Why did the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin – W., Sicario) need to grab hold of the power of the six Infinity Stones to destroy the universe? I think it’s important to understand what causes a villain to do certain actions rather than just to have a bad guy. The stronger the villain’s arc and the more we sympathize with them on any level, the more we understand and appreciate the underlying of who they are. In Avengers: Infinity War (directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo), we have a powerful bad guy motivated by a tortured past and willing to destroy all the good guys in the universe to atone for it. After the planet Titan is no longer inhabited, he is not allowed to prevent things from destroying it; he thinks he will prevent it. Instead, he lost his planet and everyone on it. Vowing not to let something like that happen again, he makes it his mission to balance the universe by completely wiping out half of it. But to do so, he’ll need all six of the Infinity Stones that will power his Infinity Gauntlet, allowing him to bend time, space, energy, and the laws of physics and reality.

A layman’s version of what happened is that Thanos needs these six stones to become completely unstoppable. So the Avengers, The Black Panther crew, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, some of the X-Men stable, and a host of others in the Marvel Universe will need to come together to prevent him from gaining access to these six stones, which are scattered all over the universe. Is this a good enough premise to get all of these superpowers together? I would think so.

As I often say with most of my superhero movie reviews, what I write will not influence whether you see the movie. There are so many other factors involved with superhero movies that by the time you get here, it’s more of a confirmation of your decision than anything. So, this review will save you time getting to the point. This is a superhero movie that fans of the Marvel Universe should see. Even if it wasn’t a great movie (which it is), it’s a movie that you have to see if you’ve made it this far in the neverending saga. It’s the best of the three Avenger movies thus far (Marvel’s The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron being the first two in the series that unites all these superheroes for the first time). The first two did a little for me. They were a little too goofy. There wasn’t a serious enough threat that you didn’t think all these good guys couldn’t overcome. Loki? Seriously? Thor alone almost handled his evil brother. The joy was more seeing these characters who led their franchises battling for screentime and jokes. The first two movies didn’t do it for me.

Now, Captain America: Civil War that’s a different story. That was a great movie. That movie divided these superheroes and pitted them against one another when they couldn’t agree on an important issue. Captain America: Civil War is a top 5 superhero movie, and with the exception of the original Iron Man and maybe Logan, it is the best movie that Marvel has produced to date. However, Avengers: Infinity War isn’t so far behind that it should avoid mention in the same conversation. Sure, it was a complete lead-up to Avengers: Endgame, but it could still differentiate itself as a standalone.

Meanwhile, Vision (Paul Bettany – A Beautiful Mind, Logan) is led by Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans – Snowpiercer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) to Wakanda where Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman – Black Panther, 42) and others can extract the Mind Stone before Thanos can get to it. So here is where we get our mix of The Avengers, the people of Wakanda, and characters from X-Men in the same scene.

We also get scenes with Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie – Triple 9, The Hurt Locker), James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle – Traffic, Traitor), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan – I, Tonya, Destroyer), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow Scarlett Johansson (Match Point, Lost in Translation), and a whole host of other characters. Every leading superhero has been introduced in a film thus far, with the exception of Ant-Man and Hawkeye.

I recommend Avengers: Infinity War, and I will watch it again before seeing Avengers: End Game. The ability to interweave ALL of these characters and have them all serve some sort of purpose rather than appear was a strong suit. The fight sequences were excellent. A solid score helped backdrop the fight scenes and the movie as a whole. You’d expect some excellent CGI with big-budget movies, and this film doesn’t disappoint.

But above all, Avengers: Infinity War was more serious in tone than so many of the other Marvel predecessors. Sure, there was still some witty banter, especially in the beginning between Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy. I wouldn’t say it went all dark in tone like a DC Comics movie, but you’d expect a more earnest tone among the leads with a significant storyline. And that is what you got with this all-out action film, which ranks right at the top among any superhero films ever made.

Plot 9/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 9/10
Directing 10/10
Cinematography 9.5/10
Sound 9.5/10
Hook and Reel 9.5/10
Universal Relevance 9/10
91.5%

B+

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Logan
• Avengers: End Game
• Iron Man
• Captain America
• Captain America: Civil War