Avengers: INFINITY WAR Spoiler Free Review, Spoiler Review and THEORIES!

Spoiler Free Review

Introduction

Wow. This movie was amazing. I don't know what to say, most of the movie had me with my mouth wide open, speechless. After the movie, after having time to think about it, I am extremely confused about whether certain characters are actually dead and the method of their death. What was real? What wasn't? This was a heart-stopping show, breaking the characters completely and leading us right to the edge of their failure. It was heartbreaking, funny, witty, and overall an extremely enjoyable experience.

I will break this review into two parts: characters and plot.

Characters

Infinity War was full to the brim of practically every superhero featured in the MCU, as well as new villains. As a long-time fan, it was fine. I knew everyone's names, abilities and costumes. However, for the bandwagoners that are new to the MCU and are only here because "Wow! Hype movie...!" I have no doubt it would have been confusing and hard to keep up with and understand. There were three or four storylines occurring simultaneously throughout most of the movie, each with separate characters that didn't interact... much. Near the end of it, each of these storylines broke up into even more storylines as the characters split up for the final battle, and the movie had to show each of their struggles. And it definitely felt like there was way too much going on. I'd be like "Yes Iron Man!" and then it'll cut to a scene of Thor and I'd be like "Oh... Thor exists too."

Don't get me wrong. Each character definitely got screen time. There was no character who I felt didn't get enough screen time... Except maybe Loki (But I'm probably biased, he is my favorite character.) Everyone got enough, but that's just it. Everyone only got enough, and not much more. Except Thanos. Which leads me to my next point.

Why Thanos's character was done amazingly, and why - to me - it still felt lackluster.

I've seen a couple other reviews and I completely agree with the fact that Marvel Studios did Thanos amazingly. We got to know the reasons behind his actions. He thought he would be a hero, he believed what he was doing was right, and his reasons and motivation are honorable. They are good. He gave up everything he had for the universe to make it a better place, or so he thought. We saw his emotions and his love. It was beautiful. Loki has been accepted as the best Marvel villain for a long time, but some people think Thanos challenges this. I don't.

Thanos' motivations and emotions humanized him, but I could not empathize with him. His sad scenes were sad but I did not cry the way I cried when Loki fell from the Bifrost. Why?

I believe this is because Thanos, while an amazing villain with a heartbreaking backstory, was, in the end, just a CGI alien. His emotions humanized him... But he was not a human. Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of Loki tore at my heartstrings. His witty remarks and his facial expressions and his tricks and his good deeds and his bad ones had me loving every second of his screen time. But Thanos was an alien: A really buff alien, sure, but an alien. And everything about him was just that: Alien. I did not empathize with him because I could not. Not in the way I did with Loki. So humanizing Thanos didn't work, at least not for me. He was a good villain, but he doesn't get the best villain title from me. It was a very good attempt. But it failed in the end.

Plot

Like I said at the start, this movie was confusing. Really, really confusing. The plot was good, but with that many characters to account for and expand on, it could not be great. It was just Thanos goes after a stone, he tries to get it, the Avengers and the GotG and stuff defend it, and they fight. And people die. Over and over, for every single stone. There were great action scenes and great "strategizing and problem solving" scenes, and watching it felt amazing, definitely. You know how stories have the main character(s) nearly fail before they (usually) succeed? This movie took it to a whole new level. But looking back, I found the plot to be rather boring and basic.

This movie was supposed to be the culmination of ten years of MCU. Almost three years and five films of setting the scene for this movie. It was supposed to be epic. That word, for me doesn't mean very good the way it does for seven-year-olds. An epic, originally, meant "a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation." Some examples are Homer's Odyssey, or the Iliad. To me, an epic narrative is one where the main character has to overcome insurmountable challenges against all odds and defeats the antagonist through impossible and awe-inspiring feats of bravery and skill. The whole story should build up anticipation for a truly awesome final battle. It should be HUGE. It should leave me hanging off a cliff, let alone on the edge of my seat.

Infinity War didn't do that.

The plot was admittedly good. But it wasn't epic, and not what I thought the culmination of ten years of MCU should be. It wasn't epic enough to be the movie I've been waiting for since I first watched Captain America: The First Avenger on our tiny telly screen so many years ago. It would have been a good movie, if it had been just any other Marvel movie, but it wasn't any other movie. And it didn't feel good enough to be the start of the end of an era.

Overall

Avengers: INFINITY WAR was enjoyable, definitely. I laughed, I cried, I lived with my favorites and I felt like I died with them too. The show was heart-wrenching (though Thanos wasn't); it was a movie that never slowed down. The stakes were mind-blowingly high for the entirety of the show. It was a good movie, fun to watch and had amazing action sequences, but it wasn't good enough. So many things about this movie felt like it was barely enough. That's my criticism. And that's my opinion.

What's yours?

Love, XFandoms4LifeX

Beta'd by @ezburn