**Spoiler-heavy review!!!**
Avengers: Infinity War was one of the most intense movies I’ve seen in a long while! It was a great watch, but despite all the action going on it definitely has its flaws.
The plot revolves around the antagonist Thanos who searches the cosmos for six “Infinity Stones,” powerful gems that each represent a different part of the universe (space, time, reality, mind, power, soul). When all six are obtained, one basically controls all elements of the universe gaining the power of omnipotence. Thanos’s motives with this power are essentially to bring stability to the universe by deleting half of its lives. And “with the snap of his fingers,” Thanos can make anyone disappear.
Practically every superhero gets brought into this movie to stop this menace. Despite that, there frankly isn’t much character development throughout the movie. The main except is Thanos himself, which comes naturally given his presence in the movie; his insecurities open up as the movie goes on, showing the reasoning for his motives, most notably in Vormir. Even then, it felt like Thanos’s design and personality was a bit rushed, not going as in-depth as other antagonists, for example comparing to Black Panther‘s Killmonger, whom despite being the antagonist we can even empathize with due to how the movies introduces his backstory.
There are just so many characters to follow that with the way the script is written, there simply isn’t enough time or space to give a character any form of development. Instead, the writers seem to rely on the characters’ respective movies prior, which isn’t a bad call per se. In fact, assuming we’ve seen at least one of each character’s movie, that buildup is what keeps Infinity War consistently intense in the midst of the constant action, as we can’t help but have some kind of emotional attachment to all of them from the start.
For those who haven’t seen all the movies prior to Infinity War however, things can be confusing. It’s understandable that Avengers is meant to be a sequel to all these movies, but at the same time expecting everyone to have seen over a dozen movies creates a bit of a barrier. It would have been nice if the writers figured out a way to enhance, instead of require, watching previous movies. Some characters in Infinity War are simply never properly introduced because of this assumption, for example Red Skull in Vormir or M’Baku in Wakanda. Infinity War was evidently not designed to be a stand-alone movie, but spending a quick half-minute of an introduction would have done wonders to help Infinity War work as so without much sacrifice. But without neither an introduction nor much development within this movie, they’re left to be forgotten despite their status in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).
With this lack of character development, I feel like in the end of the movie with everybody disintegrating, there wasn’t much emotional attachment to what was happening. In addition, with so many of them disappearing, a body’s just a body, again despite their status in the MCU. We also know that there will be a sequel to this movie (it explicitly states so in the credits), and given how the Infinity Stones work, we shouldn’t be surprised to see any of them return. We’re not sad with everybody disappearing. We’re mad that Thanos wins, yet there’s no life lesson to learn from it all. Teamwork and morals sometimes just won’t cut it.
One superhero they got right however is Bruce Banner: after his unsuccessful fight against Thanos in the beginning, the Hulk loses the confidence to transform, even against enemies lesser than Thanos, never appearing ever again in the movie. It’s especially noteworthy that the Hulk is known to be something that needed to be restrained, but not this time. You don’t have to be a die-hard fan of the Marvel series to know that, but if you didn’t, you don’t miss much. Because of Bruce Banner’s inability to transform, we see how he figures out how to contribute to fights without the Hulk (notably through an Iron Man suit). Not only is he a character any viewer can understand from the beginning, but he also develops throughout the movie a fair amount. This is what I wish I saw for everyone else.
Why isn’t there much character development otherwise? There’s just so much going on. There’s frankly too many characters to juggle, so many scenes to cover. The nature of the movie simply sets up for its flaws.
However! Given everything the writers were working with, they still did an excellent work on this film. In a way this movie is an inverse of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, where instead of the good guy searching for the seven Horcruxes and bypassing all the obstacles, the bad guy is searching for the six Infinity Stones and the good guys are trying to stop him. And they both succeed in similar ways: the plot is fairly easy to follow despite the chaos, as it is naturally partitioned through the collectibles. Each collectible is essentially its own chapter filled with excitement and intensity. (I mostly use this analogy because Squidward Ebony Maw reminded me of Voldemort, heh.)
Secondly, the way multiple superheroes work together is creative and simply fantastic. The way Thanos uses each newly obtained power is similarly imaginative in fun ways. Both uses of creativity constantly keep the viewers on their toes; it really can’t be beat. Thanos calling down a meteor shower? Using Groot as a handle for Thor’s hammer? Fantastic.
Most importantly, the way the writers set up the antagonist to actually win? Ambitious, and worth the risk in my opinion. Everybody on social media is mad because a movie finally decided to let the darkness take over, and it’s done so well that Thanos winning actually makes sense – almost too much sense. People are angry over this, but they’re not angry because it’s a bad decision. They’re angry because the movie was well written, because we were so invested in having the Avengers win, as all superheroes do. They’re angry that the writers broke the status quo so well. No other movie has ended as devastating as Infinity War has.
Comparing the pros against the cons: Is Infinity War worth watching? Definitely! Ambitious: By far. Best movie of all time? Not quite. It’s still a unique experience worth going through, but it’ll take some time until a movie figures out how to perfect this formula. For now, we’ll definitely enjoy the ride.
Kevin Who 