Infinity War thoughts/review

*SPOILERS ABOUND*

There was no way this film could possibly live up to the hype....but it did. It exceeded my hopes by kind of not being quite the film tonally as expected.

This movie is TENSE. From literally the first shot (Hell, before the first shot even begins) the stakes are laid out clear. Thanos is not just imposing but scary. The whole film flows from that first 10 minutes.

The scenes where the various Avengers are put into peril all work because we know that, at least this time, Marvel is not faking deaths. The best tension/action sequence is definitely the one on Titan when a half dozen of our guys are all going at Thanos at once to get the glove off. And amidst this hellacious action scene, it turns on a character moment. The whole film is sold on spectacle but digs deep cause of great character beats.

And it's funny as hell too, and not at the expense of anything (one joke I would remove, because it undercuts a really nice romantic moment between 2 characters). Almost every joke hits.

Now, the lightning rod for this film is surely going to be the ending. And I fucking LOVED IT. That moment when Thanos uses the time gem to bring Vision back to get the mind gem...what a gut punch. And then....snap. At least half of our stars dissolve into dust. Thanos disappears. Credits. Wow.

Now, yes, we know as it is happening that at least SOME of this is going to have to be walked back in Avengers 4.  Black Panther, Spiderman and Doctor Strange have just begun their own franchises. They're not going to stay dead. Never the less, to end it this way is just about the ballsiest move a major blockbuster has ever pulled. You are sending your audience out into the world on a hell of a down note, even if most understand that a year from now the good guys will triumph.

Basically they do what any great cliffhanger does. You don't know HOW the Avengers will get out of this hole, even if you know they will.

I think a lot of the pre-release talk on the film got TOO wrapped up in "who's going to die?" There is a lot more to the film than that. And yes, there are final deaths for a few major characters in the film. But they are not just thrown in there at all. These deaths are impactful. I expect them to  have impact beyond Avengers 4.

I'm just in awe of what Marvel Studios has done. 10 years. At least half their films are just absolute untouchable classics. Their Civil War/Doctor Strange/Guardians 2/Spiderman/Ragnarok/Black Panther run here has just been peak stuff. And it has culminated with probably their best film of them all now. They are at the absolute peak of their powers right now.