Avengers: Infinity War is a whole ‘lotta movie – for better and for worse. It starts with a bang and never lets up over the course of its 2 1/2 hour running time. The time flies by as we jump from one gigantic action set-piece to the next. The Russo brothers deserve an enormous amount of credit for juggling a film of such massive size with so many different characters. Infinity War is certainly the most visually spectacular superhero film ever made (until Avengers 4 probably). It’s exciting as hell with plenty of cheer-worthy moments and all of the different character combinations work together wonderfully.
Thanos is really the lead of this movie – not Tony Stark or Steve Rogers (though you could make a strong case for Thor). He’s as intimidating a villain as Marvel has ever had and his motivations are well-developed and understandable in a sadistic sort of way. He’s easily the most interesting character in the entire film as our heroes aren’t really given any time to develop in meaningful ways themselves – they’re here to fight Thanos and that’s about it. Unfortunately with so many moving pieces and a relatively thin but thankfully straight-forward story, it feels like one big climax after another and not very much like its own fully-realized film. While the ending is a jaw-dropper, the entire affair feels very much incomplete – which is surely by design but hurts this entry nonetheless. Grade: B+
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