>Marvel Studios deserves a round of applause for pulling this
>off. We are moving towards an end of an era, and that starts
>here. Keyword starts. Avengers: Infinity War highlights the
>strengths and weakness of ten years of living in this
>cinematic universe.
>
>With the fate of the universe at stake, the splintered
>Avengers must reunite with new faces as well as the Guardians
>of the Galaxy to take down Thanos (Josh Brolin), who seeks the
>legendary infinity stones to alter reality itself.
>
>Thanos has been teased now for six years since he popped up in
>the first Avengers film. It was worth the build-up as not only
>from the first frame do we get how big of a threat he is, but
>we see what makes him tick. Thanos’ reasoning for doing what
>he’s doing makes sense. It’s horrifying for sure, but I
>was so worried he was gonna be a mustache-twirling villain,
>but he’s fully realized and fleshed. Walking out I
>understood why Josh Brolin said he got more out of playing
>Thanos than playing Cable. Much credit is due his way for a
>really incredible performance.
>
>Once this film starts, it keeps moving. I can say that
>there’s not a wasted moment in this as the film has a lot to
>accomplish. For those of you who have theories on the Soul
>Stone, throw them out the window. One of the biggest surprises
>as well as emotional beats in this film comes from the Soul
>Stone sequence. That sequence is important on why you have had
>to see every single MCU film up until this point as this film
>makes references big and small to what’s come before.

Incredibly impressed with the pacing and editing. That was a very quick 2:40. Also, the above referenced sequence confirmed something I had always kicked around in my mind.
>
>The Russo brothers deserve a lot of credit for making this
>film works. The film consistently shifts from funny to super
>dark walking a tightrope that could’ve teetered into a mess.
>Part of what makes this work is the handheld camera work
>that’s being used. The shots and the way the camera moves
>makes this the most cinematic Avengers film thus far. It’s
>true that the first two Avengers films have a television film
>type quality to them, but here Joe and Anthony make you feel
>the stakes. The scope of this thing is so big, I understand
>now why every frame of this was shot in IMAX.
>
>With that said, this film does have its problems. Look, the
>ending here will have you shocked, I’m still shocked by it.

I can't even say shocked. I say somewhat anti-climactic because some outcomes have been made obvious. The previews for next year's movie will have to be some of the most guarded and deliberate scenes so as to not give anything away.

>But this is only a part of a whole. I’m frustrated that this
>didn’t exactly have an ending. One of the most referenced
>sequels of all time The Empire Strikes Back, has a beginning,
>middle, and end despite its various cliffhangers. Same goes
>for The Last Jedi. To even further this point each film in The
>Lord of the Rings trilogy has a beginning, middle, and end
>despite the fact that it’s one narrative. You can clearly
>tell this is Infinity War Part 1 before Marvel Studios decided
>to ditch that for now obvious reasons. Look, whatever Avengers
>4 (Infinity War Part 2) is gonna be called, I can go back and
>judge this as a whole instead of the sum of its parts.
>
>I don’t really like the split narratives either. The
>Guardians are split up with Thor and going on their own quest
>eventually meeting up with a group of Avengers. And the rest
>of the Avengers are globetrotting place to place. I understand
>why this had to happen as there are so many characters in the
>MCU (two of which do not appear at all and their absence is
>mentioned), but this also took the wind out of the sails at
>times as some stories became less interesting than the
>others.
>
>The children of Thanos cannot match Thanos’ presence. They
>are uber-powered stand-ins with no depth to them. In fact, I
>wondered why were they in the film in the first place. Thanos
>has a generic army of aliens (not a good thing) for our heroes
>to punch, these guys added nothing other than getting three of
>our heroes out into space and setting a trap for later.
I can kind of understand why. After the fragmentation of Civil War, it makes sense to disperse them in different places. Will leave it at that, you can probably figure out what I'm saying.

>And while there are some very cool setpieces, some had me
>glaze over after a while. I know people are getting tired of
>CG cities being knocked over, well sorry to say that this has
>multiple cities being leveled. And speaking of, they gotta do
>something with the Netflix characters (the whole of Marvel TV
>in general) cause it’s so distracting to see Midtown under
>attack and not see the Defenders join in.
isn't that all contractual, the TV v. Movie impenetrable wall?
>

>Look this works more often than it doesn’t. I enjoyed the
>film, just not as much as I would have hoped (that’s the
>problem with hype). With Black Panther literally just having
>been released upon the world, it’s a tough act for Infinity
>War to follow. Even more so considering that that’s one of
>the best comic book films made yet. Moving forward this will
>have serious consequences and that ending has me wondering
>just where do they go from here. Seriously, if I was a
>screenwriter, I’d be lost on how exactly do I resolve this.
>And going forward one this Marvel and DC should consider is
>having their heroes meet earlier in solo films or have certain
>characters costar like Hulk did in Thor: Ragnarok. Avoid
>everything until you are able to lay eyes on this. You don’t
>want this spoiled for you.
It had a LOT to unpack. Multiple viewings shall ensue.