Too busy for its own good

OVER the 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the films in the series have had a tendency to live up to their own hype almost every time.

In the case of The Avengers: Infinity War — the climactic confrontation to which all the previous chapters have been leading — there was quite understandably a nearhysterical level of anticipation and excitement among fans. And I count myself as one. But I can’t shake the feeling that Infinity War is a bit less than it should have been, which is probably unfortunate for a movie that has so much packed into it.

The Avengers have broken up, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) are lost in space, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) are missing, Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) are in hiding, and things are kinda fractured between our heroes.

But they will need to overcome their differences and team up to defeat the latest and greatest threat to Earth and all life in the universe (the stakes are pretty high here).

The powerful alien war lord Thanos (Josh Brolin) has found two of the legendary Infinity Stones and just needs the remaining four in order to complete a terrifying new weapon: a gauntlet that will give him the ability to extinguish half of all life in the universe with a click of his fingers.

So it’s all hands on deck, basically.

The most obvious difference between this and the previous two Avengers films is the lack of Joss Whedon. Whedon’s ability to wrangle large ensemble casts and keep the patter lively and the action involving everyone made those movies work in a way few other directors could have.

This instalment, however, is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who previously helmed two of the Captain America movies: The Winter Soldier and Civil War. Winter Soldier is one of my least favourite films in the MCU, but in Civil War the Russos demonstrated they have the capacity to handle a huge ensemble cast with impressive dexterity.

So I’m not quite sure what went wrong with Infinity War. It doesn’t feel like an ensemble movie this time around. Rather it is more like five different stores running in parallel and only merging together when forced.

There are a lot of superheroes thrown together in this movie and it all feels a bit too busy, like they struggled to give everyone enough to do, so they doled out some busy-work just to make sure everyone gets a turn with the ball. And it all feels a bit disconnected: this is Iron Man’s bit, this is Bruce Banner’s bit, this is Black Panther’s bit, and so on.

Also, Whedon’s work is typically dialogue-heavy and draws much of its humour and character development from lengthy and dense interactions between characters, with his trademark rapid-fire interplay filled with gags and quips so sharp you barely have the time to laugh at it all.

Infinity War’s script is funny, for sure, but the style of humour is much more conventional: set-up, punchline, set-up, punchline, repeat. All of which is funny enough, but not as slick as previous episodes. And a film this epic and bloated with big characters needs to be a lean machine to avoid buckling under its own weight.

Infinity War has sacrificed speed and agility in order to punch a bit harder, and the result feels a bit too much like an obligation to get all the characters involved somehow, without ever really making any of them feel essential.

There is one standout scene in which Thor meets the Guardians of the Galaxy, resulting in some excellent comedic work, which simultaneously advances the story as well as giving further texture to the characters.

Hulk’s performance anxiety also provides some great laughs. So there are some true bright spots peppered around, as well as plenty of the self-aware humour the series is known for.

For my money, the best thing about the movie is Thanos, the towering purple villain with the pretty metal glove. Like all the best villains, he skates very close to actually being admirable. As he details his plans for cosmic mass murder, and his reasons for pursuing this goal with fundamentalist fervour, you kinda have to concede that the guy has a point when it comes to overpopulation. The idea is dreadful and utterly despicable, but you do see where he’s coming from.

And through the growling voice and stern face of Brolin, Thanos gets a surprising depth of character development in the story. We get a real sense of who he is, what drives him, how far he will go, and why. He’s surprisingly hard to hate.

Naturally the conclusion sets the scene for the next Avengers film (due for release in 2019), as well as being the launching pad for the next solo movie. Marvel sure knows how to keep the fans begging for more.

But in this case, this fan would have preferred a bit more personality and a bit less “jamming as much in here as we can in two and a half hours”. The Avengers: Infinity War (M) is now showing at Village Cinemas, Cmax and the State Cinema. Rating: