Avengers: Infinity War Packs a Gauntlet-Covered Punch
Our policy at Nerd Caliber to never post spoilers in reviews is strained to its limits with Avengers: Infinity War. Even discussing in broad strokes what small problems the movie suffers from would possibly give away enough clues for sharp fans to take away some information about the plot and story of the film. So before I jump into the spoiler-free review in what little depth I can, here’s a couple of points: Infinity War is the only movie I would actually describe with the cliche “action-packed” and I would keep children under 6 away from it completely. Explanations to follow, with no more information than you would have garnered from watching the commercials or trailers.
To say that Avengers: Infinity War is a nearly non-stop action ride is probably an understatement. It is the fastest 2-and-a-half hours you will spend in a theater, as the action almost never lets up. When it does it is for some team comedy straight out of the past of the directors the Russo Bros. in that it would be perfectly at home on their show Community. That’s not to say it is at all like Thor: Ragnarok or even the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. In fact, right in the first few seconds you are made very aware that this is a much darker film in tone than Ragnarok. But the Russo Bros. and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely make the Guardians sound like the Guardians in their interactions both among themselves and with other MCU characters.
Another break from the intense action is the moments of reflection and sensitivity — mostly from Thanos himself. He looks better than he does in any of the trailers and Josh Brolin portrays him with less a mad glee than an unrelenting force of will.
Even in the funny or reflective moments, the dark tone never disappears. There has been lots of speculation about what shocking revelation or incident will occur, and I can say you are probably wrong, and it is probably worse. But I won’t spill any beans. I can say, because it is in a trailer, that there is torture in this movie, and one scene in particular is both disturbingly inventive and just plain disturbing. Even if you brings kids between 6-12 you might want to make plans to talk it out with them afterward.
I can say this — Marvel Studios needs a kick in the head for a garbage marketing campaign intended solely to mislead. There are scenes in commercials and trailers that not only aren’t in the movie but can’t be. And not because of extensive reshoots as in Rogue One — no these are literally just fake bits of content made to keep things under wraps.
While I can’t say any more about the main problems with the movie aside from, they are structural, I can talk about one other criticism. The movie is so unrelenting — unrelentingly exciting, unrelentingly funny, unrelentingly dramatic — that it is both emotionally and mentally exhausting. You can’t miss a moment or you might miss a plot point or a great joke, and 2.5 hours of that takes a toll.
It would be impossible to list how good or bad the performances by the MCU heroes are, because that list alone would fill up the article. And I can’t talk about the appearance or not of secondary or tertiary MCU characters as their mere mention would constitute a reveal. Wait, Wong is in the trailers and I can say Benedict Wong does an awesome job again.
Oh, I can say that all of the Children of Thanos actors do a good job, particularly Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, who has the most screen time of the Children and is wonderfully creepy.
There is one post-credit scene and it really is after all the lengthy credits this time. But definitely stay for it.
Avengers: Infinity War (PG-13, Marvel Studios, 2hrs 29mins) 4 stars out of 5 (and I can’t tell you — yet — why it isn’t 4.5 out of 5).
