Movie with Abe: Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo
Released April 27, 2018

In 2012, “The Avengers” was released, bringing together superheroes featured in five previous films, teaming up for one big awesome epic adventure. Four more films followed before the release of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” a somewhat overstuffed sequel which was still enjoyable. Now, six more films later, the most incredible adventure yet unites more characters than ever before, demonstrating the capabilities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and just how exciting and immersive a film can be with more characters than most would ever try to fit into multiple movies.

Thanos (Josh Brolin) kills all in his path to get all six of the Infinity Stones, sparing Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to make him suffer. Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) teams up with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and Peter Parker (Tom Holland) to try to stop several of his lieutenants from getting one stone, while the Guardians of the Galaxy go after Thanos, whose stepdaughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana) fears that he will try to capture her. After they are attacked, Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) travel to Wakanda, where T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) prepares his army and all the gathered Avengers for an epic battle to save the world from Thanos’ desired omnipotence.

This was easily one of the most anticipated films of 2018, and it’s only because I missed out on a few previous films that I had hoped to screen at some point that it took me this long to finally decide to see it. The context that’s missing isn’t all that crucial, since the action and excitement arrives almost immediately. What’s most fun about it is the reintroduction of each familiar face, and the meeting of different characters previously unknown to one another is truly terrific. While some prior entries have suffered from issues with balancing humor, this film succeeds fantastically, making every single meeting extraordinarily worthwhile and superbly entertaining.

There’s so much that went into this movie and tying together so many characters from individual films and mythologies. The most enticing unification is that of the Guardians of the Galaxy with the Avengers, and it pays off very well. This film fully deserves its spot on the Oscar finalist list for its visual effects, which provide a stunning feast for the eyes for nearly the entire film. A cliffhanger ending that necessitates viewing of the next film in the series may frustrate some, but it just makes the notion of more of this so thrilling. Most of all, it means I won’t be waiting eight months to catch “Avengers: Endgame” after it’s released this April – I’ll be one of the first to buy tickets.

B+