If you ever liked a superhero movie, you'll love this (no spoilers)

Rating: 9/10 (1 May 2018)

Infinity War contends to be the best movie of the superhero genre ever made. The sheer feat of juggling such a massive cinematic universe and having he pieces land in place is something I would have thought impossible, yet having missed 4 of the 18 movies preceding it (missing Ragnarok was the biggest gap going in) the entire film still flowed incredibly smoothly. I am and know some real hardcore comicbook enthusiasts, and so will there will always be some squandered potential, plot elements that did not fire on all cylinders, or characters we want to see more of, but there are strikingly few missteps to pick out given the scope of this film's ambitions. The incredible number of characters, plot lines and events that fit in here rarely seems ponderous, helped by a script that is laugh-at-loud funny without sacrificing the impact of the third act.
The strongest part of the movie is the villain. Thanos is scarily powerful, and from the very first scene it's clear that he means business. He is charismatic, intelligent, and, once he has the necessary power, pursues his goal with relentless determination. In another world, this movie should have been titled Thanos: Infinity War, because this movie is really his story. His performance and presence are more than enough to forgive his (one exception here) rather forgettable henchmen. However, would I have really wanted them to have more screen time at Thanos' expense? Hell no.
In the end, this movie doesn't work if you haven't spent the time to watch previous movies. If you've read the New Yorker review, the author wastes a lot of ink spelling out "I haven't watched any of the other movies, so I'm confused and that is YOUR FAULT". Try watching Return of the King and then leave being mad at the movie for not explaining all the characters (again) for you. These characters don't evolve in this movie, because this movie is about the culmination of all their individual story arcs over the past 10 years. Will that leave some people behind? Of course, but that's the price of admission for a coalescing of a cinematic universe into one movie the likes of which has never been tried before.
Aside: There are some reviews of this movie that are explicitly low because people think that this movie deserves a lower rating than their peers have given it. Retribution against fellow users of this kind seems silly, but there is at least one question raised relevant to the discussion: should fantasy movies like this be rated in the context of other movies of it's kind or should they be seen in the greater context of all cinema. Infinity War isn't as emotionally penetrating as Schindler's list, nor as artistically daring as Mother!, but these are the wrong expectations, at least to me.