Avengers: Infinity War **** (2018, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans) – Movie Review

Simply put, directors Anthony and Joe Russo’s Infinity War (2018) is The Avengers and their allies versus one single super-villain Thanos, who needs a full collection of all six Infinity Stones to have the power to destroy the universe. The Avengers aren’t going to lose that one, are they? Or are they?

And what, pray, are Infinity Stones? Let us recall Hitchcock’s concept of the ‘MacGuffin’ and the technique he used early on with his 1935 spy thriller The 39 Steps. Hitchcock explained: ‘The MacGuffin is the thing that the spies are after but the audience don’t care.’ But, somehow, with the stakes so life-or-death high, Infinity War makes the audience just about care about all six Infinity Stones. No, actually, really it doesn’t. It’s still a MacGuffin.

Infinity War makes the audience care about whether the Avengers can defeat Thanos, or will die in the attempt, or who will die. And there are plenty of bodies strewn all across the battlefields of the very dark-toned Infinity War, though Thor does helpfully point out that Loki has already returned from the dead in a previous episode. So presumably anyone or everyone can come back for the sequel, which will be a part two of this one.

After two and a half hours of a longish seeming running time, and the film starts to stall and strain very slightly after two hours just when it should be upping the ante, and then finally we only have half a story! It just stops, quite suddenly, there and then. Bang!

Of course then you have to sit through ten minutes of interminable credits, admittedly jollied up by Alan Silvestri’s pretty cheery and rousing score, to get to the final scene, with even more death (apparently) and more teasing bewilderment. Infinity War ends quite bafflingly. It has been so exciting and enjoyable and entertaining for so long that you feel quite a bit cheated that there is no climax. This might be good for business, but it is really rather annoying.

Infinity War is a numbingly head-banging experience, taking no prisoners. You can’t take your eyes and ears off it. So you shouldn’t be leaving the cinema feeling pissed off that they have managed not to tell you a story. Yeah, yeah, I know, Avengers is a serial, not a series of movies at all. But I like a full story, thank you very much, beginning, middle and end, and one I can understand. I don’t like to go home with a headache, feeling baffled and bewildered, dazed and confused. That said, I’ve just had a great time with two and a half hours of fantastic entertainment, so I;m a bit conflicted here.

Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans keep their top billing as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Thor and Steve Rogers, and that’s right and proper because they keep their stamp of authority over what could be a precarious enterprise, somehow juggling around 30 main characters, and with the idea of throwing in the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther into the melée, apparently with the plan that if you throw in enough mud it will stick.

I know that Marvel wants to give the best value, but if you chuck every Marvel character into your movie, the phrase ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ comes to mind. But you have to hand it to the Russo Brothers, by and large they have managed to juggle all their star characters and keep them in the air, with enough screen time and sense to make them work. Can you imagine the planning and editing jobs required here?

It was a bit of a schlep to get Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther in there though, demanding detours in the overall plotline that strain logic, but they bring it off. Why we are suddenly in Wakanda, I’m not at all sure. Though earlier in the film, why we are in Edinburgh, Scotland, and battling at the Waverley railway station, I’m way less certain. It’s all about globe trotting, colourful backgrounds, and of course finding some darned way to bring all those characters into the fabric of the movie.

I have to say that Josh Brolin is a tremendous success as the CGI character Thanos, putting individual personality and indelible character into it. He really is incredibly powerful and actually convincing and credible as a despot of intergalactic infamy, bent on wiping out half of galaxy kind (or was that two thirds?). Let us recall Hitchcock’s dictum that a movie is only as good as its villain, and Infinity War is guaranteed a seal of goodness.

That said, the heroes have to be good too. Downey Jr and Hemsworth remain great. They are indispensable. Marvel cannot let them go, at whatever price. They are looking a bit tired now, frayed at the edges, especially Hemsworth, but this galaxy saving thing must take its toll. Avengers without Iron Man and Thor would probably be probably no good at all.

With intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action and deaths throughout, some language and crude references, this is a commendably tough, hard-edged, dark movie, dealing in death and destruction. But, what is real clever is, they have managed to build into that fabric moments of actually funny humour, real laughs. This is where the droll Chris Pratt and his Peter Quill / Star-Lord character come in, along with his crew of Drax, Rocket and Groot, and of course Downey Jr and Hemsworth can handle the lightly witty bantering nicely too. The film can handle funny even in its darkest moments. That is comic book genius.

Zoe Saldana has a key role this time as Gamora, and so does Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr Stephen Strange. Saldana is good, playing it well, but Cumberbatch manages some very dr strange acting and an even dr stranger American accent (especially notable in his scenes with Downey). There is way too much Dr Strange in this movie, especially when some other actors haven’t got enough screen time – Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Jon Favreau, Benicio Del Toro, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Douglas, Angela Bassett, Anthony Mackie and Don Cheadle are hardly there at all, if at all.

I’m afraid that this time, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) is a bit boring, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is unengaged and lacklustre, Spiderman (Tom Holland) is slightly struggling, a small boy in a grown-ups’ movie, and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has nothing much to do. In a large ensemble, everyone cannot be working at the same level, I guess.

So there it is, Infinity War is pretty near great. Yes, I can’t wait for part two, though I just wish I didn’t have to.

It follows Avengers Assemble [The Avengers] (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). It is followed by Untitled Avengers Movie (2019).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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