Avengers: Infinity War Review

       

     Avengers: Infinity War has just come out and as, for the past few months, it has been promoted as the cinematic event of the year, I am extremely happy to say that the rumours were absolutely and relievingly true and this 3rd Avengers adventure is exactly what we've always wanted - except, well, when some of our beloved heroes bite the dust (no worries - this is a spoiler free review).

       If you haven't been living in a cave for the last 10 years, you most likely are familiar with heroes such as Iron Man, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo): the people who started it all in this enormous cinematic trend that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It all started 10 years ago when just another superhero film came out; this time, though, starring an Academy Award Nominee: Robert Downey Jr. He was to play the role of his life and he didn't even know it: a wealthy playboy named Tony Stark who would soon become Iron Man. The movie was incredible, something which led to its tremendous success; but the plan from the beginning was for it to be part of a series of films, as it was soon revealed in the -now classic- after-credits scene which featured Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury inviting Stark to the Avengers. One thing led to another and soon we have found ourselves 18 films later and it all has led to this.
     

The Avengers now are not just the founding members: we've also got The Guardians of the Galaxy (starring Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldana), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the newest Spiderman (finally owned by Marvel and starring Tom Holland) and this year's great surprise Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). In Infinity War, even though the events of the previous movies (especially what happened in Captain America: Civil War - the honorary Avengers film) have left them scattered and in no speaking terms, they all have to come together to face their greatest threat: a man who we first peaked at in the first Avengers movie: Thanos (Josh Brolin).

     Thanos's goal is to gather the six infinity stones; some powerful artifacts with which he can rule the universe. Each stone has a different power (space, power, reality, mind, time, soul) and they are dispersed all around the world. We soon find out that two of the stones are in Doctor Strange's and in Vision's (Paul Bettany) possession, so the Avangers have not only to protect those two but also to fight Thanos and possibly defeat him before he destroys both Earth as well as other worlds.
     Infinity War is the moment that every Marvel film was leading to. It is the end of the third Marvel phase (as each phase came to a close with an Avengers film) and it really seems like the end of a ten-year chapter. Every character's life is at stake, and why shouldn't it be? We are experiencing a war that will need two movies to be completed, so the only logical thing is for some characters to pay the price of heroism. 

The Russo brothers, who also directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) as well as Civil War (2016) return here with a third bang in a row and they manage to handle all this information very effectively. They give us all the details that we need (using also moments, easter eggs and glimpses from the previous movies) in the right order and the right amount and they don't overwhelm us with unnecessary facts. They also achieve to balance the typical Marvel humour with the action and the adventure needed in such an epic gathering of all that has come before, not forgetting to make us feel the imminent and constant threat and inevitability of the events that are flooding the screen. The Russos manage all that by making a very well-structured film that has the right pace and feeling. They don't seem intimidated even by the fact that more than 30 characters make an appearance in this almost two-and-a-half-hour movie; instead, all of the superheroes are given a decent amount of screen time - enough to make their presence in the story significant and memorable even for those audience members who may have a short memory span. 

     And speaking of those who may come to this movie a little bit unprepared: Infinity War could be somewhat too much for people who have missed a couple of Marvel films (especially the latest ones) but, honestly, if you aren't up-to-date with this superhero universe and expect the 19th film of a series to explain everything, then you are in for a seriously hard ride. This is  film for the fans; it is for those people who have grown up with these characters, even by reading them on paper or by witnessing their cinematic development, and care to see where they go next and what happens to them. And it is a story that tries to make its final step before it reaches its full circle; a circle that will most likely give a very final end to some of the heroes who have accompanied us for 10 years and it will make way for what will come next. 

     What a beautiful journey.       

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