By Shelby Daniel
Maintaining audience interest in a continuous narrative for 10 years is not an easy task. Presenting an adaptive narrative to the big screen from an original written source also proves to be difficult. Most of all, though, juggling nearly 20 big-name players from one of the largest franchises in the world in one movie seems nearly impossible. Somehow, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War did all of the above. This review will be spoiler free, so feel free to safely read ahead if you have not had the chance to watch the movie yet.
My dad and I have been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the release of Iron Man in 2008 and have volumes of the original Avengers comics. As what some would call a reliable authority on the source material, the conclusion to 18 movies worth of build-up and what directors Joe and Anthony Russo have dubbed the “most ambitious crossover event in history” defies expectations.
Some talk on social media has labeled Infinity War the MCU’s Empire Strikes Back. The Russo brothers took a similar approach to the narrative construction of the original Star Wars saga, which really paid off by allowing each of the heroes to have at least one shining moment. There were several separate narratives that contributed to one overarching one – namely, to take down Thanos before he destroys half of the world’s population.
This narrative construction was a relief, as going into the film I was concerned that character consistency would be messy and disorganized. However, the Russos did an excellent job highlighting the key characteristics of each hero.
Iron Man and Doctor Strange sharing sufficient screen time never felt like an overdose of goateed sarcasm. The Guardians kept all of their classic quips and natural group chemistry. The theater erupted into cheers when seeing Wakanda and Black Panther again, despite the solo blockbuster coming out only two months prior. Captain America remained as loyal of a leader in the face of adversity.
Most importantly though, Thor kept his more jubilant and less brooding characterization from Thor: Ragnarok and got to reunite with the original Avengers for the first time since Avengers: Age of Ultron.
My only qualm with the movie was the noticeable absence of the audience’s favorite archer, Hawkeye. Clint Barton was a pivotal part of the original Avengers, and the explanation for his lack of assistance in what was quite literally the impending doom of the entire universe was brief and unsatisfying. Many fans hoped he would show up despite the absence in the promotional material for Infinity War, but were disappointed come viewing the actual film.
There were several moments during the movie I shed some tears into my bucket of popcorn, but they were not entirely unexpected. Both Marvel aficionados and simple social media users with no interest in the slew of superhero films that have flooded the market have known for a while that Infinity War was going to provide some gut-wrenching deaths and an unhappy ending.
While the movie did stray from previous roots in lacking a victorious ending, it stuck to the use of end credit scenes. The end credit scene appears at the tail end of the official credits and is a massively important indicator of what is to come in Avengers 4, so be sure to stick around for a ray of hope before you leave the theater.
The next MCU movie Ant Man and the Wasp is scheduled for release this summer on July 6. The long-awaited first solo female hero film produced by Marvel, Captain Marvel, is slated for early March of 2019 and will be followed later in the year by Avengers 4.
