April 27, 2018 3 min to read

Avengers: Infinity Wars

Worlds collide both literally and metaphorically in Infinity Wars - a comic book nerd's wet dream.

by Zach Saul

Comic book nerds were chomping at the bit for Avengers Infinity Wars because it features the following characters all in the same movie: Iron Man, Star Lord, Doctor Strange, Thor, Hulk, Doctor Strange, Spiderman, Black Panther, Black Widow, Gamora, Vision, Nebula, Wanda Maximoff, Falcon, and Groot. Despite my view that crossover events can only disappoint me, I’m happy to report this movie as an exception because it was thoroughly entertaining.

The first thing I thought about when leaving the theatre after watching half the Marvel Universe vanish into thin air, was a room of unsuspecting Disney shareholders. They haven’t seen the film yet and have been invited to a private screening before the movie comes out. As Black Panther, Spiderman, and Doctor Strange vanish into thin air their uncomfortable murmurs turn into screams. Tragic as the movie was - i find this image to be deeply humorous, and also revealing about what Marvel is going to do next. There’s just no way in hell those angry shareholders would allow Marvel to kill half their cast.

A War that goes on forever is most people’s worst fear for humanity and in a way, the latest Avengers movie is an analogous fear for the marvel universe. The “biggest” battle ever filmed, with the most comic book characters, sounds like par for the course for Marvel these days right? Maybee, but at Infinity Wars is much more about the fundamental utilitarian philosophical proposition: is it just to kill some if you know you’ll save manny and prevent suffering? What about saving one knowing it means the death of many others. These are the big questions Infinity Wars’ villain and mass-murderer Thanos presents. He’s completely unlike previous marvel villains because he fundamentally believes what he’s doing is noble, and just. The pursuit of power for thanos is a means to an end and not the reward for his victory. This seemingly rational nature makes his character a lot more believable, and ultimately difficult for the avengers to defeat.

It must be nice having an unlimited budget to spend - and Infinity Wars made great use of it: the film featured upwards of 20 heroes, and was the third most expensive ever made.

2011: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($378.5M) 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron ($365M) 2018: Avengers: Infinity Wars ($316M) Part of me want to fault Disney/Marvel for the gratuitous inclusion of that manny heroes into a single film, but after watching Infinity Wars, I must admit there’s an art and craft to it that’s pretty impressive. Despite it’s insanely lengthy cast, insane sets, and exciting special effects its relatively easy to follow, and as a non-superhero fanatic I still felt able to keep track of everyone’s motives and objectives.

The Good: Infinity Wars is funny like we’ve come to expect for marvel movies, self aware, and thoughtful in it’s storytelling. There’s a lot packed into the three hours that will appeal to superhero fans and casual moviegoers alike. Oh yeah - and it also features more superheroes then you could fit in an UberXL.

The Bad: It’s three hours long, and features a pretty tragic ending. Infinity wars attends to so many different storylines at once it has trouble diving too deep into any one character, but to be fair that is very much by design.