This is something else.

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2018)

I'm not going to bother keeping spoiler-free because it would prevent me from talking about what I liked about this movie. Well, I think we all knew that we were going to see what could be the biggest movie ever this weekend. Typically, scale and high stakes in a movie doesn't impress me that much, but this brought scale to a new level. For one thing, it was the first time that a Marvel movie really had consequences. I suppose Civil War had real impacts at the end with the Avengers breaking up, but this was the first time that characters actually died and the bad guy won. I expected characters to die, but I did not expect Thanos to achieve his goal and certainly didn't expect so many characters to die. Even as Thanos will killed off half the characters, each one was kind of shocking, because so many of the characters in this movie are ones that to this point have been protected by plot armor. For those of you who don't know what that means, many of the characters that died seemed too important to kill off. I'm definitely interested to see where they'll go with the next big movie. Thanos has achieved his goal, so there's no real threat to be expected from him.
There were a few minor things that I had problems with. One was the continued overuse of one-liners and quips in so many scenes. Some of them are legitimately funny, but they're kind of annoying. One of the people I saw it with afterward was like "it seemed like they crammed one-liners in wherever they could in bad moments". I agree with this, but there is something to be said for the way that the light-hearted tone of all the other movies and even the majority of this one made the ending of this movie so much more striking. Of course, it does seem like there's a way to bring all of the characters back later, but it was still a powerful moment. The other little issue that I had was that there were a couple points in the fight scenes where the heroes seemed like they didn't pull out their biggest and best moves until it was too late. Typically, you see this more with villains not seeming to fight quite as well when they face down the hero, but it just seems like they could have stopped Thanos at a couple points if they'd used their figurative (and literal) bigger guns earlier. It felt a little convenient, but I didn't mind so much because it was going so much against what Marvel usually does. Otherwise it could maybe have done better with pacing, but I couldn't say how. There was so much packed into this movie that I can't really fault the writers in any regard because they just had so much to work with. They certainly get the plot started from the start and keep it going at a breakneck speed throughout.
The fight scenes are not the very best I've seen, but they are pretty good and definitely engaging to watch. It's not on the same level as Kingsman or the newest Mad Max, and honestly I think the original Avengers may even have a leg up on this sequel in terms of actual action sequences. However, this movie definitely delivers dramatically charged action scenes with a lot going on in them.
You have to see at least half of the MCU movies up to this point if you want to see this with any kind of comprehension. I'd seen 10 out of 18 with a basic knowledge of all the movies I hadn't seen going into Infinity War. If you want an above average MCU movie that doesn't require tons of background, I suggest Black Panther. If you're already caught up and reading a spoiler-full review, you've probably already seen it or don't need encouragement to see it anyway. As I write this, the movie currently sits in the 10 spot on the top 250. I doubt it will stay, and I don't think almost anyone would say that it's actually tenth best movie ever and it definitely won't stay that high, but it is definitely a special movie that's like nothing you've ever seen even from Marvel. Honestly, I don't think there should be a bigger scale movie than this one, except for maybe Avengers 4, but it is good. I'll be a bit surprised if it doesn't pass Avatar as the biggest movie ever, but I won't be helping it there beyond my one ticket. It may not be a work of art per se, but it is undeniably a landmark of cinema. Overall Rating: 8/10.