An Avenging triumph..!!

COLINS FILM CLUB REVIEW – Cinema

AVENGERS INFINITY WAR

A thought provoking film, with subtle layering and humour... We could be about to review any other type of motion picture but normally the last thing that sentence would remind you of is the loud, brash bravado of the mighty Marvel universe juggernauting its way across our Multiplexes. This is an exceptional turning point, for the studio has not only unleashed the third outing for the much loved Avengers upon us but it has done so with an epic monster of a film in both story telling, characterization and depth, whilst never forgetting the formula of which it excels at, its grown so adept at and of which its becoming increasingly difficult to say a bad word about. The comic book film has truly come of age.

Now, for the last 10 years, Marvel has been plotting and contriving towards this point with but one goal – a confrontation with big bad purple guy Thanos (Josh Brolin – a busy guy this year along with his soon to be seen role in Deadpool 2 as bad guy Cable, just not so purplish...) who behind the scenes of nearly each film so far has been trying to get his single gauntleted mitt on the Infinity Stones, which unless you have been sleeping under a rock some place you will know that they make Thanos one unbeatable dude with the power to destroy half the universe at the click of his fingers.. we assume he cannot destroy the WHOLE universe for some reason, must be a deal-breaker in there some place to allow his own survival, who knows... anyway, having run into some of these stones in their adventures, the Avengers helped by Dr Strange, Spiderman, Black Panther and The Guardians of the Galaxy and a few others – quite a few others, its a BIG cast! - must stop Thanos from collecting these stones and completing his mission.

Crucial to this films list of big achievements has to come from the Directorial duo, the Russo brothers, who did so well with the mini-Avengers film, Captain America: Civil War, that their confidence from that project literally glows throughout Infinity War basking it in a warmth which hitherto would have been unknown in such a genre. The complex handling of so many characters on screen has to be their defining moment as not a single one is missed out, they all get some good lines or jokes, they get to do their stuff with each one able to show off and ham it up a bit, the writing too for each one is top notch, witness the wonderful first meeting between Thor and the Guardians with Peter Quills ego taking a dent when confronted with the God of Thunder, and the hilarious scenes between Tony Stark and Dr Strange which is played out like a playground game of one-up-man-ship as two more brilliant egos butt heads – glorious!

Another nice touch is we are shown a fragmented Avengers, the aftermath of Civil War is all still fresh here therefore we find various members of the team placed into smaller groups – Vision and Wanda, Ironman and Strange to start off, Thor and the Guardians, Captain America and the rest – normally effective enough but dangerously outclassed by the Children of Thanos, his so-called “Black Order”, all of which are deliciously nasty and all of them have nasty but well deserved come uppence t-shirts on. This disjointed Avengers team takes more than a few batterings at the hands of the Order and as a fractured team they are for once very vulnerable. And the Russo's are not too afraid either to show just how vulnerable they truly are, as they promised several times in interviews leading up to the release of Infinity War that nobody was safe in this film, all bets were off...

This is because Thanos is a monster. He cannot be reckoned with and he is unlike anything the Avengers have taken on before, a titan amongst bad guys. Brolin is magnificent. For any actor going under the motion-capture process and having to act against green screens its a daunting enough task, but to manage it and to pull off one of the most subtle of villains – Thanos has layers most villains never get to show, his misguided conviction about how to handle situations on his home planet, his shedding of a few tears, his coldness towards the deaths of so many on both sides just to achieve his goal, they build up a well structured, intricate and formidable character capable of carrying out his word and spreading fear. Brolin has given Thanos nuances which both endear him and repulse in equal measure. I for one would like to not just see more of him (which we will in Part Two) but perhaps explore this despots back story even further, maybe a first for Marvel in that it would be their first film centring on the bad guy!

As I've already mentioned, our regular characters were not forgotten under the omnipresent weight of Thanos. Suffice it to say that the likes of Downey Jnr, Hemsworth, Chris`s Evans and Pratt all not only well catered for but the actors are by now so comfortable in the costumes of their alter-egos that they effortlessly portray them and imbue them with a few quirks and instances of genuine warmth without letting go of the need to demonstrate their own individual power. Special mention here as well to Chadwick Boseman and Benedict Cumberbatch – a delight to see both back in action – and to Tom Holland, who's Spiderman is still charming, naïve and certainly not annoying.

As films go, Infinity War is a wonderful experience. Its really hard to do justice too in this review but if it could be summed up then it would be best described as somebody gently laying the pages of your best ever Avengers comic book onto the cinema screen and allowing us to turn the pages at our leisure, soaking in each panel, every talk bubble and wallowing in the textures of its artwork. What has been placed up there is now setting the bar even higher.

There has also been a lot of Internet chatter about the way the film ends – Dont worry, we wont do any spoilers here, but suffice it to say that having now witnessed it for myself, I believe that the way it ends is both justified and necessary. Bear in mind that we have a Part Two in the work due out in 2019 to wrap up the present Avengers stories, there is a lot to sort out and the Avengers will need to work as a team to save the universe once and for all, so this gut wrenching cliff hanger of an ending to Infinity War, whilst it may shock and might be diversive, is exactly what the film needed to do and has to be seen to be appreciated.

So, with what is going to be undoubtedly THE biggest film of 2018 with a bad guy with the biggest jawbone, Marvel has not only done it again but they have rocketed past their own highest standards and set the bar to nearly out of reach, well – until the next Marvel film does it again anyway.

For Avengers completists, for Marvel hero and comic book fans, for lovers of huge battles and pulverising punch ups, Infinity War delivers totally. But if your into strong characters both male and female, witty dialogue and finely tuned nuances that give pause to think then... Infinity War has this too. This then is that fun roller-coaster Saturday matinee type film that has a trick up its sleeve, because just as your about to put your brain into neutral it pulls the rug from under your feet with a series of shocks that will have you all talking about as you leave the cinema. This is the film of the moment, possibly the year and almost certainly has a place in history like no other before it...

A mind-blowing fusion of wit, epic fights and shocks, the type which will leave you gasping at the screen – Infinity War is a far superior pantheon of audible and visual delights, not afraid of its roots and not afraid to break all the rules, nobody is safe from Thanos..!! Few films today literally break new ground, but Infinity War has done just that and now we all wait with baited breath until 2019 to see how it all ties up. Nobody will ever dismiss the Comic book movie genre again after this...

COLINS FILM CLUB RATING

*****