All you expect and a bit more

Rating: 9/10 (2 May 2018)

Infinity War manages to be coherent despite the over-abundance of characters. It seemed hard, but somehow all the heroes (or almost all) have their role.
And while I find the fact that most of the other MCU films are required material to watch this one disagreeable, it does feel like an appropriate culmination of all the previous adventures.
The action is of course great, the stakes higher than ever, and the humour really good, especially among the Guardians of the Galaxy. There are of course glaring weaknesses in the plot - 6 super magical stones that control the entire universe are all just around the corner. Starlord can't control himself for half a second till they remove Thanos' super-glove. But let's face it, it's a superhero film, and a self-aware one at that: when Iron Man explains "he is from space, here to steal a necklace from a wizard", you can't complain for such details. It is telling to the film's success how Thanos manages to come off as a genuinely thoughtful and not-entirely-evil villain, even though his philosophy is entirely stupid: he has diagnosed the entire universe's problem to be overpopulation, and thinks killing half of all life (no other measures) will fix everything, because apparently reproduction isn't a thing. I mean, it's a profoundly silly plan for an immortal mega-genius, but kudos to Josh Brolin for managing to hide that.
Of course, the film does end on a 'to be continued' note, so we'll have to wait for the final judgment.