SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

Having followed all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films since the beginning in 2008, when IRON MAN successfully launched a franchise that seemed unlikely at the time, I am the perfect target audience for AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. I have watched and enjoyed to different degrees all 18 of the previous films deftly produced and supervised by Kevin Feige.

The MCU has ingeniously established a strong continuity between films, characters and plot lines progressively crossing over and teasing towards new adventures, until it all beautifully came together in the outstanding first AVENGERS movie (Joss Whedon, 2012). Since then, this kind of consensual, ''Expanded Universe'' style has spilled over other studios, namely Warner, whose DC Universe movies have met with scorn from the critics (Save for the surprisingly good WONDER WOMAN by Patty Jenkins in 2017), and Universal who killed its own Dark Universe with its painfully confused THE MUMMY the same year.

A similar approach was taken by Marvel Comics in the sixties, as story lines would intersect occasionally from series to series, and larger sweeping plots would affect all series at once. This continuity was something rare in comics up to that point, but writer/editor Stan Lee, probably knowing it made great mercantile sense to cross over characters from one book to the other, could this way create both content and advertisements for the other series at the same time. Comic books had been the stage for this kind of thing since 1940 when the Sub-mariner fought with the Human Torch in MARVEL COMICS #8. But a true crossover narrative revolution arguably came when writer Roy Thomas, who was first and foremost a very knowledgeable comic book fan, felt the need to create the sense of a huge, cohesive universe where everything is connected. His run on THE AVENGERS, from 1966-1972, culminated in the celebrated KREE-SKRULL WAR epic saga, that opened up wide the doors of the Marvel Universe, and pretty much set the stage for a succession of comic book crossovers and ultimately a movie event like INFINITY WAR.

The fifth chapter in the Roy Thomas scripted Kree-Skrull war saga, an important step in setting up a wider Marvel Universe and creating sweeping epics in comic book form.

However, I would be ill-advised to ignore the biggest influence on this new film, Jim Starlin's cosmic saga THE INFINITY GAUNTLET. Jim Starlin created Thanos in 1973 basically as a Darkseid rip-off. He recalls: ''Kirby had done the New Gods, which I thought was terrific. He was over at DC at the time. I came up with some things that were inspired by that. You'd think that Thanos was inspired by Darkseid, but that was not the case when I showed up. In my first Thanos drawings, if he looked like anybody, it was Metron. I had all these different gods and things I wanted to do, which became Thanos and the Titans. Editor Roy Thomas took one look at the guy in the Metron-like chair and said: "Beef him up! If you're going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!"  

Thanos' first design by Jim Starlin. He recalls: '' the design was done long before I started working at Marvel… Jack Kirby’s Metron is clearly the more dominant influence in this character’s look. Not Darkseid. Both [Darkseid and Thanos] started off much smaller than they originally became. This was one of the drawings I had in my portfolio when I was hired by Marvel. It was later inked by Rich Buckler.”

Thanos' first appearance in Iron Man #55 (February 1973)

From a bargain-basement Darkseid, Thanos developped over the years his own unique identity, and by 1991, when Starlin wrote THE INFINITY GAUNTLET, which shares a basic premise and a few scenes with MCU's INFINITY WAR, he had become a powerful insane titan, obsessed with literally courting Death. Wielding a mighty gauntlet powered by 6 gems representing Time, Reality, the Soul, Space, Power and Mind, his quest to impress the female personification of Death leads him to destroy half of existence with a snap of his fingers.

1991's THE INFINITY GAUNTLET, by Jim Starlin and George Perez. The main influence on AVENGERS: INFINITY WARS.

A scene from the opening of INFINITY GAUNTLET which is reflected in INFINITY WAR, only with Bruce Banner (The Hulk) replacing The Silver Surfer, who has not yet been inducted in the actual MCU, still being, as of this writing, a Fox property.

Another chilling moments from the original INFINITY GAUNTLET that is almost verbatim in AVENGERS INFINITY WAR...just with some different characters substituted in the scene.

AVENGERS INFINITY WAR sees Thanos (exquisitely performed by a regal Josh Brolin) finally being fully fleshed out as a character. In a way, he is the main focus of the film, and even managed to both make me tear up, and even made a certain amount of sense in his motivations. Like all great villains, he doesn't see himself as one, but instead as a saviour. He just has this conviction that living beings are overabundant and are slowly destroying the World, and that true peace can only be achieved by the elimination of at least half of them. I have to admit that there are days where I feel pretty much like he does.

Thanos' method to his madness, from SILVER SURFER # 35 (1990)

Most of the superheroes that populates the MCU appear in INFINITY WAR, with the notable exception of HAWKEYE and ANT-MAN (who I believe may end up in the sequel, because there WILL BE a sequel, judging from the decisively open-handed, shocking ending. ) and Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie, as well as the majority of the Asgardians who were aboard the spaceship at the end of THOR:RAGNAROK, are suspiciously absent. Have they fled before the attack by Thanos' brood that opens the film? Will their whereabouts be revealed in the sequel? Stay tuned.


This deluge of characters could feel overwhelming, but directors Anthony and Joseph Russo, who had demonstrated their uncanny ability to handle an enormous super-powered ensemble cast and outstanding action set pieces in their previous MCU entry, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, are in top form, accumulating show-stopping moments in a veritable orgy of mostly stunning special effects (Some of the CGI characters left me cold, but nothing to really take me out of the film.). There is little room for character development, although it can be argued that this feels very much like a season cliffhanger on TV. The character work had been done in the preceding season, so to speak, the same way we have seen those heroes evolve through 18 movies so far. By this point, we know them and their interactions clearly, leaving room for the villain of the piece to take centre stage.

This is not to say we don't get the now essential quips and character quirks, making new alliances entertaining and fun (Thor's team-up with The Guardians of the Galaxy is rife with humorous moments, for instance, making good use of Chris Hemsworth's talent for deadpan and Chris Pratt's natural braggadocio.), adding welcome moments of levity in an overall pretty grim premise.

Mantis and Rocket Racoon examining an unconscious Thor, in a scene from INFINITY WAR.

Fans like me will rejoice in seeing Thor reacquire somewhat more traditional regalia, bringing him closer to his classic look than the one he sported in RAGNAROK. And isolated moments like the simply superb first appearance of Captain America (now having abandoned his star-spangled costume for a darker outfit, reflecting the disillusion he experienced after the end of CIVIL WAR), or his exhilarating race towards certain doom side by side with the Black Panther on the plains of Wakanda, are pieces of geek perfection.

Advertisement

Is this the best Marvel movie? I wouldn't venture to go there. But there is no denying it is the most ambitious. Writer Warren Ellis has an interesting way to see it;

''It is not a movie. It is a brand manifestation that wants to have prolonged, eager and reasonably skilled cultural sex with you. It wants your experience with its content™ to be satisfying and it hopes you are pleased enough to return for further interaction with the Brand. This is a very 21C thing. I like it for that alone, to be honest.''



He may have a point. In a sense, this isn't quite a movie. Not in the way we are used to experience them. Most films would try to at least be somewhat palatable or easy to digest for the uninitiated. This sensory overload of a motion picture caters strictly to the fans. A bright, loud shiny reward for the viewers who sat through the 18 previous films of the MCU, and who will keep sitting patiently through myriads of credit scenes for a glimpse at the promise of super-powered silver screen antics in the near future.

It exists as a gigantic cinematic anomaly, both wildly popular yet undeniably hermetic. One can hope that Hollywood doesn't attempt to learn the wrong lesson from its success, as it often does. Its success is not explained by the ridiculous amount of characters, or by its relentless succession of action sequences that ties together a somewhat fragile plot. It is not in the colorful cavalcade of CGI wizardry that fills the Imax sized screen to capacity.

INFINITY WAR triumphs by expertly exploiting love for characters we have seen evolve on the silver screen over the span of the last 10 years, and for whom a vast majority of the viewers have shared a vested passion since Jack Kirby and Stan Lee decided to revive superheroes all the way back in 1961. It thrives on this affection that has spanned thousands of story lines, tons of ink, incalculable amount of coffee, and nearly 60 years of super-powered escapism.

It lives and prospers because it elevates its source material, both making it current while respecting its humble pop culture roots.

To paraphrase Gowan, Marvel movies are a strange animal I've got to follow.