The best Marvel Movie to date

Rating: 9/10 (14 May 2018)

There, I said it. This is arguably the best Marvel movie to date. In objective terms. It is the 19th movie from the MCU and a true masterpiece. When I've first seen the trailer I got hyped just like everybody else. The trailer was just that good. Credit, where credit's due. But this; it's even better than I expected it to be.
The thing that resonated with me the most was the constant tension in the movie. Right from the start you get this uneasy feeling that things are about to go horribly wrong as Thanos and his henchmen confront some of the Avengers in the first act of the movie. We as the viewers are immediately getting a taste of how powerful Thanos really is. The aforementioned heroes serve as a subjective metric in this scenario. We don't need to know how they got there or what exactly preceded that event. All we need to know is that the earth and its inhabitants are in grave danger, and this is the message that the first act communicates clearly. It's masterfully executed, no fluff, it just goes straight into the action.
Unlike in previous Marvel movies this time the threat is nominal and also directed towards the heroes and not just mankind. I don't know if you noticed but up until this point the Marvel movies followed, more or less the following pattern: villain emerges, threatens mankind, superheroes feel the urge to intervene, final showdown, happy ending. This time however the tables are turned. Because unlike in the other movies the heroes have no choice but to fight for their lives. So naturally, the movie assumes a much more serious tone. This is a literal life or death situation. In the previous movies the superheroes didn't really have to intervene, no matter how big the threat was. With the sole exception of Ultron of course, but once you realize that he was created by the superheroes it's nothing but "damage control". To conclude: the stakes have never been higher. This is the final showdown we've all waited for. All the other 18 movies that preceded this one come full circle as the pieces fall into place.
Some people have voiced complaints, claiming that the movie is just an endless deluge of fighting scenes. But that's not quite right. Yes, there are a lot of fighting scenes but this is not the main focus of this movie. It's more of a philosophical inquiry. A somewhat interesting meditation on nihilism as a whole. Yes, Thanos is pretty much the embodiment of nihilistic thoughts, whether he realizes it or not. I mean, what could be more nihilistic than to enact a genocide on a cosmic scale? Not much.
With that being said this movie could easily be interpreted as an ingenious metaphor for the current state of affairs. Nihilism is on the rise among younger demographics and it is becoming a really big problem. It's a cultural phenomenon that's slowly eating away at the foundations that helped necessitate our modern society. I don't know if this is what the writers had in mind when they wrote the script but that's how I interpret it.
There is one thing that irked me a little about the movie, though. Thanos' motivation was never really touched upon in the movie.
Without a tangible motive his actions seemed a little far fetched, you see. But then again, I can't exactly criticize this movie too much for this lack of information since it's a two-part movie. I mean, I know what happened in the comics but this is the MCU after all, so chances are they're going to come up with a clever take on the original story. (I hope)
I have no idea if the sequel is going to be equally as good. That is, of course, what I'm ultimately rooting for but the realist in me is like "how the heck are they going to top that?" I have no idea.
Closing remarks: The Hulk seemed rather wimpy in this movie. I mean, it wasn't quite what I was expecting.