The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) embarks on its 10th year since inception with the original Iron Man. Since starting, Marvel’s gone through a decade of superhero movies each more bombastic and lively than the one before. These 10 years of superhero films took Hollywood over by storm and have now become the biggest cash cow the industry has ever seen.
All this accumulated into Avengers: Infinity War, the first of a two part crossover event to mark off the finale of Marvel’s Phase Three of films. Before the film premiered, many were sceptical of the surge of superhero films, worrying that the industry had become so bogged down by the genre that people would inevitably get tired of it. Infinity War continued Marvel’s rampage through Hollywood and the box office charts however, blowing those notions out of the water.
Featuring over 70 comic book characters and several plot lines, Infinity War (IW) became the most ambitious film in history. Setting the stakes this large created its own issues however. For starters, because the film was so large in scale, it would have been easy for it to be all over the place and turn into an incoherent mess. Secondly, the pacing would need to be smooth enough to make the multiple sub-plot lines work together for an eventual big mesh in the end of the movie. Finally, making sure that a cast this large works together is another challenge in itself.
Marvel took all these challenges and made them look like they were of no issue at all. The pacing was about as good as you can hope for a movie with over 70 characters, several plots and different activities going on at once. Although the movie had so many different plots, it never felt like the movie lost focus of its main plot of Thanos’ search for the remaining infinity stones to complete his infinity gauntlet. All the actors were in character as well, with many giving the performance of a lifetime.
The movie didn’t feel like it overstayed its welcome either. Although it lasted over two and a half hours, every main scene of the film kept the audience’s attention. The film was funny, and despite the consistencies of bland comedy that Marvel’s faced in its previous movies, the jokes landed well and didn’t feel out of place for the most part.
As expected of a Marvel movie, the visuals were spectacular, and probably the best of any Marvel film yet. The action was fast paced and done well too, cutting down on the cuts during fast paced action scenes in favor of longer, less edited scenes that don’t look like a jumbled mess like the usual Marvel film. In terms of action, it felt like the John Wick of superhero films, and that’s a good thing.
The praise IW is receiving is no exaggeration. This is by far Marvel’s best film, and the effort put into this can be seen in every facet of the film, from writing to special effects to acting. It’s no wonder why IW crushed box office records, becoming the highest grossing movie ever. Marvel seems to have taken notice to the claims of the superhero genre dying out soon and responded with this film, telling the world that it’s not going anywhere any time soon.
