Review: Avengers: Infinity War [SPOILER ALERT]

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (SPOILER REVIEW)

By Benjamin Allen Dickson

Let me preface this, I don't hate superhero movies. In fact, there are a lot of them that I absolutely love. I am a huge fan of the classic Sam Raimi Spider-Man films with Tobey Maguire; even the third one has a special place in my heart (2 being the best though). I love the Guardians of the Galaxy films, the second even more than the first, as well as The Dark Knight, the first Iron Man, and Logan, just to name a few. But that doesn't mean I'm not tired of them, as I have mentioned last issue that I had “superhero fatigue,” which still reigns true today. I don't give a shit about Thor or Captain America or Hawkeye or the Suicide Squad or Aquaman. I just love a well shot and well acted film, and the superhero movies that I love are loved for a reason —they are well shot and well acted films (with an exception to Spider-Man 3). The Avengers movies, and (most) modern Marvel movies in general, are shot so vanilla and boring that I can't care less about them, and that's why Infinity War, for the most part, was a breath of fresh air.

You know why?

Because there are consequences. It was an actual movie, not a TV episode that these “cinematic universes” feel like. Right from the first scene, Loki dies. It had weight, and the audience felt something to see this character that we know and love actually die. Then halfway through the film, Gamora dies. They didn't get saved, they didn't come back or anything. No magic cube or blue beam of light brings them back. It was an ending to their arc, and I was blindsided that a Marvel movie actually did this.

But that's not that big of a deal. They were side characters, but the main characters don't die, right?

Well they do... kind of.

This brings me to my first problem with the ending: this movie would be a perfect end to these characters. If the next movie kept everyone dead, it would be perfect, but I know they won't. I'm sure Loki and Gamora will stay dead, but honestly, I am 100% positive, from a business standpoint, that the people that turn to dust by Thanos will not stay dead. I would love it if they did, but unfortunately these aren't really movies, they are franchises and products. Did you really think Disney Executives would kill off Black Panther at the height of his popularity?

The movie is a bit slow for me at times, but the stuff I would’ve probably cut if I was making the film people would probably flip out since it’s “important.” For example, the sciencey scenes always just feel unnecessary and add nothing to the overall experience. This movie just didn’t need to be 2 hours and 40 minutes.

What I love about this movie more than anything is that Thanos is basically the main character, and this film is void of the traditional three act structure, since it is basically an event. This movie is the finale of many smaller movies, a two hour third act. So, while I won’t call this film groundbreaking, it is something that has never even been attempted before. This movie had so many main characters, and it blows my mind how this movie wasn’t a complete mess, so props to that as well. To me, the film was shot very nicely, some choices with the film’s cinematography even blew me away, mostly because it was in a Marvel film though.

I don’t like number scores but……

7/10?  No, too high.

6? Too low.

Decimal scores are dumb.

I don’t know.