A Priceless Review: “Avengers: Infinity War”

Image from marvel.com/movies

By Jake Price, Entertainment/Opinions Editor
Published: May 1, 2018

Marvel is that one child that you’re so disappointed in to the point where you want to scratch your brains out of your head, but then does something so risky and ambitious where you can’t help but be proud of them for trying. After a long, hard 10 years of playing it safe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) finally breaks through and gives the audience a fresh, unique installment in the franchise.

“Avengers: Infinity War” is the beginning of an end for the MCU. The mad titan, Thanos, is on a quest for the infamous six infinity stones, so he can “balance” the universe by wiping out half of the population. The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Spider Man, Black Panther and many more team up to guard the stones and try to stop the intergalactic threat that is destined to arrive.

Right out of the gate, the movie already had an issue before it even came out in theatres: the cast of characters. Too many characters means too little time to develop them and a story. There are more than 40 characters, and after seeing the film, it’s unfortunate to say that the problem exists. However, there is a bright side. “Infinity War” has the best CGI and action sequences of any Marvel film, but it also introduces and develops, not only the best villain, but the best character in MCU history: Thanos.

There is just too much going on at once. “Infinity War” needed to slow down the pace. There really is no plot. The whole movie is the product of one plot line giving birth to several other subplots that jumped from one thing to the next. It was like the baby boom of film plots. I would say that the film is more of an experience for the fans. There isn’t a solid story, but with the MCU having done such a great job with building the universe, it was impressive, as a fan, to see how the film brought the franchise to a heightened sense of enjoyment.

It was inevitable that the story didn’t have enough character development. Although it was amazing to see all of these characters finally interact with one another, it doesn’t change the fact that all of these characters were pretty bland. Most had no ulterior motives or any important character arcs that stuck throughout the movie and some even had only one look of expression on their face throughout the whole movie. It is a let down since so many of the heroes and sidekicks were developed so masterfully in previous installments.

However, not every character was poorly treated. There was one that stood out. There was one that was crowned the best MCU villain. There was one that surprisingly became the emotional core of the film as a whole. That one character is Thanos.

Thanos not only had the most character development, but he was the heart of the movie. Sure, he was the villain who wanted to kill half of the universe, but his motivation is very complex and disturbingly timely. He also has the most emotional character arc and storyline out of the entire movie which was very strange yet effective since he was the antagonist. He is the most multi-dimensional character out of the entire movie and the Marvel universe.

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Actor Josh Brolin gave an incredibly emotional performance as the mad titan. Every line of dialogue, every movement that was made, every vivid look he made gave me chills. It was exceptional mostly because he was able to give a grounded performance in a motion capture role. The big, purple, overgrown alien was the most realistic character out of 40 human characters. That says a lot.

The CGI on Thanos was also realistic. A lot of the CGI in this movie was surprisingly good given that Marvel has a terrible track record when it comes to visual effects. From the Doctor Strange fight sequences, to the group of Thanos’ henchman known as the Black Order, to any scene that took place in space, the visual effects were finished and not sloppy. So kudos to Marvel fixing one of their most obvious problems in every one of their movies.

Overall, the movie deserves the hype it’s been getting. Even though the movie has flaws that it deserved in the first place, it was a very ambitious piece of work that Marvel has created for their fan base. There are so many crucial and borderline life changing things that happen in “Avengers: Infinity War,” so if you’re a hardcore fan, prepare to be astounded by what comes your way.