Avengers Infinity War – A review

At long last I have caught up with the masses and seen Infinity War and what a spectacle it was, I was obviously coming into the film knowing some of the plot, non-one on Earth could have avoided the key plot points after all this time.

The film had a bewildering array of superheros and nearly every scene had me spotting someone new or explaining who they were to my parents. I have yet to see all the Marvel films, I have covered the main ones and made sure I had Thor Ragnarok under the belt before I went for Infinity War. As it stood I was lacking only Black Panther, Dr Strange and Spiderman Homecoming and the film has made it certain I will catch them up pretty soon. Spiderman and Dr Strange were integral to the plot and a good chunk was set in Wakanda.

Thanos was an interesting villain, clearly mad but with a philosophy that kind of made sense in a perverted way. Josh Brolin played him with a sad sobriety and melancholy with a core of cold hard steel. Thanos’ henchman were nearly the most interesting parts of the film, especially the Maw who exuded malice.

It was hard to squeeze all the superheros into the film and no scene went past with out a piece of action or key life changing moment. The Hulk, Iron Man and Thor had large amounts of screen-time  but other Avengers like Captain America of Black Widow had precious little and Hawkeye was obvious by his absence.

The heroes on Earth were integrated well with the heroes from space and an interesting dynamic was created by mixing up the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. Particularly enjoyable interaction was between Thor, Rocket and Groot.

The fight scenes were amazing and much less distracting than those in the first few Avengers films which overwhelmed the viewer. They were better paced and allowed the heroes to show off their skills.

There were  several key deaths in the film and these were not thrown away, each one had meaning and depth something which may be overturned in the next movies but carried impact in this one. In many ways the film is one big set up for the next one. The film ended on a cliffhanger unusually on a failure rather than a success and it definitely left the audience wanting more.

So we wait with baited breath for the finale of Marvel Universe Phase 1 they have much to do and a lot to supersede if the next instalment is to beat the last, fingers crossed it will.