While Thanos and his minions are off collecting Infinity Stones, our heroes are mixing and matching. Thor falls in with the Guardians of the Galaxy who, a part from Peter Quill, are a bit mesmerized by Thor's manly musculature. With the refugee Asgardians decimated by Thanos and his crew, Thor heads off with Rocket and Groot in search of new god weapons while Peter, Gamora, Drax and Mantis seek to head off Thanos from getting another stone.
On Earth, the Hulk crashes into Stephen Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum; Bruce Banner has an urgent message that Thanos is coming. The Sorcerer Supreme is of special interest to Thanos as the good doctor of the mystic arts is the keeper of an Infinity Stone, the one that controls time. Dr. Strange recruits Tony Stark to Iron Man up since, no matter how hard he tries, Banner cannot summon the Hulk. A giant donut from space descends on New York which also draws in Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, Vision and Scarlet Witch are attacked in Scotland where they are on a romantic getaway. Thanos minions are after the Infinity Stone in Vision's forehead. It is an attack thwarted by the timely intervention of Captain America, Falcon and Black Widow. Then War Machine joins them on a trip to Wakanda to get help from the Black Panther where we find the erstwhile Winter Solder waiting for them. Boy, I love comic book team ups.
it's like watching an event comic book unfold with different characters joining up in differing configurations in service to a large threat, a threat that grows in dire significance.
Thanos finally steps up and boy does he step up big time with a plan to kill half the universe which is of course fundamentally evil but also mathematically sound.
Like most villains, he doesn't see himself as such. He doesn't want the power of the Infinity Stones just for the sake of having power. His goal is to wipe out half of the life in the universe, to bring balance to a universe teeming with too much life. Killing half of the universe makes life better for the other half that doesn't get killed.
For all the growing darkness surrounding events, there is humor. Tony Stark and Stephen Strange are oil and water, masters of science and magic with egos to match. Peter Parker's unexpected foray into an outer space adventure sets up some funny moments. Peter Quill tries to out-tough Thor and then looks to hold his own against Tony Stark works to comedic effect.
Who would ever expect that a primary source of comic relief would ever be Bruce Banner? It seems that even though Bruce actually WANTS to turn into the Hulk, the Hulk refuses to cooperate.
But for all the comic banter and all the action scenes, be warned that Avengers: Infinity War is building towards something dark and tragic. If you know that this film leads into the 4th Avengers movie next year, it will probably not come as a surprise that our heroes do not come out on top. And our world, indeed our universe, pays an incredibly fatal price for that failure. What will be a surprise is the full extent and manner in which that price is paid.
You may go into this movie with "Let's go see Avengers: Infinity War!! WOO-HOO!!!"
You will come out of this movie with "Just saw Avengers: Infinity War. No one talk to me."
There is a LOT to keep track of in Avengers: Infinity War and directors Anthony and Joe Russo do a good job keeping things on track. Or I may be a bit biased as I have a lifetime of reading comic books like this to train my brain to help keep track of things. I imagine that without that comic book background, another viewer might find the movie a bit disjointed.
Avengers: Infinity War was fun and action packed but caution: it will hurt you in the end. And we have a year to live with that hurt before Avengers 4 comes our way in May 2019 before our heroes can try to make things right.
Perhaps with a little help from a certain super powered female captain?
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