Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - Review

The phrase "I'm shook" springs to mind.

Ten years after Marvel Studios released their first independent motion picture 'Iron Man', the studio brings together (almost) all of their superhero characters into one enormous event film - 'Avengers: Infinity War'. Bursting at the seams with characters, ongoing arcs and a narrative sprawling across space, can the team behind 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' and 'Captain America: Civil War' pull it off?

Short answer: no, of course they can't. But they do a pretty great job trying.

'Avengers: Infinity War' is a film perhaps lacking in character development all round, so much so that many characters feel like special guest stars in a film focused on bringing everything together. If there is a main character here, it's Thanos - played via motion-capture by Josh Brolin - on his journey to find all of the Infinity stones. The Russo brothers have compared this to a heist film, although I don't think that's entirely accurate. It's more of a quest film in a sense - just that the big quest is being undertaken by the film's antagonist. Thanos is the most imposing villain even before he starts amassing the Infinity stones in his gauntlet. He's a looming presence throughout the film, even if Brolin doesn't quite command the screen in the same way as other super-villains have. Instead, he decides to under-play the character, giving him a more subdued screen presence. It's an interesting choice for the character, but results in some wonderful character moments throughout the film.

Despite the distinct lack of character development overall (did Black Widow say any more than 2 or 3 lines in the whole thing?), the characters have all arrived fully-formed, meaning that there's great satisfaction to be had when T'Challa and Okoye lead their army to greet M'Baku and the Jabari, as their two armies come together to face off against this virtually unstoppable threat. It's a film in which the characters have already been developed for the most part, allowing us to just see everything come together in a big fireworks extravaganza.

Because, ultimately, 'Avengers: Infinity War' is a big action spectacle - stop Thanos before he collects all of the Infinity stones - and the Russo brothers certainly deliver. Whether it be Iron Man's nano-tech suit forming different energy weapons, Spider-Man swinging his way around, the Hulkbuster charging through hordes of aliens, Black Widow hitting things with her staff, Thor channeling his lightning, Doctor Strange doing...whatever he was doing in some scenes, as well as Steve Rogers mustering all his strength as Thanos bears down on him. The action sequences are terrific, exhilarating and creatively utilise each character's power-set, but when Thanos comes on screen, it's something else entirely.

The film certainly fulfills its promise of spectacle with it's $350 million (ish) budget, with some terrific set-pieces throughout. Hulk and Thanos both look pretty top-notch as far as motion-capture goes, as does a Hulk-esque henchman of Thanos'. Iron Man Mark [something] and Iron Spider look pretty solid, although the lack of on-set costumes does mean that neither look as good as when the actors have worn on-set costumes in the past. Thanos' henchmen though look quite rough for the most part though - surprising given that they built life-size models of each of them. They don't integrate into their respective scenes as well as they could have, and their odd movements can look a little distracting sometimes. Compare them to Vision, who despite many CGI additions still really looks like he's actually there on-set. But all said, the weaker CG is fine by 2018 standards, and looks far better than...pretty much anything in 'Justice League', or Ares in 'Wonder Woman'. The colour grading still isn't quite there, but they've really tried to push the colour palette in this film on the whole. The scenes in New York look far too grey and washed-out for my liking, but it works fairly well in context.

Alan Silvestri returns to score 'Infinity War' several years after 'Captain America: The First Avenger' and 'Marvel's Avengers Assemble', and he contributes his classic film-scoring style into the mix. He's clearly quite proud of his Avengers theme, as that's the only reprisal in his original score. There's no hint of Tyler Bates' Guardians of the Galaxy theme, nothing of any of the Thor themes, and Doctor Strange only gets a little musical motif in one scene. Some of Ludwig Goransson's Wakanda theme is utilised in one scene, but when the action's in Wakanda, otherwise the score doesn't incorporate elements of Goransson's unique score. Silvestri is a legendary composer, and gives the film his signature orchestral sound, but its one I feel a little disappointed in. He conveys mood, but aside from his reprisal of the Avengers theme, he doesn't create anything memorable. Thanos doesn't seem to have a main theme, which is quite disappointing. Even the Avengers theme remains unchanged from 'Marvel's Avengers Assemble', completely ignoring Danny Elfman's re-arrangement in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'. A film score may seem small and meaningless, but when executed with creative flair can result in something truly spectacular. Silvestri's 'Infinity War' score is pretty good, but it's not as great as I feel it could've been. That said, his score helps add to the ending of the film.

Overall, 'Avengers: Infinity War' is a noticeably imperfect thrill-ride of an action blockbuster. It may be overwhelming to some people who haven't been keeping up with the Marvel flicks so far, but it's a definite crowd-pleaser for the first two hours and twenty minutes. Then for the final ten minutes the film takes a definite turn, leaving the stage in a very different place for when the fourth Avengers film releases next year. The film may be over-stuffed with characters, but as the first installment in a two-part Avengers event film, there's certainly room for characters overlooked in this entry to take center-stage in the next one. As the next installment in the saga though, 'Avengers: Infinity War' is a very satisfying entry into the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, and one that'll almost certainly leave you stunned by the end. 8/10

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