Extremely inventive but derivative and totally predicatable until its finale

Rating: 8/10 (18 September 2018)

What a colossal jumble of CGI / FX and complex character interactions. This film has everything and then some more from the kitchen sink. I was half-way expecting a cavalcade of Disney characters to come romping through this movie. Where were the Transformers? Where were the Jaegers from Pacific Rim? I feel cheated!!
I had cinematic issues with some very derivative visuals / plot issues: The initial villian assisting Thanos looks an awful lot like Lord V from Harry Potter. The nasty animals trying to overrun Wakanda towards the end were directly borrowed from Lord of the Rings (the CGI looked identical, too). In the scene where the Avengers seem so close to overpowering Thanos, it was wildly over-telegraphed that Starlord was going to ruin it...and that cliched scene has been repeated over and over elsewhere. Yawn.
But can we talk about the overarching plot here? So, why is Thanos a Malthusian? What's the evidence for an overpopulated Universe anyway? What's Thanos' beef? Consider: At least with Hitler and the Germans, they had a legitimate grievance (no matter how incredibly exaggerated into unconscionable and despicable action) regarding their treatment after WWI. We hear Thanos pontificating at various points to justify his quest to indiscriminately wipe out half the Universe...geez...that makes a lot of sense. It makes NO sense and he espouses no coherent viewpoint or justification, no matter how ill conceived, to back up his request. Well, is that any different than any insane villain? Perhaps not...but I thought the stones would at least give him some smarts...clearly not.
So, I'm giving Infinity War eight stars based on the rapturous FX and outrageous character mashups but still find the plot unnecessarily weak on the essentials. BTW, I have no beef with the sad ending: It's about time reality struck. The Earth is on course to an overheated oblivion, too...we better get used to unhappy endings.