The title of “Avengers: Infinity War” is a misnomer we’ll see what happens in the 2019 release, but this entry’s less invested in tidying up loose ends than setting all of them ablaze in Thanos’ mad sprint to find the final stone. Later: “There’s an Ant Man and a Spider-Man?”) Yes, the Avengers broke up, and anyone expecting a cozy reunion shouldn’t get carried away. “Like a band?” (His incredulousness at the busy MCU provides a recurring punchline. Somewhere in the middle of all this mania, Tony, aka Iron Man, brings Banner up to speed on the plot of “Captain America: Civil War,” in which Iron Man and Captain America (Chris Evans) disagree about the future of the Avengers and split off into factions. Queens teen Spider-Man (Tom Holland) spots the mess and joins the action, while a helpless Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) stands nearby and fails to conjure his inner Hulk. Meanwhile, in New York, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) meets Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and learns about Thanos’ developing powers just as a few of his minions land at the center of the city for a big battle. Aboard the Guardians’ ship, Thor bonds with Rocket (Bradley Cooper), while news of Thanos’ scheme affects his estranged adopted daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana) as he contemplates facing off with the monster despite the misgivings of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt).
As the movie begins, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has been cast off his ship by Thanos, whose path of destruction attracts the Guardians of the Galaxy. In our cluttered information age, when online fan theories threaten to ruin every plot twist, “Infinity War” shows a marked determination to speed ahead of audience expectations it’s so fast-paced that no single viewer could possibly anticipate the next move, even as individual sequences reek of familiarity.Įven the simplest plot details involve a crowd of characters. “Avengers: Infinity War” is jumbled but never messy, speeding forward in fits and starts but plenty of calculation.
It’s a fascinating hodgepodge of circumstances designed to move the story forward with dramatic results while resolving it at the same time. The resulting spectacle channels the best and worst attributes of Marvel’s movies. With so many heroes crowding the plot, Thanos uses the chaos to his advantage, and always seems to be one step ahead of his frantic foes. Fortunately, this is more feature than bug. He’s closer than ever before, and “Infinity War” charts the galaxy-spanning efforts of nearly every Marvel hero to stop him from unleashing a terrible holocaust, even as they seem to be moving in too many directions at once. Alien warlord Thanos (Josh Brolin, a hulkish monstrosity buried under wrinkly purple CGI) has been gathering the reality-governing Infinity Stones over the course of several movies, plugging them into his shiny gold glove and gaining more powerful as he continues along a grim genocidal quest.
About that threat, it’s “the fate of the universe,” and in case you were wondering, someone later asserts, “We’re in the end game now.”Īnd they really are. “This is it!” shouts one hero, briefed on the threat at hand. The Avengers and their ilk have preempted so many threats that “Infinity War,” the first of two “Avengers” movies released a year apart to bring the current arc to a close, confronts visible pressure to up the ante more than ever before. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a busy place since “Iron Man” first launched his suit in 2008, as the stream of faces in the opening logo alone make clear. As a virtuoso juggling act, “Infinity War” has no real parallel in popular culture as a movie, it’s an impressive montage of greatest hits until the gut punch of a finale. It’s a lot more cohesive than “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” and the sprawling, busy ensemble often feels like every Marvel movie engaged in overlapping conversation, like a slow-zoom from the Robert Altman playbook laced with CGI.
After 18 movies and 10 years of Marvel superheroes battling through overlapping plots, sibling directors Anthony and Joe Russo unite nearly every single character for a series of epic showdowns and one giant, universe-shattering threat. This is not a spoiler: “ Avengers: Infinity War” contains the most dramatic cliffhanger of any major blockbuster since “The Empire Strikes Back,” and everything leading up to it is a marathon.