so here it is...

Rating: Null/10 (25 April 2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo)
This is a hard film to judge on its own merits with it being the conclusion of an 18 movie story arc. All the previous films good or bad had a solid story of their own with a traditional story telling format that sprinkled the connectivity and over reaching arc in towards the goal of The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy facing Thanos. So this is the the film that concludes these sprinkles that were set in motion 10 years ago and is 100% not a film that can be watched by someone who has not seen all or at least most of the prior films. The MCU is basically a vert expensive tv show that way and also it mimics large cross over event comics which in my experience, the individual build up issues are better than the grand finale that brings everyone together and leaves little time for characters to shine as they are overstuffed. I think this is that overstuffed 'finale' but that is not to say that there is not plenty of other good and bad factors in this epic.
The Russo brothers started with Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) which showed their shortcomings in the action sequences (in particular hand to hand combat), from their they moved to Captain America: Civil War (2016) which had a better story with a more emotional finale and better but still imperfect editing and filming of combat sequences but was saved in this vein with a great action set piece in the middle (the airport scene) and a strong final and more personal battle. Two years on they have now brought us this, the third Avengers film which its action/combat scenes are 'mostly' quite bad... I really can't tell what's really happening in a lot of them.
However despite being overstuffed and poorly made in some ways it is well paced with a great tone. It is not overly silly and jokey like some of the more recent Disney tentpoles (Thor: Ragnarok, The Last Jedi), instead it is more appropriately toned for the circumstances the characters find themselves with plenty of more natural humour between the more sombre moments. Another big plus is Josh Brolin as Thanos and the way the character is written. He is the only really fleshed out character in the film and he is a really great three dimensional foil who does not disappoint after such a huge build up. Another positive thing that surprised me was how the film was pretty much half Avengers and half Guardians of the Galaxy.
I think James Gunn would have been a better choice as director for this film but it could have been a lot worse. In the end we have a massive film with almost every character from past films in the series that despite its technical flaws has a great last few minutes that would serve as an even more amazing exclamation mark/ full stop if we all did not realise that due to the way the economics of a successful franchise works that much of it will be undone somehow in the future.