Avengers: Infinity War

A minor improvement over Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War follows a variety of superheroes as they band together to fight and defeat a fearsome villain named Thanos (Josh Brolin). Filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo have infused Avengers: Infinity War with a predictably erratic feel that persists for the duration of its insanely overlong running time of 149 minutes (!), with the movie’s almost total lack of momentum perpetuated (and compounded) by a fragmented storyline that arbitrarily lurches from one sequence to the next (ie there’s a palpable randomness to the placement of the movie’s many, many subplots). The patchwork atmosphere ensures that the movie is rarely able to wholeheartedly sustain one’s interest, with the Russos’ less-than-impressive directorial choices (eg most scenes are bathed in a darkness that quickly becomes off-putting) rarely alleviating the mostly underwhelming, unimpressive vibe. Having said that, Avengers: Infinity War has been suffused with a handful of overtly positive elements that ensure it remains, at the very least, watchable throughout – with the movie benefiting substantially from Brolin’s surprisingly textured work as the completely computer-generated villain (ie the actor does a superb job of elevating Thanos above his one-note, Marvel-antagonist brethren). The smattering of agreeable attributes is ultimately crushed beneath the weight of a progressively excessive narrative, with, especially, the third act’s preponderance of tedious, dimly-lit action interludes threatening to cancel out the marginally-effective nature of what came before (although, to be fair, the picture does end with an impressively low-key stretch that’s probably more compelling than anything in this entire misbegotten series) – which finally does confirm Avengers: Infinity War‘s place as just another run-of-the-mill and somewhat irrelevant comic-book extravaganza.

** out of ****