Ben Oliver

Now
Banner image for Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

I don’t want another single pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?
06 May 2018

Spoilers ahead, Rogers

The Avengers are back in their third official outing (although Captain America: Civil War was really another Avengers film), and this time they must try to stop evil alien Thanos from acquiring a set of stones that would give him control of the universe. He’s already got two, we tune in on his quest to obtain the remaining three.

Yes this is a laughably simple plot but it’s a necessary evil when you have 25 main characters all fighting for screen time. It’s a miracle that this film isn’t a total disaster. Instead the Russos pair people off and send them on their own storylines before coming together at the end. Again, simple but effective.

Sprinkle in liberal amounts of the trademark Marvel sense of humour and you’ve got a definite improvement over the very poor Age of Ultron.

That said, Infinity War is a remarkably bleak film. The sense of helplessness against a greater power runs throughout, and for the first time I can remember the heroes fail to save the day. Of course everyone will be magically restored in the next film but it was a bold decision to end on such a downer. Ironically, Marvel has succeeded in making a film that DC has been trying to pull off for five years.

Solid stuff, worth a watch if you are somewhat familiar with the comic book movies. It’s impressive that they still manage to entertain despite making the same film over and over for ten years now.