Avengers: Infinity War

Marvel fans should be geeked up with the latest installation of Avengers: Infinity war, as it brings back the much loved marvel superhero’s to take on their greatest challenge yet, the Titan Thanos, the destroyer of worlds.

For the rest of us that are simply fans of well–told films it sounds like I’ve heard this one before and to be frank, all of these superhero franchises have the same ring, tone and deafness to it’s calling card. A bit trite and redundant wouldn’t you say?

Which is why I was so impressed by this latest installment from the Russo Brothers.

It’s a good film. Really good film that meshes the best of Civil war, The Guardian series and Logan up into a 2 and a half hour emotional roller coaster ride as our favorite heroes are forced to split up their resources in order to stop the mad Titan from collecting all six infinity stones and wiping out half of the universes’ population with a snap of his fingers.

After watching the trailers you head into the film with a dark cloud hovering over you, the doom and fear of death of one or multiple of your beloved characters and from the very first scene the filmmakers do not disappoint. Finally, after all of end credit clips of Thanos brooding and planning some sort of sinister takeover we see him in action, subduing the mighty Hulk and Thor and snubbing out numerous well known characters from the marvel universe.

It’s not everyday that a completely CGI Villain eats up the scenery, with every breath and movement of his you squirm on the edge of your seat fearing that with a squeeze of his mighty fist he might end the life of your favorite Avenger.

Thanos, is the reason why this movie works so well. He’s a great villain with dimensions to his character. There’s a reason for his madness that you can buy into. He’s strong, thoughtful and has a surprisingly emotionally vulnerability to him with a military like disciplined backed by his powerful offspring and most importantly him. The destroyer of worlds.

Like most of the Iron Man, Captain and Avenger films you know the odds are stacked against the heroes but unlike those films, that gloom, the fate of death never leaves, which is much more engaging to me as a viewer in the narrative context of storytelling.

But don’t worry. Not all is doom and gloom as this is a Marvel film and not a DC enterprise after all, which means we get our hilarious dose of a verbal bro-off between Thor and Star Lord and a battle of the mighty egos when Iron Man and Dr. Strange square off and not to mention the various rodent and thing references to Rocket and Groot.

It’s still such a fun and entertaining ride but finally with the real thought of consequences and an end game ahead of it.   Toward a speechless cliffhanger and us asking… what’s next?

SPOILER ALERT

Yes, Thanos achieves his goal of collecting the infinity stones and killing off half of the universes’ population and in the process many beloved and wildly popular Avengers. But, double spoiler alert… They’re not really dead. There’s no way I could ever imagine Marvel not giving its most-well known superheroes a proper, ceremonies death and turning into ash and blowing away is not that (see Logan).

Like in the end credits, Thanos will return and so will Avengers that perished. Last I checked Thanos had a Time Stone. Looks like the plan for the next Avenger film will be to retrieve that stone from Thanos and make the world right again… I mean come on, this is Disney here and the next installments for these stand along superheroes that perished are already in the works and scheduled for release in the next coming years. As good as this film is, it’s still a superhero movie (see Justice League).

Best Avenger film yet but not quite as good as Christopher Nolan’s Batman saga.