Review: The Avengers: Infinity War

Death has come hunting.

Well, it all comes down to this. Ten years, Nineteen movies, dozens of characters, all building to this showdown. The Mad Titan Thanos has grown tired of waiting and is now actively searching for the six Infinity Stones. He plans on bringing the stones together and use them to wipe out half of all life in the Universe. May the Asgard help those who stand in his way.

A big cast for a colossal problem.

We open to the Asgard Ark being bombarded. Well, crap. The refugee gods were set upon by Thanos and his Black Order. Here’s a quick roll call, something the movie doesn’t bother with. First, we have Ebony Maw, he is an insanely powerful telekinetic and serves as the ‘preacher’ of Thanos.  He mostly stands around shouting about how glorious it is to die at the hands of the Mad Titan. Next, we have Cull Obsidian, the giant bruiser. He’s the resident powerhouse of the group, he is mostly brought along to break things. FYI, in just about everything else he’s referred to as Black Dwarf. And finally, we have Proxima Midnight, and her husband Corvus Glaive. They’re a pair of peerless warriors that serve as more discrete assassins then their cohorts. And leading them is Thanos, the Mad Titan and bringer of doom. He’d already gained the purple Power Stone from Xandar offscreen. Thanos and his minions lay waste to the Asgardians. Even the best efforts of Thor, Loki and the Hulk are useless against Thanos. Using the last of his strength, Heimdall is able to open a Bifrost Bridge, flinging Hulk towards Earth. Thanos stabs him through the chest for that. Thanos tortures Thor, to try and force Loki to hand over the Tesseract, which he stole from the Asgard Vault before their home’s destruction. And, to everyone’s shock, he hands it over to get Thanos to spare his brother’s life. Thanos shatters the cube, retrieving the stone within and places it on his glove. Loki then tries to offer his services to Thanos, as a guide while on Earth. This turns out to be a ruse to get in close and stab the Mad Titan right in his enormous chin. Unfortunately, he sees it coming and strangles Loki to death. He and his crew depart, bombarding the Asgard ship to debris with Thor still inside.

Even Loki would have trouble talking his way out of this.

Hulk hurtles across space and time, crash landing in Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Santorum in New York City. Hulk reverts back to Banner and tells the Sorcerer Supreme and Wong about what is coming. In order to stop this, Strange picks up Tony Stark, whom was in the middle of unsuccessfully convincing fiancée Pepper Potts that they should have a baby. They get Tony just in time, as Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian have arrived in New York to steal the Time Stone from Dr. Strange. Unfortunately, Banner is unable to Hulk-out, so the heroes are at a disadvantage. Spider-Man, who saw the colossal ship the two Black Order were using, swings in to assist. The team is able to disarm, dis-hand, and strand Obsidian somewhere in the arctic, but Maw is able to overpower Strange and takes him to the ship. Peter hitches a ride on the ship but is nearly killed when the ship leaves the upper atmosphere. Tony summons up the Iron Spider Armor to help Peter, and by help, I mean tries to use it to force him back to Earth. It doesn’t work, so He and Iron Man are stuck on the cruiser. Street side, Banner takes the burner cellphone that Tony had dropped as the fight began to call Cap.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, Scotland, Wanda Maximoff and Vision are finishing up a ‘secret’ rendezvous. The two have been carrying on a private relationship, despite Wanda’s status as a fugitive, since that Civil War fiasco. Just as the two are about to part ways, they’re attacked by Proxima and Glaive. The Black Order carry weapons that seem to counter-act Vision’s phasing powers, and nearly rip the Mind Stone from his head. But, back up arrives in the form of Captain Rogers, Black Widow, and Falcon. The three relatively normal humans force the two aliens back, for now. They grab Vision and take him back to the new Avengers Facility. James Rhodes is there, and ordered to arrest the fugitives, but he decides to ignore that order. Vision, knowing what will happen if Thanos gets the Mind Stone, asks Wanda to use her Chaos powers to destroy it. She refuses, as doing so will kill Vision. With few options, the heroes decide to take Vison to the one place on Earth that might be able to do something about the Mind Stone that could leave Vision intact, Wakanda.

Meanwhile, The Guardians of the Galaxy arrive at the wreckage of the Asgard ship. They’d received the distress call earlier. They hit Thor, literally, and bring him onboard. The last of the Aesir, after recovering, proposes a plan to the alien team. Feeling underequipped without Mjolnir, Thor wants to travel to Nidavellir, to see the Dwarf king and master weaponsmith Eitri. Why? So he can build a weapon capable of killing Thanos. But, at the same time, he feels someone should go to the space station Knowhere to check on the Collector, whom currently holds the Reality Stone. Thor had the Warrior’s Three give it to him at the end of Thor 2. Thor, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot go to Nidavellir, and Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis go to Knowhere.

Such a colorful collection of characters.

Back with Team Iron Man, Tony and Peter try to think of a way to beat Ebony Maw. And, actually, Peter has a perfect plan. They ripoff the ending to Aliens. Peter and Tony distract Maw for a second, then blow a hole in the side of the ship to cast him into the void. Peter and Steven almost get pulled out too, but hey, no plan is perfect. Without Maw to drive the ship, though, they’re stuck heading for it’s destination, Titan.  

On Nidavellir, Team Thor learns that the station is dark, and that the dwarves are all dead save Eitri. The rather giant Dwarf reveals that he made Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet, in the foolish hope that Thanos would spare Nidavellir if he got what he wanted. Instead, the Mad Titan killed the dwarves and chopped off Eitri’s hands. Thor is able to convince Eitri to help them, and they set about forging Thor’s new weapon, the half-hammer half-axe Stormbreaker. They have a slight issue with the forging process, which leads to Thor having to manually holding open a valve and be blasted by a solar Prominence to forge it. Groot offers up some of his own wood to give Stormbreaker it’s hilt.

On Knowhere, Team Star-Lord find Thanos already there and torturing The Collector for the Stone’s location. Despite Quill’s best attempts at forming a spontaneous plan, Gamora rushes in and stabs her adoptive father in the neck. Well, that was easy. That’s a real short movie. Kind of anti-climactic really.

…

Okay, that’s not what happened. Turns out, Thanos already had the Reality Stone and used it’s powers to draw them into Knowhere, and then out into the open. The Thanos that Gamora killed was an illusion, and all of Knowhere is actually on fire. After a very short fight, Thanos grabs Gamora and flees. On Thanos’ ship, Thanos reveals that he captured Nebula, and through the Cyborg’s memories learned that Gamora knows where the Soul Stone is hidden. Gamora tries to feign ignorance but relents to spare her sister’s life. It's on a planet called Vormir. They travel to Vormir and are greeted by the Soul Stone’s Guardian. Turns out, it’s Red Skull. Oh, so that loose end is finally tied up. Apparently, he’s spent the last seventy or so years as a disembodied spirit, watching over the Stone and being tortured by the knowledge that it will never be his. Through him, they learn that the only way for someone to acquire the Soul Stone, is to sacrifice a soul in return. Gamora, for a moment, thinks that the heroes win, as who in creation could Thanos possibly love? Unfortunately, there is one. A little girl that he’d spared twenty years prior and molded into his perfect warrior. With tears in his eyes, Thanos casts Gamora onto the Alter. Killing her and winning the Stone. Meanwhile, Nebula is able to escape her bonds, and get’s a message out to Mantis to meet her on Titan.

On Titan, Team Iron Man and Team Star-Lord meet, fight, have a Mexican Standoff, and then realize that they’re all on the same side. While the others try to formulate a plan, Dr. Strange uses the Time Stone to see into the future. Of the millions of possibilities that lay before them, only one can assure them victory.

Team Rogers arrives in Wakanda, where they meet with Black Panther and Winter Soldier. The team consult with Princess Shuri, the Panther’s sister. Shuri believes that she could remove the Stone, but it’ll take some time. She’s got to very carefully cut and rewire trillions of synapsis if they want to make this work. And the Black Order is on their way. Realizing what is coming, Black Panther orders the city of Wakanda to be evacuated, and all of their forces gathered to the battlefield.

Wakanda Forever!

So, there you have it, on Titan, it’s Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax the Destroyer and Nebula vs. Thanos. On Earth, it’s Captain Rogers, Black Panther, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, Winter Soldier, M’Baku, General Okoye, and the assembled forces of Wakanda vs. The Black Order and the armies of Thanos. Thor, Groot, and Rocket are able to Bifrost in using Stormbreaker part way through the battle. And Banner, who still can’t transform for some reason, is piloting the Hulk-Buster Armor. This is going to be a big brawl.

The good first. Everyone is phenomenal in their roles. I’d do a casting calling, but that’d take two pages at least. Just know that everyone from central characters like Iron-Man and Captain Rogers, all the way down to one-scene guys like Pepper and Wong are giving it their all. FYI, I have it on good authority that Peter Dinklage has always refused to take roles stereotypical for those whom have dwarfism. I assume that the fact that they used CGI to make Eitri bigger then just about everyone is the main reason he decided to let that rule slide. I liked what they did with Thanos. They toned down his more insane characteristics. There’s no mention of the Death Goddess he’s in love with, or hints at insanity. Instead, he’s portrayed as an extreme proponent of… I guess it’s best described as controlled genocide. In this version of events, his homeworld of Titan was ultimately destroyed due to overpopulation. He proposed, and was called mad for suggesting, that they randomly kill fifty percent of their population to reduce the burdens on their resources. No one listened, Titan was destroyed, and Thanos set about purging planets on his own. So yeah, he’s still insane, but there is a little justification to said insanity this time around.

Honestly, the only real negative that I could think of, as a Marvel fan mind you, was there was not enough screen time to go around. Each of these impromptu teams, Cap and co on Earth, Iron-Man and friends on Titan, and Thor’s team adventures on Nidavellir could have had a full-length feature all to themselves. Sure, Team Iron-Man and Team Quill’s would have meshed together pretty early, but it would have been doable. But then, as this movie is already split in two, maybe it’s for the best.

A+ all around. This movie is all that it needed to be. It was action packed, funny, and a treat for the eyes. Given how much work was put into the setup, the aforementioned ten years and nineteen movies, it’s a real wonder that this was able to meet, and in my case exceed, expectations. Thanos has come, and all of creation will tremble with his passing.

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