Avengers: Infinity War

Dir: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

2018

*****

I ordered an extra-large portion of popcorn before watching Avengers: Infinity War and it was definitely the right decision, although maybe I should have bought two. It seems every new Avengers film is ‘the best yet’ and Infinity War is certainly no exception. I’ve pondered the film I only watched yesterday and I’ve been honest with myself – I have calmed my giddying excitement and still I believe it is the second greatest superhero/comic adaptation ever made (no one will ever better Superman 1978 in my heart). Since 2008 Marvel Studios have managed to adapt some of the most outlandish characters and scenarios and make them believable but I think for the very first time, ever, they have captured the pure essence (craziness) of the comic book with Infinity War. Civil War was great, a new chapter in superhero/comic adaptation movies but it is nothing compared to this. I love everything they do but this time Marvel really have brought their comics to life without compromise or complication. It’s everything comic book fans have ever wanted but never in a million years thought they would ever see – and more. It really isn’t that long ago when studios – and some fans – would suggest the very idea of having a man in a robotic suit, a God and a talking tree in the same film wouldn’t work and that some things can only exist properly within the realms of the comic book, but Marvel have proved them wrong. I remember the excitement when Nick Fury turned up at the end of 2008’s Iron Man but even then it felt like a tease, a hopeful wish that you took with a pinch of salt, indeed, many superhero/comic adaptations have been touted since and have fallen by the wayside. The Russo brother’s film kicks bottom. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s script – that is loosely adapted  from Jim Starlin's 1991 comic series "The Infinity Gauntlet" and Jonathan Hickman's 2013 "Infinity" comic, comes together perfectly, with each character – all sixty-four – having their fair share of action. Not one character is lost in the background, some may only feature for a few minutes but each one serves a purpose and is recognised. We’ve had eighteen films worth of character development, now its time for said characters to do what superheros do without any nonsense. By now it is no secret that Thanos is coming, he wants all of the six Infinity Stones to become the most powerful (and destructive) force in the universe. His intentions don’t quite match anyone else’s. The Infinity Stones have featured heavily up to this point within the MCU and all of the films – particularly the few released in the couple of years previous to Infinity War – have led to this point. We first saw The Space Stone (also known as the Tesseract) in Captain America: The First Avenger. After Cap got hold of it and Tony Stark recovered it, it was stolen by Loki who caused all sorts of mischief (of which he is the god of) with it in the first Avengers film. The Mind Stone, which was housed in Loki's staff until Avengers: Age of Ultron is now in Vision’s forehead – indeed, Stark and Banner’s knowledge, Iron Man’s computer and The Mind Stone all come together to make Vision. The Power Stone, first seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, is under control of the Nova Corps. The Reality Stone (also known as the Aether) was first seen in Thor: The Dark World and was placed in the care of the Collector. The fifth stone, the Time Stone (also known as the Eye of Agamotto), was revealed in Doctor Strange and is under his protection in Kamar-Taj. The whereabouts of the sixth stone, the Soul Stone, was unknown up to this point and its big reveal is one of the film’s highlights. As Thanos plunders the galaxy, he meets pretty much everyone in the MCU as they scatter and form separate groups. These little team-ups are a dream come true for fans and an exciting new element to the films. The cast is astonishing, not only do we have Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Pratt, Idris Elba, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and Gwyneth Paltrow reprising their roles, you have Benicio del Toro, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, William Hurt, Kerry Condon, Peter Dinklage as a new addition to the cast and a couple of very pleasant surprises. After a decade of speculation, the film keeps you guessing from beginning to end and none of it is predictable. I guessed maybe two out of a hundred revelations but that’s about it. I’m struggling to think of another film that has this amount of excitement. The excitement levels never fall either, it’s amazing how they kept it going as they did for over two and half hours without it becoming convoluted and over-complicated. It takes the audience through every single emotion, our heros are super but we know they are all vulnerable in their own separate ways, so the outcome is always a mystery. Its excitement comes with real suspense and, for the first time, a real darkness. Marvel’s signature humor is alive and well – with some of the funniest moments so far in the MCU – and its balance between the two is unique. It shouldn’t work but it does. It’s amazing that a film with a walking, talking tree in it could be taken serious at all, but Infinity War proves that a film can be funny, exciting, dark and sad at the same time as being superiorly inventive and more intelligent than any action film has been before. Thanos is a big bulky super villain but he is just as fragile as our heroes. I don’t think a super-villain has ever been as complex before and we certainly have never seen the world from a super-villains perspective before, at least not quite like this. It’s a shame his chin looks like a scrotum though. The film is full of high points but the climax is something else. The eerie contemplative silence that fell upon the packed cinema I watched it in was like nothing I’ve witnessed before, it was the power of cinema at full force. People who dismiss superhero films and comic book adaptations as blockbuster nonsense really are overlooking something special and are missing out. Imagine mixing The Godfather, Indiana Jones, Superman, James Bond and Star Wars together – the result might look something like this. It doesn’t feel like a film, it feels like an event, I’m clearly giddy with excitement but I don’t think I’m exaggerating. The cliff-hanger ending is torturous, it’s going to be a long wait until the next film but with nineteen films now in the MCU, a re-watch of them all should help me pass the time. Poor old DC. If someone who works at 2000AD is reading, please take note, a 2000AD universe of films is totally possible, so get on it.