Avengers: Infinity War

Movie Review

Khalila Firestone, Staff Writer

As every Renton student probably knows, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War came out Friday, April 27th. While there will not be any spoilers in this section of the article, there will be in the second half. Warnings will be given though.

While the company’s advertisements for the new block buster may (or may not) be slightly misleading, it was received extremely well by Marvel and even non-Marvel fans. The movie’s opening weekend was Hollywood’s biggest ever, bringing in 630 million dollars worldwide.

Producers and directors Joe and Anthony Russo, well-known for their other Marvel productions, made sure fans were invested from the announcement of the movie’s release to the end credit scenes. Long-time fans were excited to begin with, but the dramatically narrated trailers that hinted at a seemingly revolutionary superhero movie pushed that excitement into the general public, and everyone was waiting for the film to open in North America on May 4th. To the delight of many, the company decided to move the release date forward by a week.

Infinity War itself was, cinematically, no disappointment. The cinematography, animations, and CGI were beautiful, well executed, and perfectly suited to the scenes they were used in. The other-planetary, space, and Wakandan scenes made Infinity War feel completely real to audiences. The main antagonist, Thanos, was finally given a backstory that helped to explain his actions, and actor Josh Brolin portrayed him extremely well. Besides this, Marvel’s signature humor was fully present and necessary through the otherwise serious movie, lighting the overall mood when needed. The writers and fans appeared to have similar ideas in regards to what the movie’s humor should consist of, many of the fans’ head-canons being executed in the movie. The humor was made even stronger through use of character pairings and the groups that separated the many, many story lines in the film.

The jokes and awkward scenarios had whole theaters cracking up, but when things got serious, the rooms were more dead silent than in a viewing of “A Quiet Place.” People knew they were walking into something potentially very serious and heartbreaking, but nobody could foresee what truly happened.

 

WARNING: MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD———-

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SPOILER SECTION———-

 

In the first 10 minutes of the nearly 3 hour movie, audiences witness the aftermath of Thanos’s attack on the fleeing Asgardians, including Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston). The burning ruins of the ship are seen while Thor, Loki, and Bruce Banner as the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) attempt to fight him. After beating up Thor and the Hulk, he demands the Tesseract from Loki and threatens the death of Thor. Loki pretends to give it to him, along with his alliance, but then tries to stab Thanos with his blade. Thanos takes the Tesseract after he strangles Loki to death in front of Thor, and thus the death of one of Marvel’s most beloved characters.

Beyond Loki, in order to complete his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos kills the only person he loved, unbeknownst to her, his daughter, and Star Lord’s (Chris Pratt) girlfriend, Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Thanos and Gamora also have their own story line, and there is a peek into Gamora’s childhood that deepens both her and Thanos’s characters.

He also tries to kill Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), but Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), after swearing he wouldn’t, steps in at the last moment and offers the Time Stone for his life. The hilarious banter between the two egotistical, boarder line arrogant heroes, with breaks for Spider Man’s (Tom Holland) nerdy, childish humor, made the scene worth it.

Everything seems to be going well by the end of the movie, until Thanos nears the struggling Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen). When it seems like Thanos will never be able to aquire Vision’s stone, he turns back time, slaughters him to take it. Thor attempts to kill him, and gets very close, but misses. Thanos, now with all of his stones, snaps his fingers and erases half of Earth’s population, accomplishing his goal, wiping out more than half of the Avengers and the Guardians, and leaving the audience with a tear jerking death-scene between Stark and a fading Spider Man.

People left the theater devastated yet hopeful for the future. Regardless of the death, it is an extremely amazing movie, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you definitely should.