Massive Thrills but Little Hope (Avengers: Infinity War review)

The worst has happened. I didn’t love Avengers: Infinity War as much as I had hoped. Having avoided all trailers, I went in blind, and while it was still a fantastically enjoyable film (that totally beats Avengers: Age of Ultron), it had some flaws aswell.

First off, it must be said that the action sequences and special effects in this film are phenomenal. As is to be expected with Marvel films, it is also colourful, full of humour and the cast are all brilliant. Josh Brolin deserves the majority of the praise, for it is his character Thanos that leads the story. Thanos weaves in and out of different worlds, meeting the various Avengers as they try and stop him gathering six ‘Infinity Stones’ that will grant him total control and power over the universe.

The film does a fantastic balancing act of introducing and cutting between all the various characters, and most of the humour comes from the various groups’ first interactions. Every character gets their own brilliant introduction, whether it gives you chills like Captain America’s intro, or makes you laugh with the Guardians introduction. Accompanying the humour are several very touching moments, and I will admit that I did cry a bit due to the overwhelming emotion of one scene.

However, I also felt the film’s playful nature hid the fact that the film totally lacks any hope, and while I know that this is just the first of a two-part story, the ending was so abrupt and bleak that I have no idea how they could possibly wrap up the story. I felt that while celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the MCU, the film actually deviated from the MCU’s tone too much. There was no music over the logos, the end credit sequence was not a fun, quirkily designed one as is usually the case; instead the names just popped up one by one. This films tone is bleak and much darker than the other Avengers films, and while that might not be a bad thing, it was certainly a surprise to see such a deviation. It has to be said though that while this bleakness is a surprise, I have a lot of respect for Marvel for creating a film that was totally unexpected and different from anything we’ve seen before. I do have more quarrels with the film, but that would involve discussing plot spoilers so I shan’t reveal them here. I’m not sure what is was but upon leaving the cinema I just felt that despite being crammed with everything, this film was missing something.

With all being said, I am very excited (though now anxious) to see how this apocalyptic story is wrapped up. My opinions on this film may in fact be changed once I have seen how the events are resolved. I just fear that while celebrating the 10^th Anniversary of the MCU, this film has begun to signal the end.