Avengers: Infinity War movie spoiler review

Wow! What a ride that was, after 10 years of Marvel movies the Avengers have reached the climax of their stories and the mad titan Thanos has arrived to collect the infinity stones and wipe out half the galaxy. It is an ambitious movie, from an ambitious line of films, and it does not disappoint in being the gargantuan film that it poised itself to be. The movie has some issues, but many good points to match, and without further ado lets look into Avengers' newest movie.
(Spoiler warning: THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD)



It was a long time coming but the Marvel universe has reached its Thanos storyline and the beginning of the end for the first three phases of films, and the beginning of the end was as massive and spectacular as it was made out to be. From the start we are introduced to Thanos, who is easily one of the most complex characters in the movie and the best villain Marvel has given us, as he lays waste to the Asgardian refugee ship in his search for the tesseract. It is in these moments that the film lets us know what we're in for for the following two and a half hours: Thor and Hulk are easily beaten, and the first causalities of the movie come with Heimdall and Loki, the mainstays of the franchise who are picked off before you can get comfortable in your seat. Thanos line, "No resurrections," not only speaks to Loki's past deceiving, but to the audience as a whole who have come to believe that these heroes are safe from death. The opening minutes are grim, dark, and sinister and things only get worse from there on out.

The characters in the film are effectively split into three groups, the first being Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Spiderman in an amazing attack sequence from two of Thanos' Black Order, and from the interaction between these characters it is up front and clear that seeing all new heroes interact with one another for the first time will be a treat. Whether it is Stephan Strange and Stark bickering amongst one another, or Spiderman and Peter Quill talking about earth's pop culture, the characters of this universe feel natural with one another. By far the best relationships of the movie end up being the aforementioned Doctor Strange and Tony, Vision and Scarlet Witch, and Thanos with Gamora. The former is exactly how I imagined it, with the two of them basically hating one another. Vision and Wanda's relationship got much more prominence than it did in previous movies and made for one of the most emotionally resonating parts of the film. Thanos and Gamora's relationship is surprisingly a central one, and a heartbreaking one too for reasons I will get into later.

Thanos' children manage to capture Doctor Strange who has the time stone, while the other two fail at retrieving Vision thanks to a stellar entrance by Captain America. He is sadly put to the background for the majority of the film, and while I knew that characters would be not as prominent thanks to the giant cast I still hoped that Captain America would have a larger role to play; however, he is gritty and heroic while he is here. Thanos has two infinity stones already by this point (having wrecked Xandar off-screen for his first), and has the third in hand by the time the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive in the Collector's domain. We are treated to a heartful scene in which Peter is forced to pull the trigger on Gamora, but due to Thanos' possession of the reality stone the bullets appear as bubbles and Thanos leaves with his daughter who knows the location of the unfound stone.

The next death in the film came when Thanos and Gamora arrived on Virmer, the planet where the final stone is kept, and where Gamora leads him after being unable to take Nebula's torture at Thanos' hands. In a surprsing twist we are given the return of Red Skull after seven years as the keeper of the stone, and it is he who demands Thanos make a sacrifice of soemthing he loves for the stone. Gamora laughs and gloats in the face of Thanos' seeming defeat as he does not love anything...but Red Skull makes it clear that Thanos does not weep for his loss of the chance to have the stone, but that he does love something-someone-and gives her up as Thanos sacrifices Gamora. The scene was tragic, orchestrated with finite music and dealt with heartache as Thanos grieved his daughter's death and we as the audience watch Gamora lose her life. It is not a cruel act by Thanos that is dealt with malicious intent though, the villain truly grieves for what he has done and as he cradles the soul stone he appears to wonder whether it was worth it or not.

Thanos arrives on his homeworld of Titan expecting to find one of his children in possession of the time stone, but instead finds Doctor Strange ready for a fight, a fight that inlcudes Iron Man, Spiderman, and several of the Guardians of the Galaxy. It is here that he learn Thanos' backstory, how his planet was ravaged by over-population and that he was the only survivor. He endevours to make sure that nothing of that sort ever happens to another planet, but as his plans invovle galaxy-wide genocide the heroes move to stop him. Through their combined efforts, they very nearly remove the gauntlet from his possession only for Peter to find out about Gamora's death. This sends him into a violent fury into Thanos, and awakens the villain who they had worked so hard to put under. Thanos mortally wounds Tony, but admits that he respects him and hopes that earth remembers him, then just as we think Iron Man is done for Doctor Strange hands over the time stone in exchange for Tony's life. This act by the sorcerer came off as really dumb and out of character in my opinion, but I thought about it more and Doctor Strange's final line in the movie, "This is the only way," seem to point that giving Thanos the time stone and letting him fulfill his mission is the only way to eventually stop him, and Iron Man needs to be alive for it to happen.

This is where the final battle of the movie takes place, with Thanos' forces attacking Wakanda with all their power and the heroes on earth rising to stop it. This brings us back to Captain America's side of the movie, as he and many others have spent it trying to protect Vision and keep him from Thanos' posession. The battle that takes place is nothing short of amazing, a pure ride of thrills and awesomeness that never lets down. Seeing all the heroes working together and fighting the same fight was awe-inspiring, especially as Thor made his entrance to save the day and keep them from being overwhelmed. Hulk was notibly absent from the movie after the opening scene, though I assume they're keeping the big Hulk-out moment for the sequel; Bruce Banner was a delight though and seeing him kill Cull Obsidian was a great moment. The rest of Thanos' children met their end in this scene (except for Ebony Maw who had perished earlier in the movie, and who was my favorite of the four). Corvus Glaive was my second favorite, and he fittingly got a solo fight against Captain America that ended with Vision impaling him with his own glaive. Then the unstoppable arrived. We knew that Thanos was coming, but seeing him finally arrive was a nerve-racking experience, and watching hero after hero be struck down and defeated in seconds was haunting while Vision implored Wanda to take his life and destroy the stone. Wanda painfully did so, then watched in horror as Thanos simply reversed time to restore the time stone and ripped it from Vision's head making her act for nought. Just as all seems lost, Thor comes flying in and drives his new axe straight through the chest of Infinity War's villain...who still manages to snap his fingers despite his wounds.

The immediate scene that followed was a short scene of what I assume is some sort of hallucination or vision, in which the child version of Gamora asks Thanos whether or not it was worth it. It is a powerful scene in which he get into the mind of the villain for a change, and we see him genuinely wonder that himself as the vision reminds him that he lost his daughter in exchange for the destiny he sought. When we return to the real world Thanos teleport away, the gauntlet crumbling, and the heroes are left wondering what happened...but they dont have to wait long to find out. Through the next short minutes we see many of our beloved heroes fade into nothing but dust, Wanda holding Vision's corpse, Black Panther, Falcon, Groot, and Bucky, then Iron Man watches as Drax, Mantis, Star-Lord, Doctor Strange, and finally Spiderman evaporate before his eyes. The only ones remaining afterwards are the heroes introduced to us in phase 1 of the Marvel films (minus Rocket), while Thanos sits upon the steps of his home and watches the sun rise.

The culmination of Marvel's movies was an extremely tense and dreadful two and a half hours as it felt that truly most every hero was in genuine danger and could be killed at any moment. That was a first for this franchise, and a refreshing feeling that made this movie even more enjoyable. The cast was stellar and the chemistry between them all was organic, and the jokes landed when they came (most notably in the beginning of the film, then the jokes became more and more sparse as it went on). The only downside to the finale was that its obvious that someone they will reverse all of the deaths of those that turned to dust, as many of them have confirmed movies on the way, and so the only deaths I believe are really gonna stick from this movie is Loki, Heimdall, Gamora, and Vision.

Truly the standout part of this film is Thanos; he is hands down the best villain Marvel has produced. In his small appearances previously I didn't have much interest in him, and wasn't sure that I would watching the film itself, but he turned out better than I could have ever imagined and the level of characterization he got was unprecedented for villains of the entire superhero genre. He won, the Avengers lost, and the movie ended with him wiping out half of life all across the galaxy. The Marvel movies have always been known for being more upbeat and chipper than a lot of other superhero movies, but this film cements it into gritty territory, and the credits after the film confirm to us that Thanos will be returning for the sequel. The true end for these past ten years is upon us next year, and if the post credit scene is any indication of what is to come, Captain Marvel will play a large role in stopping the mad titan once and for all. Avengers Infinity War is among my top favorite Marvel movies of all time; it is emotionally resonating, tense, nerve racking, and a thrilling ride from start to finish, and I can't wait to see how they wrap it all up next year.