Avengers Infinity War

It’s finally here. Avengers: Infinity War has arrived on our larger than large screens as all of the MCU universe come together, nay assemble, for another outing.

The big hunk-a-CGI that is Thanos, Josh Brolin (Sicario, Avengers: Age Of Ultron) in there somewhere, is on a mission to collect all of the Infinity Stones and store them on his gauntlet so that, it turns out, he may wipe out half the universe. Though he’s doing it for noble reasons, of course.

He’s joined on his task by Proxima Midnight, Carrie Coon (The Post, Fargo (TV)), Ebony Maw, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Love/Hate (TV), Maze) and Corvus Glaive, Michael James Shaw (Limitless (TV), Constantine (TV)). Together, or individually sometimes, they seek the stones and whoever holds them.

This, invariably, brings them to Earth to grab Dr Strange’s, Benedict Cumberbatch (Thor: Ragnarok, Doctor Strange), stone. Travel to Knowhere to find The Collector, Benicio Del Torro (Sicario, Star Wars The Last Jedi) and his stone and so on and so forth.

Each time the story picks up some characters from the MCU universe including: Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Bruce Banner, Bucky, The Guardian’s of the Galaxy, Vision, Nebula, Spider-Man, Thor, Loki, Helmdall, Black Panther etc.

Together, they travel to Wakanda to tackle the larger-than-life Thanos and his minions and also to try and get Vision’s Infinity Stone out of his head.

This is where the mother of all mahoosive battles must take place. Can the extended Avengers stop Thanos in his tracks? Or will he manage to collect all the stones?

Avengers: Infinity War looks stunning. In IMAX 3D it’s a visual marvel (pun intended). The quality is probably the best I’ve seen with no expense spared on the CGI, of which there is a lot.

The story is laugh-out-loud funny when it needs to be and is poignant when required too. Everyone has their moment, mostly a fighting one, whilst it’s Thanos who hogs the screen, literally and figuratively.

Thor and Hulk, where our story begins, picking up from the excellent Thor: Ragnarok, are perhaps the two characters with the biggest character development. It’s fair to say most others aren’t explored in this way.

But that’s ok, for the most part, for that’s not what Avengers: Infinity War is about. Clue’s in the title. It’s war. Big, CGI heavy, get everyone on screen together and kick-ass, war.

From space fights involving The Guardian’s, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, to Earth battles with Vision and Scarlet Witch. They’re all here and all leading up to the big, looks-a-bit-like-Lord-Of-The-Rings-at-times, fight at Wakanda.

Brolin is good as Thanos, a man who believes he’s doing what he’s doing for the right reasons, reasons that no-one else can see or understand and who is willing to sacrifice everything for it.

I’m not going to go through every character individually but they all perform admirably. Even the ones that don’t make it for the full two-hours and 29 minutes. Yes, that’s right, not everyone lives and, whatever your thinking right now, the film is all the better for it.

Are there downsides? If you haven’t seen a lot of the other MCU universe films you may be scratching your head, but then your probably not queuing up to watch this anyway.

Thor doesn’t quite have the same snappiness, the same comedic turn we got from Waititi’s Ragnarok and The Guardian’s don’t quite feel the same either. Drax getting little to do and Rocket, well, just not quite Rocket IMO.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had a big task ahead of them. Bringing so many characters to the big screen whilst introducing a couple of new people. They have done so more than admirably and set things up for the sequel and the stories in between. War has never looked so good.