A review of the new blockbuster movie “Avengers: Infinity War”

As blockbusters go, this buster promised to be the biggest block of them all and so it has proved to be. On its opening weekend, it took the record for the US box office from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and the record for the world box office from “The Fate Of The Furious”.

Everything about this movie – the 19th contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe over a 10 year period – is HUGE. It has two directors (brothers Anthony & Joe Russo who helmed the last two “Captain America” films), two writers (Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely who have crafted lots of witty one-liners), a record running time for the MCU (one minute short of two and a half hours), six infinity stones (which, when located in a a golden gauntlet, threaten the death of half of the population of the universe), and a phenomenal cast-list the like of which you’ve never seen before.

Almost every Marvel super-hero is here but they are teamed up in new configurations. So Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) is paired with Dr Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) & Spider-Man (Tom Holland), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) joins forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy headed by the Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), while Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) pick up Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) who seek refuge in Wakanda where they line up with Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and his cohort – and there are many others whom I’ve not mentioned (20 or so, in all).

Thor gets a new hammer and Captain America is given a new shield and we visit a variety of new worlds including the wonderfully-named Knowhere. But not all our heroes survive in the titanic struggle with the mega evil Thanos (Josh Brolin) and the members of his Black Order.

It’s amazing that so many characters and multiple story arcs can fit together, but it does in a roaring and rollicking adventure with a surprising ending that sets us up for the fourth (and last?) Avengers movie. Only MCU aficianados will catch all the allusions to the previous 18 films in the franchise because, even if you’ve seen them all (and I have), viewing has been over a period of a decade and memories fade, but this is simply an encouragement to see “Infinity War” again and perhaps revisit some of the earlier works.


 




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