Infinity War and Endgame: Perfectly Balanced, as All Things Should Be

Rating: 9/10 (3 June 2019)

Now that Avengers: Endgame has been released, it seems high time to re-evaluate its predecessor, Infinity War. Endgame was certainly able to do more with setup than simply resolving it, in fact introducing new arcs and conflicts to keep the movie interesting in its own right. Regardless, Infinity War deserves much praise for being able to set up the dramatic scenario of Endgame, while being entertaining on its own.
Infinity War centers around anti-hero Thanos (Josh Brolin) on his quest to collect all six Infinity Stones, in order to wipe out half of all living beings. His reasoning? "This universe's resources are finite. If left unchecked, life will cease to exist."
The film's opening scenes depict Loki failing to trick Thanos in an attempt to save his brother, Thor, and protect the Tesseract, which holds the Space Stone. Despite a surprise attack from Hulk, which seems to turn the tides, Thanos eventually overpowers him and acquires his second Infinity Stone. In this very first sequence, Infinity War introduces its key theme of inevitability. Time and again, the Avengers appear to gain the advantage, only for Thanos to beat them back and continue his destructive plot.
In one of the film's most iconic scenes, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) uses the Time Stone to look into "14,000,605" possible futures. When Tony Stark asks, "In how many do we win?" he pauses, then replies "One." With the extra context of Endgame, we know that this singular future is the one in which Thanos "wins," and then the Avengers triumph in Endgame (more on that later). At the time of first viewing, however, Doctor Strange's lines imply, (in one of the most intensely mocked moments of Infinity War) when Strange simply gives the Time Stone to Thanos, that the universe has already lost. This perfectly sets up Endgame, where the Avengers crawl back from a world which has already lost.
But! in Endgame, the ultimate theme of inevitability is turned on its head, and the viewer realizes that Doctor Strange's odd decisions were actually necessary to defeat Thanos. Rewatching Infinity War now not only dramatically recontextualizes the "14,000,605" scene in a sad new way, but also totally rewrites Strange's apparent 'turn to the dark side' as a clever ploy, establishing that, with Strange's help, the salvation of the universe in Endgame is what was truly inevitable.
This fantastic scriptwriting, by the Russo brothers, is what truly brings these two films into masterpieces. Needless to say, the graphical effects are also likely the best and most believable ever seen, from miniscule dust particles adding immersion to perfectly rendered faces, like Hulk and Thanos. Aside from that, the most common complaints about both films are from poor character development. The role of Drax (Dave Bautista) was mostly unfunny crude comments in Infinity War, and he (thankfully) isn't present much in Endgame. Even more egregious is the role of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), who is not at all present in Infinity War, and barely contributes in Endgame despite being portrayed as incredibly powerful. Granted, Infinity War and Endgame were filmed before Captain Marvel (Brie Larson's introduction). Thus, the character was not yet established and didn't even have an actor in time for Infinity War. Still, this obscenely powerful character being absent from Infinity War, when she is needed most, is not at all excused by "there are a lot of other planets in the universe" (her brief explanation from Endgame).
In any case, it seems apparent that Anthony and Joe Russo are much less interested in individual characters than their fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe directors like James Gunn. It's clear that Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame prioritized their overall directions more. The way these two films take totally contrasting stances with the common theme of inevitability gives each film a unique flavor. Where Infinity War felt like a spiraling fall into calamity, Endgame feels like a desperate crawl towards salvation, eventually leaving a single, inevitable outcome of victory. Ultimately, Endgame seems to outshine its predecessor, but largely because of its impressive setup thanks to Infinity War. Like the first and last acts of the same story, the first builds tension and ends in climax, and the latter manages to bring the climax to a close, rewriting the tragedy of the first, with some major lasting sacrifice still in effect. Truly, there is no better outcome to get us excited for Spiderman: Far From Home!