You are not prepared.

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2018)

You are not prepared. You may believe you are, even if you have seen every trailer, every TV spot, every leaked set photo, you are not prepared for the Infinity War.
All has led to this. A spoiler free analysis follows.

Previously I've been blogging a series of retrospective posts chronicling the past films that are a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), their impact on the larger narrative, and discussing Marvel's growth as a film studio over the past 10 years and 18 films. Ever increasing budgets aside, the films have grown ever larger in their grander context of the larger scope of the MCU. An early criticism was the way they sloppily shoehorned connections between films, which has matured to become a subtle art of careful structure. Avengers Infinity War, however, is fully aware that the connective tissue strewn about the past 18 films has always had one end game, the villain Thanos, and his enigmatic ultimate goal. This review will not have any story spoilers beyond what has been shown in the first trailer released what seems like so very long ago.
This is important to note as seeing the film with eyes as fresh as possible is a requirement not exclusively meant for the rabbid fans that have been clamouring for this film since they first cracked open a comic book in their youth, but as it turns out, also the unwashed masses who may have only seen a smattering of previous films. You may have only seen Black Panther, or been here since the first Iron Man, but the story will still surprise you and overwhelm you with emotions, as even though knowledge of the previous films is a pre-requisite to fully engaging with the story, the writers have so perfectly crafted the narrative as to add weight and substance to every scene, even if you may not know the intricately detailed back story to a character's actions. This applies even to Thanos, the big bad originally teased in the first Avengers so very long ago, the Mad Titan's motivation is so skillfully manifested throughout the film as to make him a sympathetic character, you of course won't agree with his methods but you will come to understand his reasons so clearly that it puts so many comic book movie baddies to shame.
Avengers Infinity War is unquestionably the biggest superhero film ever put before celluloid, or in this case, IMAX cameras. It's notable that this is the first Hollywood production to be shot entirely using IMAX cameras, cameras known for being used most often for nature documentaries due to the unrivalled visual fidelity and highly engrossing aspect ratio that pulls the viewer into any given scene. This is no less true for Avengers, the film is very obviously designed with the large aspect ratio IMAX presents as each shot beautifully paints a larger than life image, as needed for such larger than life characters. Characters, who after all this time, are still receiving incredible depth of development even though they share the screen with upwards of 60 total characters. And the way the film juggles so many characters vying for screen time in such disparate circumstances is a master class in story telling and film editing.
As a fan of all things geeky, specifically superheroes, and most specifically the MCU, of which I have seen each film many times over and already had my tickets to see Infinity War a second time before having even seen it once, I knew I would like this movie, I was ready to crown it my new favourite comic book movie, period. However, I can momentarily put aside my Hulk sized bias and state objectively that the film works, and against all odds. It takes the narrative promises it's laid out the last 10 years and weaves them so deftly as to seem effortless. You will laugh, you will cry, you will gasp in utter disbelief, and then immediately buy another ticket on your way out.