McGuffin War is entertaining, but lack in script and explanation

Rating: 3/10 (16 March 2019)

After telling people that I didn't really like this movie and, of course, getting attacked by every fanboy in the MCU I felt it necessary to put down a proper review.
Let me start with the good so you know that I did not hate this movie. I actually enjoyed it. Infinity War is one of the most entertaining movies ever made. The entertainment value comes to fighting is great, a couple of superhero saves that are utterly amazing, acting very solid, music great, visuals mostly fantastic, and the villain is mostly great too.
If you look at infinity war as a prelude to the end of the first big story-line of the MCU and if you look at it from a pure entertainment point of view this is by no means a bad movie, it is, from that perspective, darn good.
Above sound like I loved this movie, right? So why didn't I?
Because this movie has a few very, very big flaws, and it introduces a few concept and a bunch of additional McGuffins in a very hamfisted way and I do not think it completely nailed the landing.
Let me elaborate.
Let's start with Iron Man. So Tony, suddenly, and completely out of the blue, introduces his new Nano-tech suit. Where did that come from? When was that developed? Why never mention before? This tech is so immensely impressive that Iron Man go from being a strong hero to almost invincible. If it wasn't for fighting Thanos with the Gauntlet, Iron Man would win almost any fight against almost any opponent now. Sure it looks pretty cool and the Russo brothers make the best of it in the movie, but... what!? It actually pissed me off. Marvel has been very good at building up these things over time, over full movies, but here the nano-tech is just thrown in there because it looks cool. That is the only reason it is there, to make the visuals and the fight look cooler.
Next up we have Vision and Scarlet Witch that, apparently, and also very suddenly, a couple and are sharing a bed together in some hotel room in Scotland.
Now this was not completely out of the blue since it was sort of hinted at in both Civil War and Ultron, but them apparently sleeping together and being a couple in love!? What? I know they were/are a couple in the comics and if I remember correctly even have children together, so perhaps I should not be too surprised and upset over this development, but it makes no sense and it feels so rushed. In the context of the movie universe this is lazy writing, bad character development, and very forced upon us as viewers. Of course Captain America does a great save in a very nice entertaining way so I sort of forgot about this story hole upon first viewing, but it is not good writing. Not at all.
Then we have Thor who, apparently, IS the God of Hammers. AND he gets an eye 25min into the movie, so that entire Ragnarök story in regards to Thor's character development is thrown out the window.
Sidetrack: I actually hate Ragnarök, I think it is, by far, the worst movie of the MCU. I think it is worse than Howard the Duck, worse than that awful Daredevil movie and worse then Elektra. Ragnarök is the only MCU movie in par with (some) DCEU movies, that is how putrefied it is. However the only redeeming trait of Ragnarök was the decent okayish character development of Thor that sort of work. But a few moments into Infinity War all of that is basically gone. He has an eye, and suddenly, after withstanding the blast of a star (haha..) he also have a new shiny ax. Then he summons the bifrost and with no knowledge about anything going on nor knowing where Wakanda is he poffs in there to save the day. That scene is absolutely fantastic, one of the best hero arrival ever and it is brilliantly entertaining, but it make no sense whatsoever. Again lazy writing or bad directing.
I could go on pointing out so many other things like Red Skull showing up with no explanation, Gamora suddenly having half her planet alive (it was said before she was the last of her kind), StarLord flipping out (sort of understandable, but still...) and many other things in the movie that either demands background story or more explanation - stories and explanations we never get.
What it all comes down to is either lazy writing or bad directing, probably a combo. The Russo´s have made very good movies before this. Civil War was very entertaining (and better than this movie) and Winter Soldier is as close to a masterpiece a superhero movie can get, but here they fail on several points. If it was just one character or one of the things I mention above (there are many more of these holes are missing pieces in the movie - take too long to list them all) it could be forgiven, but there are so many of them.
I keep getting the feeling that they wanted to make a super-entertaining movie and a part One out of Two to end this saga, and they did so with little consideration for good writing.
Why not an exposition dump? A narration or two? Why not ignore one of the fights and slow down and explain things? No! We need entertainment! Boff! Poff! Blam! Isn't this fun!?
Now I come to my final, and most significant objection to this movie, and also most likely the most unpopular opinion of this review. The villain, Thanos, I wrote above that; "the villain is mostly great too", but he is also completely weird and a really bad villain. Kill half the universe? Why?
Never explained other than in his; "I am a green party member and I want to kill folk because we use too many resources" which is stupid beyond belief. How about double the number of planets? How about giving everyone a Star Trek replicator? How about clean energy? I hope his motivation is explained in Endgame, but if not he is just nuts, bonkers, crazy. In the comics his motivation was much, much more relevant and understandable, and that was crazy. And people complain that Captain Marvel is political? Really? This is the environment movement´s wet dream, nothing else.
To summerize; this should be called McGuffin War because they fight over McGuffins with their own McGuffins and we get introduced to new McGuffins, out of nowhere, to counteract other McGuffins. And when Thanos finally collect all of his McGuffins he kills half the universe because we drive too many cars...
It is lazy writing, and bad storytelling. Sure it looks great, and all those explosions are nice, and oh boy all those McGuffins are fun and entertaining, but does that make a great movie? Is this really fantastic?
No.
To me this movie belongs in the mid- to low range of the MCU. There is a reason why Iron Man, Winter Soldier, and now also Captain Marvel, are the best movies of this franchise; because they are character driven stories. Sure those also have faults, and are perhaps not as entertaining as McGuffin War, but they are better movies because we get exposition, explanations, and we get to follow the characters in a logical well executed way. McGuffin war is just 2hrs and 30min of high-speed entertainment. It is almost like a Transformers movie, only better acted.
And that is why I give this movie a 6/10.
If Endgame do not explain some of the things I mention above I am most likely not going to like that movie either. BUT if it does, this movie probably need to be seen in a different light and I might need to up the score, but as of now it does not deserve a higher score.
Edit: Since Endgame was horrible trash and explained absolutely nothing of McGuffin War it made also this movie worse. Endgame sucked so hard it was almost Justice League bad, and although McGuffin War was not as bad I have to reduce the score to 3/10. The Russo brothers should be banned from cinema for all time.