Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo

Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely

(Spoiler warning: if you somehow still have not seen last year’s Infinity War, I will be talking candidly about all of its major plot twists here)

Avengers: Infinity War is a difficult movie to review in a retrospective. So much of what defines it is immediate and experiential, about how you felt in the moment when you saw it. Most people say that truly great art holds up to any number of repeat viewings, and on that front IW surely falls short, but there are very few theatrical viewing experiences in the history of film that can compare to what Marvel pulled off with this film, and that absolutely deserves recognition, even if some of the cracks are more visible with the benefit of a full year of hindsight in which to rewatch, analyze, and evaluate. Ostensibly the first half of a two-part finale to the entire experiment of the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movie unites almost every major character from all Marvel movies over the past decade into a gigantic climactic battle with the fate of the entire universe hanging in the balance. The Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and even most of the one-off heroes all have a part to play in the grand conflict. Friendships will be tested, alliances will be formed, and the heroes that fans have come to love over a decade of film will live and die. The antagonist that ignites all of this conflict is Thanos (Josh Brolin), the Mad Titan, a man hell-bent on a mission of genocide, and filled with a profound sense of the righteousness of his quest. He wants to kill half the universe to save the other half from scarcity and depredation, and all he has to do is unite the six Infinity Stones to do it. It’s a quest that will take him across the entire galaxy, but will bring him inexorably towards Earth and a conflict with Earth’s mightiest heroes. The film is truly an epic in almost every sense of the word, with all of the problems and benefits that such a scale implies.

For any movie this size, one of the primary issues for any reviewer is how well it works mechanically. This movie has right at thirty named characters, each with some role to fulfill in the greater overall plot. With that many plots and subplots, many films would simply fall into disarray and incomprehensibility. This movie holds up even on repeat viewings from a mechanical standpoint. The action is clear and easy to follow, and the balancing act between the competing storylines is carried off, for the most part. There is certainly some fatigue on repeat viewings; there’s just so much movie here, and it can be exhausting to get through all of it, regardless of how efficiently it’s made. Certainly not all of the characters are evenly balanced in the final cut, but that’s probably necessary to keep the film to any kind of reasonable length. Captain America in particular is shortchanged in terms of screen time and actual things to do in the plot, but one assumes that is largely because he’s being saved for the next movie. Still, that doesn’t fix his relative dearth of material here, and it’s definitely noticeable. While I really like the Thor subplot and the emotional journey that he has to go on as a character, some of his scenes are a bit overlong and don’t really help with the pacing (primarily when he’s working on Nidavellir and receiving kind of beside-the-point information dumps from Peter Dinklage). The movie is also, generally, full to the gills with content, and by the time it’s done you’re definitely ready for it to end, one way or another. In many ways, exhaustion is just part of the deal for a movie of this scope and scale. Overall, the directors and editors performed more than adequately. The movie teeters but never falls under the weight of its multiple storylines and character beats, which is an impressive accomplishment.

If the structural work is merely adequate, the character work is superlative. If nothing else, Markus and McFeely understand these characters and what makes them tick, and they provide surprisingly emotional moments for almost everyone involved in the production, as well as really fun character combos that really wouldn’t have been possible without a crossover movie like this. Just to briefly summarize, this movie’s subplots include: Rocket and Groot teaming up with Thor to build a superweapon, Iron Man and Spider-Man meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy to fight Thanos on Titan, and the Hulk finally returning to Earth to team up with Captain America and Black Panther to fight Thanos’s army. All of it is really fun, and definitely a bit fanservice-y, but the movie always feels like it’s earned the right to spend a little bit of time giving audiences things that are simply fun to see and imagine. If there’s a shortcoming, it’s the four henchmen villains, but I have trouble being too concerned over it because it’s really not what anyone came to this movie to see. One could argue that they maybe shouldn’t have been included at all, but I feel like they strike a decent balance between mooks and big villains. They have a little more personality, but not enough to get in the way of the characters we actually care about. Some also accuse the movie of being too self-satisfied, a kind of victory lap or self-celebration, but I feel that it’s constantly fun and its enjoyment is contagious. If you’re the kind of person who has enjoyed Marvel movies in the past, you’ll find something to love in this movie. If there’s a way to interpret that as a weakness, it’s that this movie has almost no value for the uninitiated. While it makes a few cursory attempts to fill in backstory, there’s just no time for it. General MCU knowledge is basically a requirement to have fun with this one. For those who are invested, though, it’s a series of moments that somehow manage to keep one-upping themselves for a solid two and a half hours.

The standout performance, though, might be Chris Hemsworth as Thor (which are words I never thought I would type). His performance is so raw, so wounded, and so desperate that I was surprised this was the same actor from the previous three Thor films. There’s a vulnerability to the God laid low, having lost his parents, his brother, his home, and his friends. He is truly reduced to nothing but his vengeance, and the scene where he comes to grips with that fact talking with Rocket is burned into my memory. I really, really don’t think he’s going to be in a good place at the start of this week’s Endgame, having failed in the one mission he had left. Ruffalo also gives a great performance, once again doing double duty as both Banner and the Hulk. Having been dealt his first real defeat at the hands of Thanos, Hulk is largely absent for the movie, but his presence is still felt through the desperation and defenselessness that Banner feels without the big green monster. And those who have read my Guardians Vol. 2 review will be unsurprised to find that my personal favorite story is that of the Guardians, in particular the Star-Lord/Gamora story. I think of all the characters I thought might die in this movie, Gamora was very near the bottom of the list. It’s a cliche, but my jaw literally hung open when it happened. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And Star-Lord’s response to the whole thing, a child trying desperately to be a man, is just heartbreaking. His attempt to fulfill his promise and kill the woman he loves results in impotent failure, and he is ultimately responsible for the defeat of the heroes’ plan on Titan as a result. Many people are (bizarrely) angry at the character for his actions, but for me it’s achingly tragic, and Chris Pratt really sells the raw pain his character is going through. And then there’s Thanos. At the heart of all of these characters there is the single best villain that Marvel has ever fielded in one of these movies. Captured with astonishing nuance and sadness by Josh Brolin, the Mad Titan imbues the entire villainous plot with a tone of melancholy and regret. Although absolutely and definitively a monster, there’s no maniacal cackling or overacting here. Just a twisted mind hell-bent on committing an act so atrocious that it should be impossible to find any sympathy for the character at all. But he pulls it off, somehow. I never pity him, but I do feel like I understand him before the credits roll. It’s the best performance by any actor portraying a villain in any of these movies, and it’s not even really a close competition. Really, though, there’s not a single character that drops the ball in terms of performance in this movie. These actors embody their characters, and I am sold on almost every character beat in this film.

And then there’s the ending. No discussion of Infinity War would be complete without addressing Thanos’s snap and the effect it had on Marvel fans. Not to diminish or negate anyone’s critical opinion on this movie, but I would argue that almost every response to this movie, positive or negative, is primarily determined by the critic’s response to this one moment. Your take on this will color your thoughts on everything that came before, and rightly so. I think one of the things that is lost in retrospect is the immediate emotional response to this moment. It’s one of the only situations I can think of in the history of film (or at least my filmgoing experience) that had this kind of immediacy to it. Although the moment has been memed and repeated into absurdity and meaninglessness by the Internet in the interceding year, I still don’t think that anything can quite capture how it felt to experience it on opening night, sat in a theater with dozens of other fans, completely unable to believe what you were seeing. The shock of that moment, regardless of later rationalizations or nitpicks, was real. Very real. No one, absolutely no one, predicted what would happen at the end of this movie. I was obsessed before release, reading fan theories, watching trailers for minute clues and hints. I read everything anyone said about this movie before release, and I didn’t read a single word predicting that Thanos would just…win. That I would sit there in the theater and watch a bunch of heroes I thought were invulnerable (for plot reasons if nothing else) die. Finding out about it in any other way is simply not the same thing, and I would argue that anyone who did missed out on a fundamental element of what made Infinity War work. Despite all of the fanservice and character development that happened before, Infinity War is defined by that moment of loss. It’s the closest thing theater has to a ‘where were you when you found out’ moment. This isn’t an argument for needing to be there opening night or anything, but there absolutely is an experiential element of the film that is totally lost if you’re merely told about the ending. It’s still surprising, but in an academic way: it becomes an interesting and bold decision that a studio made. And in many ways, that’s what it is upon a repeat viewing. That ending will never hit me as hard as it did that first night. Partially because I know it’s coming, but also because with the benefit of looking back I can think about it logically. It really is a bold direction for the studio to take, and it makes a certain kind of sense when you think about it. Many people would consider that a weakness, the movie relying upon shock value instead of actual quality, but I disagree. Even if I can never feel the same way I did when I first watched the ending, that feeling still has meaning and contributes to the quality of this film. That it was able to achieve, even once, the effect it had on me is impressive, and it’s not something that I’ll forget just because it’s diminished to some degree now.

Overall, Infinity War is a powerhouse movie, but there’s no way it was ever going to be the best movie in the entire MCU. With needing to be a prequel to Endgame, with so much place-setting that it had to do while also trying to provide satisfying moments for so many characters, it was always going to struggle. The impressive thing is how well it survives that struggle, how admirably it holds everything together. By most conventional reckonings, this movie should have been a disaster, like some kind of mash-up of all three Star Wars movies into a single runtime, but it works. I don’t care at all about people picking away at the ending because, “We know they’re not really dead; they’ve got more movie deals signed already!” (said in the most annoying voice conceivable). The fact remains that the ending was shocking, powerful, and served as an emotional punch that is almost never achieved in summer blockbuster film, period. It stands head and shoulders above most big tentpole movies, and does so even though it’s asked to do more than probably any other before it. A great movie, even with hindsight making a few of the cracks show.

Overall:

Stray Thoughts:

• -“I am Groot.” -“I am Steve Rogers.”
• -“What did it cost?” -“Everything.”
• Alright, done just quoting the movie now.
• Supposedly James Gunn consulted and had supervision over the writing of the Guardians scenes, and you can tell. Their weirdo dynamic is surprisingly intact in this movie.
• You can tell this movie is serious business because they don’t play any fun music over the Marvel icon.
• I’m definitely disappointed by how underwhelming the deaths of Loki and Heimdall were, almost a footnote to Thanos’s conquest. I hope that’s not the last we’ll hear of either character.
• The reappearance of the Red Skull, it goes without saying, was freaking wonderful. One of the most cool surprises of the movie.
• I’m not sure how I feel about Peter Dinklage playing a Dwarf, even if he is a really big dwarf. Don’t really have anything to contribute to that conversation.
• Post Credits scene: Nice tease for Captain Marvel, Nick Fury saying, “Motherf—” is funny.
• Stan Lee cameo: I like this one. It’s a little meta- (both in terms of him driving his most iconic character’s bus and in terms of his jaded line of dialogue), but it gets by on sweetness and charm.