Sentimentality for sale

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2018)

Let's admit it, people love watching sacrifices made out of love. We just can't get enough of that mushy pathos of the most pointless, irrational and simply plain wrong things being done just because it would lessen the suffering of a single human being (or maybe even a puppy), albeit just for a moment.
This is humanity. And, judging by the rating, it is madly in love with Avengers Infinity War. Well, no surprise, since, for the first time in a while, Marvel Studios made a film that dwarfs most of the melodramas ever created in terms of making the soft-hearted people shed a tear or two. The war is waging across the whole galaxy over the topic of sheer survival of myriads of living beings, and our brave heroes, so eager to care none about the collateral damage before, have suddenly become too soft to handle the fact that someone might not make it eventually.
And what a time to grow a conscience! Thanos is about, the looming figure from the past Marvel movies, the phantom menace of this cinematic universe, and he's come to strike it big this time. And with him, a huge army of creatures equally ugly and disposable and a few special units he calls his children, finally with a speck of individuality, but still ugly as the rest. Makes you start wondering if those Titan genes are really the best judge of the galaxy's fate.
As for "the good guys", they are quite aplenty too. Maybe even too aplenty to actually have any decent interaction among each other, unless we count some quarrels and a few flashy co-op FPS action scenes interaction. Tom Holland does try to bring his old lively "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" attitude, but he's severely outnumbered in this game of big talk and personal issues. Even Steve Rogers, the only guy who was previously known for bringing charisma and integrity into everything he's involved in, is demoted to a mere fighting machine. He's good at that, no doubt about it, but after Winter Soldier and Civil War you expect much, much more from that character. But this time your expectations are your own problem I'm afraid.
The rest you have probably seen yourself - and if you haven't then you probably should, because, even with its somewhat generic and one-dimensional taste, Infinity War is still quite good as an action flick. The moving figures won't let you doze off too soon, and a few "deep" dialogue scenes will keep your palate from getting too numb if you have a taste for anything besides punches and gunshots.
Still, after all we've seen from Marvel in these ten years, Infinity War leaves a rather dull aftertaste. Not as pathetic as Iron Man 3, but something between GotG2 and Thor Dark World. In other words, the intense buildup and high expectations make the actual endeavor feel faded. Like all those figures from the ending, this movie doesn't present any substantial endpoint - but rather flakes away, so that instead of feeling absolutely overwhelmed you simply go check on your Instagram updates while the (surprisingly rather impressive) ending credits score keeps banging, find no new posts and feel somewhat disappointed.
The film wasn't bad per se. But most of the fan theories and memes people generated while waiting for this to hit the theaters were indeed more exciting. In a way, that does create a balance of sorts, something Thanos would have appreciated, but, as for you, I wouldn't be so sure.