A Surprisingly Strong Action Romp

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2018)

I'm just gonna come out and say this: from an action, "popcorn" perspective, Infinity War is a mesmerising spectacle that sucks you right in until the credits roll after its deceptively long 2hr 29min running time. As someone who has seen many (but isn't a diehard fan) of the Marvel films, I was pleasantly surprised at the ways in which such a colossal picture manages to invest in its myriad of characters, backstories and locations.
The plot is very simple, but the Russo brothers do a fantastic job at enthralling viewers with what is essentially Thanos's search for the 6 infinity stones that tie the different film universes together. Scenes are snappy and fluid, with dialogue kept to a bare minimum of character introductions and brief exchanges of quippy one-liners. There's a fair dose of "Marvel" humour running throughout that many will enjoy, but personally I found some of the more contrived lines a bit painful to listen to. Thankfully, this is resolved by the truly awesome spectacle of near-constant action that unfolds - the sequences evolve rapidly and shift between multiple locations, giving you a true sense of the scale of the film without feeling detached from its events. The final third in particular contains some of the best sequences I've ever seen in a superhero movie.
There are many, many standout performances in this film. As ever, Robert Downey Jr puts in a great shift as a Tony Stark still traumatised by the previous films, but also reprising his role of mentor to Tom Holland's Spiderman - who steals the limelight as the franchise's newest, funniest and tear-jerking new avenger. Benedict Cumberbatch also puts in a stellar shift in reprising his role of Doctor Strange, but the film's strongest performance by far is Josh Brolin's voice portrayal of Thanos. I had a lot of trepidation going into this film about how "shallow" Thanos as a villain was going to be, but Brolin delivers an emotional roller-coaster leaving us torn between fear, hatred, sympathy, and even a grudging respect for the MCU's biggest bad boy. Thanos is given a fantastic emotional arc that really encourages sympathy and makes him a far more three-dimensional character shown to suffer almost as much as the heroes do.
Infinity War is an ambitious step up for the Marvel franchise - yes the plot is basic, but the scale is so large that it has to be. The film stays true to its focus on delivering pure, unbridled super-hero action, and this is helped by its huge web of complex characters that interact with one another to make this the richest, most intricate Marvel film yet and a strong start to the next chapter of the Avengers story.