Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Karen Gillan, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Chadwick Boseman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Josh Brolin, Paul Bethany, Elisabeth Olsen
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
It is Screenplay Lesson One. You cannot have resolution without conflict. No gain without pain. Good exists only in relation to bad. Your hero’s mettle increases in direct proportion to the villain’s competency. If there are a group of heroes, they should either battle a villain team-up or a single villain stronger than each of them.
Ever since The Avengers end credit scene revealed him, Thanos was going to be the ultimate challenge for the Avengers, Credit to the Marvel top brass for teasing us just enough. We kept getting hints, while each of the heroes kept battling lesser evils in their standalone movies. Finally, the time was right to unleash the Mad Titan on the universe. Boy, did he not disappoint!
We start from the end of Thor: Ragnarok, when the Asgardian ship crossed paths with Thanos (Brolin). There is no easing into the story. Thanos wants the six Infinity Stones and he is going to get it, come what may. The mighty Thor (Hemsworth) and the Hulk (Ruffalo) are tossed away like rags. We get to see the sheer strength and single-mindedness of Thanos. You see, he happens to believe that the resources of the Universe are finite and there are too many mouths to feed. He wants to restore the balance by eliminating half the population; albeit randomly.
On earth, Iron Man (Downey Jr), Doctor Strange (Cumberbatch), Spider-Man (Holland) and Hulk meet to make sense of a ring-shaped battleship that just appeared over New York. In Scotland, the Scarlett Witch (Olsen) and the Vision (Bethany) try to fight off some aliens who are trying to get the stone on Vision’s forehead. Luckily, they have help. The gang on the run after Civil War – Captain America (Evans), the Falcon (Mackie) and the Black Widow (Johansson) – come out of the shadows. Before the Avengers get together a few of them decide to take the battle to Thanos in his home planet of Titan. In other space news Thor meets with the Guardians of the Galaxy. There is the small matter of getting Thor a new hammer, the Thanos-killing kind.
Slowly, but surely, Thanos acquires the stones, one by one. Will he be able to get them all? Will he snap his fingers and decimate half of life? The only hindrances in his way are the Avengers, half of them in Titan and the other gathering for the battle of their lives in Wakanda, where the Black Panther (Boseman) and his soldiers make up the numbers.
Along with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the director duo set about crafting a simple hide-and-seek tale. But it is in the details that they excel. Each stone has to be wrenched away. There is a steep price that someone pays. Each stone adds to Thanos’ strength. He is able to get away from situations he otherwise wouldn’t have because he is aware of the new weapon in his arsenal. The fights happening in multiple planets is smartly done in a way as to seem organic. It was literally only while watching Endgame that I became aware that the groups who split in Civil War didn’t completely come together in this movie.
The quips come fast. Some stick and some don’t. But the Russo brothers have been learning from each movie. They have improved by leaps and bounds in the emotional quotient stakes. The Vormir sequence has to be one of the most moving that they have done. The editing gives a fast pace to the story and we don’t pause to question the physics of it all, at all. A decision I will question is the one to keep one of the original Avengers away from this installment. It makes no sense. Of course, they made up for it in Endgame, but still it irks.
The top guns bring in their top game. There is no slacking anywhere with regards to their performance. Robert Downey Jr continues on his conquering run, while being irritated by his young ward Spider-Man, and the new magician who he doesn’t trust. Benedict Cumberbatch takes to playing second fiddle rather too well, but the writers make him an able foil to Iron Man. Josh Brolin is up front and centre and doesn’t disappoint. “I am inevitable,” just made into the cultural lexicon. Chris Evans made more people quote Walt Whitman than ever before in history. Well, they stopped at “Oh Captain, my Captain” after seeing him with a beard, but still…
The action sequences are well-done and induce more than their fair share of goosebumps. The scene where Thor arrives in Wakanda has to be, hands down the most Wow moment in the MCU. Don’t take my word for it, ask the Russos. They watch a video of the euphoric reaction to that in a Mumbai theatre as a pick-me-up. Whatever happened to not shooting videos in a theatre?
But what really sets Infinity War apart is its ability to hook the audience. Pretty much everyone who saw the movie knew that this was just one part of the story. The conclusion would come the next year in Endgame. But right through the movie, that bit of information is the last thing you think of. Especially in the final battle in Wakanda you are waiting for the killing blow (bad pun) that would lay Thanos low. This is the near perfect mesh of screenplay and visualisation in a popular movie. One that leaves you wowed and yet screaming for more. This, probably, will remain the pinnacle of the Russos' career.
Stan Lee cameo: Stan the bus driver who can’t believe that the kids haven’t seen a spaceship before. He probably got this job after being fired from the guard role in the Captain America museum!
Post-credits scene: Fabulous! Well, fabulous marketing for the new character they were bringing to the screen in a few months, it turned out to be. But if post credits sequences were not meant to be just a gag, then this is how you do it. Samuel L Jackson almost uttered his catchphrase in a PG13 movie. Almost. Damn Thanos!
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