- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- Do post-credit scenes exist because of the Avengers movies, or do the Avengers movies exist because of post-credit scenes? It's an interesting chicken-and-the-egg question that illustrates the biggest problem with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, namely that concentrating its many varied characters and diverse storylines into a single overstuffed extravaganza inevitably has much more to do with marketing than with storytelling or art. The same criticism can perhaps be leveled at all blockbusters, but at least the smaller-scale films hide it better. The fact is that synergy is more powerful than all of the Infinity Stones combined.
- In the specific case of Avengers: Infinity War, the audience faces off against the Marvel movie with the most sprawling cast, the largest number of locations, the biggest budget, and the longest runtime thus far. Although the Russo brothers worked wonders with both visceral and fanciful action sequences in the two most recent Captain America movies, one quickly realizes that this film's many CGI-soaked battles could not have been informed by substantial directoral input. Instead, the film's primary ingredients are big, boring slugfests, an overabundance of exposition, a dash of humor, and a sprinkle of pathos, all of which mix together to taste like slightly too much of everything.
- I can't possibly describe the entire plot and cast without breaking my self-imposed word limit, so let me focus exclusively on the film's highs and lows. Much to my surprise, the best part of the film is easily Thanos (Josh Brolin), the motion-captured baddie who existed thus far in the Marvel Universe primarily to provide a glower from his distant floating chair. In this film, we finally get to know the so-called Mad Titan, whose insane genocidal plans are paradoxically infused with sympathetic humanitarian intent. The only new characters who stand out in my mind are the Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), a worshipper of Thanos who resembles a revivalist preacher, and Eitri the Dwarf, who surely represents Peter Dinklage's biggest role. Returning character Gamora (Zoe Saldana) has the most interesting heroic role in the film as Thanos' understandably rebellious adopted daughter, while Drax (Dave Bautista) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) land a few funny lines, as usual.
- While much of the film works just-well-enough, there are more serious hiccups than one would expect from its rumored 400 million-dollar budget. Occasionally, the problem is the CGI, as in a Wakandan battle that accidentally recalls an equally uninspired siege in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Sometimes the problems are with characters, such as the blandly generic 3/4 of Thanos' servants and the film's inexplicable focus on a distinctly non-green Bruce Banner. Although nobody was exiled to an island this time around, Hawkeye and Ant-Man are nowhere to be found, but the film does go out of its way to revisit Red Skull (Ross Marquand) in a manner that is surprising, confusing, and disappointing, pretty much in that order. But the film's biggest problem is simply that it tries and fails to balance several dozen characters for two-and-a-half hours without even coming close to having a proper ending. Naturally, there will be a sequel that we'll all see next year, etc, etc.
