Avengers: Infinity War: 8.8

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2018)

Everything has been leading up to this. Infinity War's biggest challenge was somehow juggling dozens of characters coherently without making the entire narrative spread out too far, and it succeeded. Every character gets a respectable amount of screen time that they deserve without any of them feeling like cameos or out of place. From Spider-Man to Black Panther each hero's intro is just as exciting as the last with each intro bringing the hero's own flavor into the movie, and this helps the film feel like the absolutely giant event that it is. It has an unbelievable amount of stakes and is probably the most serious of all Marvel movies. There's harrowing parts to the film that are small and big, but Thanos must've had a hand in writing the script because the amount of dramatic and comedic moments is perfectly balanced. The movie is far from short on good laughs. There's plenty of laugh out loud moments that don't seep into other parts of movie and ruin some powerful serious moments, which Marvel movies have struggled with in the past. And the powerful moments are POWERFUL. They range from happiness, excitement, sorrow, shock, and sadness. They hit you so hard that after the movie it's as if you're suffering from shellshock.
Thanos as a villain is phenomenal. Down to his motivations and his CGI he felt like a real person, and not just a one dimensional evil for the sake of evil villain. He's driven, he's dangerous, and interesting. This is Thanos's story, this is his movie. His unique power set given to him by the infinity gauntlet is used as well it can be used. One of the inherent problems with a villain who can basically do anything is that makes you ask "Why doesn't he do that every time?". The film deals with that very admirably to the point where that question is actually answered... most of the time. And Thanos's Black Order are quite dangerous themselves. They feel so lethal that you consider that they can each best multiple Avengers in combat single handedly. Despite the intense saturation of characters and villain who can do anything, the film is actually quite well written in the sense that there is no bad, cringy, or overdone lines. Which is hard to avoid in a big movie that is half the time spent in space. The narrative itself is executed exceptionally. It's really well structured. It feels like one continuous story and not a jumbled mess. It almost feels like it's told in chapters similarly to Pulp Fiction, at least in the first half. Like many of the other characters, the original Avengers Theme(which is a character in itself) also makes an epic return throughout the film. Enhancing the intensity of the story's biggest moments, while evoking goosebumps, nostalgia, and even tears.
When it comes to the films faults they're little and minor. There's a few laughs that are indeed funny but are drawn out a little too long, causing the joke to overstay it's welcome. And during the second act the movie drags a little, but it only might do so because of the great anticipation of how the film will end, and that anticipation may compel you to grow a little impatient. But it's not fully a fault in the film itself. There's some actions that the ability of being able to perform those actions are muddled or left unexplained, maybe I might've missed the explanations, but it took me out of the movie slightly when it came up. What didn't take me out of the movie was the CGI. One of the main problems with Black Panther was the overuse of CGI in the film, but T'Challa's suit is a nice real looking practical suit that looks great. Again Thanos's visual effects are some of the best ever, and never did the thought of green screen or brief rubbery replacements of characters cross my mind. Overall, the colossal event of Infinity War successfully handles a large plethora of characters while leaving more than enough room for exhilaration, emotion, and consequence that is abundantly present in this film much more than the films that came before it. So I give it an 8.8