Unbelievably, this movie lives up to the hype

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2018)

This is a non-spoiler review. I recommend watching the film without reading any reviews, but if you insist, here we go.
I'm not sure that I have ever been more excited to see a movie, despite being just a casual fan of the MCU (I've seen them all and like quite a few of them) The Winter Soldier and Iron Man being my favorites. (none of them rate above an 8/10 for me, they all fall in the 6-8 range). I stayed well away from tv-spots, interviews and early reactions, got the earliest ticket to the biggest screen in town and I am so glad that I did. This movie not only lives up to the unbelievable hype, but is also the best entry in the series to date.
The first 45-50 minutes of this movie is some of the sharpest, fumiest, action-packiest entertainment i've ever witnessed, it just doesn't slow down, and right when you think it does, it whips right back into it. The first act of this movie is as good as any third act in any comic book movie, accept funnier. If you didn't come for a laugh however, fear not, the movie eventually does take a breath to cover the more weighty parts. Speaking of taking breaths, the effects in the film are outstanding, almost every scene has something that impressed me, be it an establishing shot, a Raccoon closeup or a comic-come-to-life action extravaganza.
Okay so how is the action? Picture the hand to hand combat from The Winter Soldier, the airport scene from Civil War and the battle for New York from the first Avengers, now imagine that they are all happening at once. Although the latter two obviously have the biggest influence because of the scale this movie is on, there is an added element this time around, and one that has been missing for far too long: stakes. Red, juicy stakes and with an extra dose of salt.
Okay but the characters, how are the characters? First of all... they are great. The insurmountable task of balancing, what, 40 A-list actors? (holy shit that's a big cast) is pulled off effortlessly by the directors. Of course there are characters that get less screen-time than i would have liked, such is the nature of the movie, Shuri in particular was a let down since i came out of Black Panther really loving that character, but hey, i understand. Thor was a standout for me, Chris Hemsworth was simply magnificent throughout, and after such a perfect portrayal in Ragnarock, somehow outdoes himself.
This movie made me feel what i think a lot of people felt when watching The Avengers for the first time, personally I don't love that movie, I love bits in it, but as a whole I "only" like it. But every 5 minutes of this movie I felt myself smiling, laughing out load, wanting to stand up and cheer in a way that movies usually dont make me, I was hooked in every sense.
For this reason I have decided to rate it, again "only" a 9 out of 10 (which i pretty high for me) because i simply can't yet know how much i was simply caught up in the moment. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with getting caught up in the moment, but I want to see it again to see how it plays when i know the outcome and am not constantly out of breath. Watching Age of Ultron for the second time, i didn't love it as much as I did the first time (although i still like that movie more than most) so my score right now lies between a 9 and a 10 and a second viewing will decide on which side it falls.