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 (042818)
The best thing about Avengers: Infinity War is, in many ways, the best thing
about the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole: a charming and almost
overqualified ensemble cast. Though a few of the actors in the nearly 20 films
of the MCU haven’t worked out so well, many of the performers are key to making
the heroes of this series fresh and exciting. Whenever the sometimes-unwieldy,
epic-length Infinity War works, it’s largely thanks to the actors, not the
action sequences or the effects or anything else. The cast makes this movie, not
the other way around.
For those unfamiliar with the larger story arcs of the MCU, the setup is simple
enough: a cruelly single-minded alien named Thanos wants to wipe out half of
humanity by acquiring and utilizing six all-powerful Infinity Stones. Only a
grab bag of superheroes — most of whom are meeting each other for the first time
in this new film — can stop him. Most of the original Avengers (including
Iron Man,
Thor,
Captain America, and the
Hulk) are all present, along with newer good
guys like the
Guardians of the Galaxy,
Doctor Strange, and
Black Panther.
For roughly the first half of Infinity War, directors Anthony and Joe Russo are
at their best simply letting Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Chris
Hemsworth (so many Chrises. Was Chris Pine not available? ), Benedict
Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, and the rest bounce off one another with their
inherent charisma. The variety of ways in which the heroes pair off is
unexpected and mostly enjoyable (and not worth spoiling here). Whatever problems
this movie has lie separate from almost all of the performances. All except the
big one: Josh Brolin as Thanos.
Brolin, to be fair, is fine as the literal Big Bad. For the first time, an MCU
movie attempts to flesh out this character hell-bent on galactic genocide;
unfortunately, Brolin’s firm motion-capture performance can’t hide the feeling
that even now, Thanos is a dull, one-dimensional baddie. He exists to be hissed
at by the audience — there’s a specific scene that tries to humanize him even as
he does something unforgivable on a person-to-titan scale that fails to have it
both ways. Thanos’ cruelty is ill-formed on the big screen, as has been the case
with too many MCU villains.
Thus, while the massive fight sequences in the latter half of Infinity War may
approach a suitably epic scale, they suffer from the same problems that plague a
lot of these films. The dynamic and exciting heroes are facing an endless slew
of basically shapeless aliens straight out of a video game. The stakes are high
enough, but the threat of Thanos, even after all the buildup, never feels that
threatening. But that speaks to the other unavoidable problem: whatever it ends
up being called, there will be another Avengers movie next May, as Marvel
follows in the footsteps of the Harry Potter franchise and splits one story into
two films, with a cliffhanger that concludes this one.
The end of this movie — which won’t be spoiled here — aims for a pretty big
surprise, but there’s a nagging sense that all (or almost all) will be well
early into this film’s second part next spring. So whatever gasp-inducing
moments there may be in the closing minutes feel like they’re just waiting to be
undone, as if the first
Guardians of the Galaxy ended right after Groot
sacrificed itself for the group and the second part starting fresh with a new
Groot coming back to life.
But even still, Infinity War has its moments, even as the film jumps from city
to city, and planet to planet. (Thor’s journey takes him the farthest through
the cosmos, but there’s a lot of action split up throughout the universe for
Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Gamora, and others.) Whether it’s to the credit of the
Russos, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, or the cast, it’s
a welcome surprise that most of the distinctive personalities in this film
remain consistent with how they appeared in their own stories.
For example, James Gunn is only credited as an executive producer, but
Star-Lord, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, and Groot all sound like his version of
the Guardians, just as
Black Panther and
Spider-Man: Homecoming feel similar to how they did in
their respective films. (Tom Holland, who’s not in nearly enough of this movie,
is this film’s stealth MVP.) The character work is solid enough to almost make
up for the fact that the action never equals the thrilling airport battle in
Captain America: Civil War. The final series of
set pieces have a few moments that are fairly remarkable, both designed to
garner applause and basically deserving of receiving such a reaction.
Yet it is a little hard to talk about Avengers: Infinity War in full, if only
because we’ve only seen the first half of this story. The Marvel Cinematic
Universe began 10 years ago — this film’s studio logo nods to that anniversary,
too — and was built on the notion of an interconnected world full of heroes with
shocking new powers. But a number of those films felt like stand-alone pictures,
especially the recent run culminating with Ryan Coogler’s
Black Panther.
Infinity War, by design, feels like one half of a completed puzzle, with the
other pieces strewn about waiting to be put together. Maybe once it’s whole, the
puzzle will be wholly satisfying. For now, Infinity War suggests that Marvel is
able to wrangle together a massive, charming cast, but not quite create a story
that deserves their presence.
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