Ultimate crossover explodes on screen
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (12A, 149 mins)
WAR demands sacrifices – civility, morality, compassion, responsibility and, ultimately, torn flesh and innocent blood.
There are many heartbreaking sacrifices in Avengers: Infinity War, a blockbuster battle royale choreographed at dizzying speed by directors Joe and Anthony Russo to unite characters from across the sprawling Marvel Comics franchises.
The head-on collision of The Avengers with protagonists from Black Panther, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Thor promises an eye-popping spectacle.
A small army of specialeffects wizards conjure some jaw-dropping set pieces and bring to life a hulking supervillain in Thanos (Josh Brolin), who continues his quest to claim the six Infinity Stones, which will allow him to exterminate half of all living organisms in the universe.
Scriptwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely bolt together the outlandish action sequences with comical interludes peppered with snarky humour, pop culture references and an obligatory Stan Lee cameo to the thunderous beat of composer Alan Silvestri’s score.
It has been two years since Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans) went toe-to-toe with billionaire inventor Tony Stark, aka Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr).
“The Avengers broke up, we’re toast,” Stark informs Bruce Banner, aka Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
“Like the Beatles?” responds the scientist.
Thanos exploits these divisions to hunt the missing Infinity Stones including the Mind Stone embedded in Vision (Paul Bettany), the Time Stone concealed within an amulet worn by Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the Space Stone inside the Tesseract stolen by Loki (Tom Hiddleston).
To defeat Thanos, Stark and Rogers must put their ideological differences aside and pool resources with Wakandan king T’Challa, aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Peter Quill, aka Starlord (Chris Pratt), and his wisecracking posse.
Avengers: Infinity War would be a physically exhausting assault on the eyes and ears without welcome pauses for pithy banter.
Brolin’s Thanos could be truly formidable if he weren’t almost entirely CGI. The character’s lack of emotion in close-up diminishes the film’s most memorable and shocking sequence.
A spry script gives the biggest personalities room to scene-steal and relegates others to just a couple of lines of dialogue. Perhaps their time to shine will dawn in the concluding chapter, due for release in April 2019.