AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (M)
Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: Civil War) Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman Rating: BLOCKBUSTER number 19 from the all-star superhero stable of Marvel Entertainment is a gargantuan game-changer, with over 20 iconic characters joining forces for an epic adventure taking the Marvel experience to a whole new level.
This is not a case of worlds colliding. It is all about galaxies aligning. Galaxies is very much the operative word here, as it is a goodhumoured gatecrashing of the Avengers party by the Guardians of the Galaxy gang that is the real, undisputed success story of Infinity War.
The only plotting you need to know is that the villainous Titan despot Thanos (a magnificent motion-captured performance from Josh Brolin) is advancing his plan for a genocide that will halve the population of all worlds in the universe.
Naturally, all that stands in his way is a rapidly evolving and amusingly improvised alliance between virtually every big name linked to the Avengers and the Guardians.
Tracking the multiple lines of resistance taken by this lot is one of the unabashed delights of Infinity War, even if at times it will leave viewers needing a GPS to stay abreast of where they are and what is happening.
One minute, the story will drag you to an ominously dark middle of Knowhere.
Then all of a sudden, the action will switch to the wondrous, wide-open plains of Wakanda (yes, the mighty Black Panther posse are back in full force just months after taking the movie world by storm). How the multitude of characters involved in
Infinity War come together is best left unexplained for now. Let’s just say the movie gets its groupings exactly right as the story progresses.
Some are purely factional (Chris Evans’ Captain America leads a band of former exiles which includes Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch).
Some are problematically frictional (Robert Downey Jr’s tech tycoon Tony ‘Iron Man’ Stark is perpetually at loggerheads with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Steven ‘Doctor’ Strange).
Some are just plain fun (who would have thought Chris Hemsworth’s Thor would turn out to be such great buddies with Guardians goofballs Rocket and Groot?).
Overall, this is no mere smooshing-up of previous plot lines for convenience’s sake. Nor is it just an SFX-driven smackdown-fest for purely spectacle’s sake.
No, Avengers: Infinity War marks a welcome turning of the page that will only serve to open up many exciting new chapters in the Marvel canon.