RECENT WATCHES: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Marvel's cinematic branch first teased Thanos, one of the biggest villains in the entirety of the comic book universe, in 2012. The character hadn't even been cast yet, looking and acting more like his comic book counterpart. The studio proceeded to tease the Mad Titan several times throughout future films. After a while, it looked like Thanos wasn't going to do anything but sit around and look intimidating. It's a thought I absolutely had at the time, actively wondering if Marvel would ever be able to pay off such a villain after so much build-up. I guess we all should have been more patient because, after the release of “Avengers: Infinity War,” Thanos became one of the most discussed supervillains ever. It was but one of many after-effects and memes that “Infinity War” would spawn.

Thanos has been traveling the galaxies, capturing planets and killing off half of their population. His quest is to retrieve all six Infinity Stones, magical rocks with control over the fundamental fabrics of reality, in purpose of the fanatical goal of saving the universe by destroying half of it. He is dangerously close to achieving that goal. He destroys half of the remains of Asgard's population, kills Loki, leaves Thor adrift in space, and steals two of the Stones. Tony Stark, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, and the recently returned Bruce Banner protect New York as Thanos' forces arrive on Earth. Soon, they are in space, meeting up with the Guardians of the Galaxy and facing off with Thanos himself. Captain America reunites with more Avengers in Wakanda, circling around the Vision – and the Mind Stone he contains – to protect him from more of villain's encroaching army. But can anyone stop Thanos?

In my review of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” I referred to it as a movie with a lot of moving parts. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe went on, this became increasingly true of all the studio's team-up movies. Both “Age of Ultron” and “Captain America: Civil War” nearly buckled under these pressures. “Infinity War” also has to balance innumerable details. There's about twenty-four central characters in this movie. The scope of the story spans across the universe. At one point, the film is jumping around between three separate groups of characters, one on Earth, two others in separate corners of outer space. Sometimes, it feels like a mental flow-chart is required to keep up with “Infinity War's” complex story. Yet, somehow, the movie pulls it off. You never get lost. Everyone gets the right amount of screen time. It all flows and makes sense.

That “Infinity War” is coherent at all is a miracle. That it is so consistently entertaining is another one. Even though the MCU is built upon these characters crossing over, a lot of the different corners of the Marvel Universe have never met. In “Infinity War,” pretty much everyone runs into each other. And it's delightful. Iron Man and Doctor Strange have a quip-off on Earth. Spider-Man joins them aboard a massive, ring-shaped space ship, dropping multiple pop culture references. The Guardians of the Galaxy run into Thor, who quickly makes friends with the motley crew. That is before the Guardians run into Tony Stark, who has an incredibly entertaining interaction with them. Any fan who has followed these films from beginning will certainly get a kick out of this.

Early on, the Russo Brothers made the choice that, not any of the Avengers but, Thanos would be the protagonist of “Infinity Wars.” It was a smart move, as he motivates the story and keeps it hanging together. The film version disregards Thanos' comic book back story. He's not longer the galaxy's biggest incel, committing universe-wide genocide to impress Lady Death. Instead, he's an unusually well sketched supervillain. His desire to murder half the universe is completely insane yet his reasons for doing so are levelheaded, in an odd way. Thanos is sadistic, enjoying toying with his opponents and taking joy in destroying them. Yet he's not maniacal or unhinged. Unlike most villains, he's even capable of love. Josh Brolin plays Thanos as the tragic hero of his own story, someone completely uncompromising in his goals. Terrifying and yet, for all his purple flesh, very human seeming.

When compared to some of the other directors who have put their stamp on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Russo Brothers are not horribly distinct. They don't have the visual touches of Joe Johnston, the eccentricities of James Gunn, or the easily recognized impulses of Shane Black or Taika Waititi. What the Russo Brothers are good at is engineering ridiculously complicated, special effects packed action scenes. “Infinity Wars” is almost, top-to-bottom, composed of this. The battle between Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man against Ebony Maw in New York is fantastically engineered. As is the enormous war in Wakanda, against a huge wall of enemy aliens. Of “Infinity War's” multiple battle sequences, one stands above the others. That would be half of the Avengers and the Guardians facing off against Thanos on his dead home world. Any sequence that includes all of Doctor Strange's craziest spells and a moon being dropped out of the sky is pretty damn unforgettable.

As with all of Marvel's best movies, what makes “Infinity War” truly works is not the nonstop action. It's actually the character driven moments. You can afford those when you've spend a decade building up the majority of your cast. Gamora tearfully convincing Star-Lord what he must do, which pays off brilliantly not long afterwards, is fantastic. James Gunn did some uncredited work on the script, which might explain why we are gifted with hilarious digressions like Drax trying to turn invisible. Or random shout-outs to “Footloose.” The best scene in the movie, maybe, is Thor's conversation with Rocket in which he tearfully recounts everything he's lost. Stuff like this is what makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe special, more-so than any of the giant action sequences or elaborate special effects.

The most emotional scene in the film is, of course, the already notorious climax. Thanos wins. He kills half of all life in the universe. A portion of the film's heroes perish. Peter Parker painfully, tearfully collapses into Tony Stark's arms and begs him not to let him die. As far as the end of a giant, 400 million dollar blockbuster, it's pretty bleak and unexpected.... Except it isn't, depending on how you look at it. It's hard to be too upset about Black Panther and the Guardians of the Galaxy dying, when the next films in their respective franchises have already been greenlit. If you take a film as a thing that only exist on its own terms, “Infinity War” ends in just about the ballsiest way possible. If you acknowledge that all media exist in an ever-changing world, it's a lot less shocking.

Still, taken as an enormous pop culture event, “Avengers: Infinity War” is pretty damn hard to top. It's got a great cast playing great characters, flawless effects, memorable dialogue, a far too complex story that shouldn't work but somehow does, phenomenal action scenes, and still has time to kick its audience in the teeth. It's a superhero epic to top all superhero epics... At least until the next part came along anyway. It's either the end-of-cinema or the greatest popcorn flick of all time, depending on where your priorities are. (I can see either argument.) I'm a nerd, so, yeah, I love this shit. [9/10]