Thanos, Thor and the Battle of Titan

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2018)

*SPOILERS*
Marvel and the Russo Bros have outdone themselves. They took a giant, bald, purple guy with a scrotum for a chin and a magical golden glove the size of a human head and actually made him relatable and interesting. They gave you genuine reasons to empathize with him while simultaneously giving you genuine reasons to hate him. Also, some villains have moments that show they're really cowards at heart, or that they don't have the conviction to actually carry out their goals (such as Magneto in the first X-Men film), but there isn't a hint of that in Thanos. As far as he's concerned, not only is he saving the universe -- it's his destiny to save the universe, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish that goal, even if it kills him, or he loses everything. The Russo bros have said that Thanos is the protagonist of this film, and I saw it that way throughout the movie. I never expected him to be as developed as he was. He's easily the best villain in the entire MCU -- hell, he might be the best villain I've seen in ANY movie in nearly a decade.
Thor was probably my favorite character (aside from Thanos himself). I found myself sympathizing with Thor the most out of all the Avengers; this big purple bastard slaughtered half his people and killed his brother right in front of him. Because of Thanos, the struggle Thor went through to save his people from Ragnarok were for nothing. So I wanted to see Thanos achieve his goal, but at the same time, I wanted Thor to get his revenge.
The Battle of Titan is without a doubt my favorite action set piece in the entire MCU. You see Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy working together to restrain Thanos and try to remove the Gauntlet, and they very nearly succeed, but not quite. Thanos has his most badass moment during this scene. He decides, "You've pissed me off, so now I'm gonna hit you with the biggest thing I can find," which happens to be a moon. He uses the gauntlet to pulverize the whole thing and rain down asteroids on his opponents.
Iron Man also has his best moment here. Everyone else has been taken out of the fight, and he has to face Thanos alone. He unloads everything he's got on Thanos and actually makes him bleed. Thanos reveals his respect for Tony, whose determination rivals his own.
For all its awesomeness, this movie definitely has its problems. I felt that the appearances of a lot of characters like Steve Rogers were totally obligatory, which is a shame, because Steve Rogers is one of my favorites. He does have a couple of cool moments -- such as when he actually tries to fight Thanos -- but it's ultimately unsatisfying.
Also, the Battle of Wakanda was another weak point for me. It was all right, but it could've been a lot better. I was frustrated by the terrible, nonsensical battle tactics; when the Outriders were trying to get in behind the defenses, Rogers decides, "We better keep them in front of us." A logical idea would be to create a bottleneck and funnel the enemies through a narrow space and overwhelm them, thus negating the advantage of strength in numbers. But what do they do instead? They leave the barriers wide open and let them come in and SPREAD OUT, and it's only because of Thor's timely arrival that the heroes aren't completely and utterly annihilated.
That said, Thor's entrance into Wakanda (like many of his scenes) was very cool.
Anyway, I could keep rambling about this movie, but then this review would take eight hours to read, so here's my final verdict. "Avengers: Infinity War" isn't perfect by any means, but it is a very good film with perhaps the best cinematic villain in nearly a decade. I saw it three times in cinemas, and I don't regret it for a second. 8/10.