Overhyped, but still an engaging action movie that is far from perfect

Rating: 7/10 (28 April 2018)

SPOILER ALERT: (THERE IS SERIOUSLY NO WAY TO REVIEW THIS FILM WITHOUT SPOILING ONE MINUTE DETAIL OF THE STORY)
As of April 27th 2018 (the time in which this review has been written), Avengers: Infinity War is the 9th highest rated film on IMDb. If you watch Infinity war with these expectations, well you might want to be ready to be slightly disappointed. That is not me trying to be negative about the movie, in fact I actually got much enjoyment out of it, but this ridiculously high score is one that should be taken with a grain of salt. And I say this mostly because in a lot of ways, Infinity War does what lots of other previous Avengers movies have already done before. It obviously turns up the scale of the plot to be this soaring epic battle between all the heroes in this universe and the unstoppable Thanos, but really it suffers from a lot of tropes and plot holes that these Marvel movies tend to have. I would say a lot of the story based problems I have come from the 1st Act. I really feel like they could have done a little better of a job introducing Thanos at the very beginning. He does look pretty intimidating and do some things that certainly show his strength like defeat the Hulk and kill Loki, but they really should have showed to massacre of the Asgardians in more detail to really emphasize what he was all about and the scale of how brutal he could be. Also what was up with Loki just dropping the tesseract? I mean he could held a little better of a grip on it... Loki's death was actually a pretty impactful event though and set the stakes for the rest of the movies. It was a serviceable start, but certainly could've used more in my opinion. One other thing I really got sick of was how much exposition these characters had to spew out at the start. Bruce Banner somehow knows all the intentions and details of Thanos' plan after only encountering him for a short amount of time. The fact that all the Avengers were split up and working in groups this whole movie also added to the amount of times different characters had to say the same things again. After the 1st act comes to an end, I actually found myself really enjoying Josh Brolin's Thanos. I would say that he is one of the better MCU villains and has proper motivation and characterization. I really have no complaints with his character (besides the CGI work on him which I found to be iffy at times). Overall the visual effects were okay. I would say this movie tends to be weaker on the visual side. In terms of the CGI it can range from being pretty good to slightly outdated. One scene I particularly found to be weird was after Thanos gets the soul stone he is laying in this body of water and I was really taken aback by how much that scene looked like it was straight out of a video game cut scene. Looked totally fake and really not good at all. Cinematography was also very bland but I really was not expecting much in the first place considering MCU movies tend to not be shot in the most creative of ways. The score was bland as well, but again, I wasn't really expecting much. Scenes that are sad will have the same stock sad dramatic music and epic actions scenes will have some generic music too. I always think it would be nice to get at least one more recognizable theme in the movie rather than just the Avengers theme that they have been using from the first movie. In terms of characters and their interactions, I think that this is Infinity War's strong suit. And it makes sense; after all these characters have been developed over 18 other MCU movies. Spider-Man is easily the best character in my opinion. He is always the center of attention for me and has some great action scenes while also being able to play off of all the other Avengers he encounters very nicely. The Guardians of the Galaxy were also all pretty good, Dr. Strange was alright, and surprisingly Thor was actually pretty fun to see too. I feel like all the weaker characters came from Captain America's side and they didn't seem to be as engaging to me. Gamora's death did not really impact me as much as it was intended to. I think that she may have been one of the weaker character in Infinity War. Even though they tried to add some depth to her through her relationship with Thanos, I still found her death to be silly. The acting was pretty good all around except for a couple weird lines with Mark Ruffalo here and there and also Elizabeth Olsen suddenly deciding to drop Scarlet Witch's Russian accent. One of the best and worst things about this movie is its ending. There is a lot to talk about here so I will try to keep it brief. The ending was actually pretty surprising but also not at the same time. With having half the Avengers "die" at the end, it makes for a surprise at first but in retrospect has no longevity. With so many Avengers being gone and so many of them already having solo movies planned and way too much riding on their death, you know they will come back. Its pretty much a given at this point and is one of the biggest superhero tropes of all time. I did find Peter Parker collapsing in front of Tony Stark to be pretty emotionally involved. The final shot with Thanos at the end looking into the sunset with a sense of accomplishment is so bittersweet. It is kinda hard not to think that the whole plot could've been resolved if Doctor Strange would've just threw Star Lord into a portal somewhere else. Like seriously, he could see all the outcomes but the one where he doesn't punch Thanos in the face right before they are about to take the gauntlet off doesn't save the day? I smell BS.
Overall, Avengers: Infinity War is good. It's not mind blowing or as risk taking as you think it may be, but with an ending that is pretty unexpected, whole cast of characters that play off each other nicely and decent pacing, it it pretty hard to say anything that is inherently bad about it. It achieves everything it wants to just fine and if you can get past some of the convenient plot devices and tropes that befall most Marvel movies, you will for sure have a fun time watching it and not be disappointed. Just keep your expectations low. This is not a 9/10 movie. Seriously.