3.5 stars out of 5
Years ago, I heard that phone numbers were seven digits long because the human brain can only handle seven distinct pieces of information at any one time. So how in hell am I supposed to follow what’s going on in Avengers: Infinity War? Sure, as a kid, I loved Marvel Team-Up, which in each issue paired my beloved Spider-Man with some other random hero from the Marvel Universe. But, see, the Avengers are already a Team-Up. Isn’t it enough to have the Hulk and Iron Man and Captain America fighting on the same side in the ultimate cosplay tag-team match? How many yachts can you water-ski behind, man?
But no, we get all the Guardians of the Galaxy and the population of Wakanda tossed in too. I suppose the ADD crowd eats this up with a spoon, but I’d really prefer Marvel Studios’ Waiting for Godot. Speaking of Wakanda, I genuinely liked Black Panther and also, to a lesser extent, Thor: Rigamarole. What did those movies have in common? Quality filmmakers. Infinity War, on the other hand, was handed off to Marvel house screenwriters and to some house directors, the Russo brothers. (See? Even too many directors!)
The action is filmed adequately enough, if not nearly as thrilling as Ready Player One. The script, trying to match previous lighter-hearted Avengers outings, is peppered with one-liners, but almost all of these fall flat. And there’s even more of them due to the incon-groot-ous inclusion of the much-more-light-hearted Guardians of the Galaxy. I will admit, the one time I truly laughed was at Chris Pratt’s response to the question “Which master do you serve?”
So, the movie is going along, hopping from set piece to set piece, almost following that sitcom writing template of “send these two characters off on this storyline, and these other three characters on this subplot.” And it was all OK but not really grabbing me. Ah, but then the ending comes — no spoilers — and it’s unexpected and AWESOME (if not exactly original). My rating jumped up half a star. Good thing, too, because prior to that it was feeling a little like Avengers: Infinite Bore.
Jack Silbert, curator