Avengers: Infinity War is a Marvel superhero action movie that follows the Avengers along with the Guardians of the Galaxy as they battle the evil Titan Thanos who is trying to collect all-powerful infinity stones. This movie will make the watcher, whether a huge Marvel fan or a casual watcher, feel a range of emotions through its action, humor, and gut-wrenching ending. This movie was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (writers of the Captain America movies) and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo (directors of the last two Captain America movies). The movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron-Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Josh Brolin as Thanos, and Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange.

Many facets of this movie contributed to the huge expectations most had for it. This film brought together a range of household names in the industry, and had a budget of $320 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive in history. This movie was also supposed to bring together the many storylines and characters from previous Marvel movies such as Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, and Guardians of the Galaxy. It would also be the first movie where the Avengers would team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

For the most part, the film was able to live up to the high expectations that had been set for it. The plot follows different groups as they meet up and try to defeat Thanos in various ways. Moviegoers who are familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be entertained by watching these many of these heroes have their first meetings and interactions with each other. Costume designers also added to the movie by coming up with improved or completely new suits for various characters in the movie.

These various groups of superheros take on not only Thanos but his powerful henchmen and army as they try to stop the space Titan from getting all six infinity stones, which are all-powerful stones that will allow him unlimited power over the universe.

Through the movie, Thanos is shown to be extremely evil, but also becomes a multi-faceted character through many powerful scenes in the movie. This was a fantastic job by Brolin and the writers of the movie. I believe that it thickened the plot immensely to have such a multi-dimensional antagonist, especially after past Avengers movies where antagonists such as evil robots are almost completely one-dimensional.

The movie also contains many intense battle scenes as the Avengers and the Guardians take on Thanos and his cronies. The visual effects team did a fantastic job with the battle scenes and they kept me on the edge of my seat for parts that usually bore me in these movies. The music, directed by Alan Silvestri, also played a part in making the battle scenes along with others very intense.

Humor also played a large part in the movie, as many characters exchanged playful banter that made the crowd laugh. In the middle of intense battles, Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Iron-Man, and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) all had hilarious one liners. In addition, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) continued his comedic nature that has been a part of his character in the many Marvel movies he has been a part of.

However, at some points in the movie the humor felt a bit pressed, especially when it came to the character Drax (Dave Bautista) who is a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. There were a couple points in the movie where he was being comedic, but especially with semi-criticized 149 minute run-time of the movie these scenes felt unneeded.

In addition, the many storylines going on with different groups in the movie made it a bit hard to follow, especially for more casual Marvel fans. Even more hardcore Marvel fans also might be stumped by the gut-wrenching, but also somewhat confusing ending that takes place.

Overall, taking into consideration the massive expectations this film had, I thought it was very well done. The plot was solid, and the acting, effects, and many of the small details like music and costumes were fantastic.

I definitely recommend this movie to WA, and I am excited for the sequel coming out May 2019.

8/10