10 years since the inception of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and 6 years since Thanos first appeared in the after credits of The Avengers, the biggest comic book movie of all time and one of the biggest movies of the decade finally hits Australian cinemas with Avengers: Infinity War.
There was a lot riding on this movie. It had to give well over 20 characters something to do, give our main characters arcs of their own, tie off threads opened in previous films and flesh out Thanos who had previously had about 10 minutes worth of screen time. We are happy to say it does all of that and so much more.
Infinity War follows Thanos and his children the Black Hand as they scour the universe in search of The Infinity Stones. Once placed in Thanos's Gauntlet with a snap of his fingers he can bring balance to the universe by wiping half of it out. This movie wastes no time jumping straight into things, which was refreshing as the movie has a 2.5 hour run time and it needed every spare minute it could get to convey its story.
We've seen some characters unite and fight side by side but never on the same scale or in such unique and interesting ways as we witness here. Some combinations from the trailers such as Iron Man and Dr. Strange make for fun witty moments as well as fresh combat experiences. Thor and the Guardians are another fantastic combination and probably make for the best jokes. On that note, the jokes are sparring and well timed here in Infinity War unlike some of the more comedy heavy films of the last year or so.
Thanos needed a lot of growth here and we would argue he is the main character of the whole damn movie. this allows him to get a full back story, detailed motives and become a fully fleshed out character by the end of the 2.5 hour movie. Thanos is easily the MCU's biggest and best villain showing that somewhere in the Marvel writers rooms, someone knows how to write a proper villain.
The pacing is superb, the quips are short and infrequent allowing the movie to maintain a somber and bleak tone and the character growth, both for Thanos and our heroes, is excellent. Alan Silvestri has delivered a tremendous score and manages to infuse so many iconic heroes themes together to make something bigger and more powerful then even. Scenes are shot with some real flare and style. Action sequences are kept in shot and remain tight on the characters which felt like a solid move away from the typical jump cuts. Unfortunately Black Widow's combat still features way to many cuts and appears jarring when seen among the tighter shots.
We also noticed some terrible CGI in a couple of scenes that give DC a serious run for their money. No, seriously. This is mustache removal bad!
With all of that in mind though, there is no doubt in our minds this is the biggest comic book movie of all time, the biggest movie of the decade and a bold step for the MCU which, by the time the credits roll, is in a truly interesting place.
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