the thinner you stretch it. The solution is to introduce a hierarchy: main characters, supporting characters, and objectified characters. That’s tough when you’re dealing with a cast this great, with characters already established and beloved. It will likely come as a surprise which heroes are given major roles here and which ones merely throw a few punches and crack a one-liner or two.

Infinity War unfolds into three concurrent sections: two set in the cosmos and one on Earth. The latter is by far the weakest, with limited emotional stakes and surprisingly less screen time. The other two benefit from exciting new character pairings. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) steal the show but the butting of egos between Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is also quite amusing.

(Marvel Studios)

And then there’s Thanos. After being teased with the mid-credits scene in The Avengers and a foreboding presence in Guardians of the Galaxy, the Mad Titan makes quite the impression here. In fact, he’s the strongest character in the entire film. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo had teased that Infinity War would be Thanos’s movie, and while I was reluctant to believe that claim, it is very much the case. One would think that a large CGI alien such as him would be treated as a one-dimensional, evil-for-the-sake-of-evil kind of villain. Instead, Thanos is given clear, almost commendable motivation and an emotional arc larger than that of any of the heroes. Brolin does a magnificent job creating a villain who is at once intimidating and empathetic.

Infinity War is filled to the brim with action sequences, and while their frequency and length border on exhausting, the Russo brothers do a good job of keeping them creative and engaging. The largest has the same epic scope found in the Lord of the Rings films but the standouts take advantage of the numerous heroes’ unique abilities. All of it is visualized with the same radiant oranges, purples, and blues found in Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy and some stunning digital backdrops that makes the action pop (the CGI is mostly strong given its abundance, but some of scenes in Wakanda falter).

Your mileage with Infinity War will depend entirely on your love for this series. This is a film made for the most dedicated and the Marvel fan inside me had a mostly terrific experience. There are plenty of in-jokes, several chill-inducing moments, and one surprise cameo that made me audibly gasp. Finally, without revealing anything, the film’s conclusion will have people talking for the next year. It’s a surreal and seemingly gutsy development executed with cathartic precision—I reveled at the cries of disbelief at both of the screenings I attended. More importantly, it feels right for this story and I’m interested to see how the concluding chapter will expand upon it.

Infinity War doesn’t quite pull off its ambitious narrative with the same fidelity as the Russo brothers’ previous two efforts, but a few rough edges don’t prevent it from being an intense, crowd-pleasing, and emotionally-charged superhero event.