Marvel is requesting that those of us who have seen Avengers: Infinity War don’t ruin it for everyone else by spewing spoilers all over the place, and I’ll certainly do my part to preserve the magic. I suggest staying away from comments on Facebook and Twitter, and really all of Tumblr, until you’ve seen the movie. I’ve seen several instances of miserable people dropping major spoilers just to be mean. I will, however, share my feelings on the movie to try and impress upon you what an insane ride Infinity War is. The theater was in a state of stunned silence when the credits began to roll. Seriously.
Infinity War really does feel like the culmination of a decade’s worth of films. There is a ton going on in this movie—the pace is sometimes breathless—and all the knowledge fans have gleaned from the eighteen movies previous to this one comes into play. If your friend who’s never seen any of these movies wants to tag along for fun, this really isn’t the best time to jump in. Despite how jam packed it is, I don’t think the movie feels like it’s two and a half hours, but I do think that who your favorite character is will in large part determine whether or not you feel the filmmakers balanced all of the stories well. I have to admit that there were certain characters I expected to see much more of.
The new addition to Infinity War is the heavily promoted Thanos. He’s not new as a character, we’ve seen glimpses of him since the first Avengers film, but he’s making his big debut here. Thanos wants all of the Infinity Stones so he can destroy life as he sees fit, The Avengers and company try to stop him, so goes the movie. Marvel has been pushing Thanos as the big bad of this universe for a long time. He’s extremely powerful, smart, and determined, and our heroes have to fight against him with everything they’ve got, so he’s a formidable opponent.
Other than that, details about the story have been hard to come by. Now that I’ve seen the movie I understand why. It’s difficult to say much of anything without giving away something huge. I’ll say that there were things about this movie that truly shocked me, and there were at least three moments when I let out an audible gasp and brought my hands to my face. Marvel has done the “our ENITRE UNIVERSE is on the line!” thing before, and it usually feels a bit trite, but Infinity War actually makes it work. The stakes are very, very high, and the audience feels that throughout. The ending is jarring, and gutsy as hell for a movie like this. (And speaking of endings, there’s only one post-credits scene.)
The title of next year’s Avengers 4 still hasn’t been announced, as it was considered too much of a spoiler. Originally it was Infinity War Part 2, and it’s clear at the end of this movie that there’s a lot more to come, which should make fans happy. The promotional tour for Infinity War has had a strange air of finality to it, but there’s still plenty coming our way.
See this movie as soon as you can, and in as big a theater as you can. You absolutely want to watch it with as many fans as possible. Bring tissues, because there will be tears. I promise this time it’s not just me being an easy crier. Take a deep breath, and I’ll see you on the other side.
While this review (can you call it a “review” in the technical sense if you can barely say anything?) was spoiler free, the TN team is planning a live chat for sometime next week so we can share our thoughts about EVERYTHING with you. We’ll share the details as they come together!
