Battle Royale

Infinity War smashes box office records

Marvel Studios has hooked fans into their elaborate and masterfully crafted Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, through their movies over the past 10 years, taking us all over their universe from “The Avengers” here on Earth to “Guardians of the Galaxy” in space. The vastness of this “universe” is truly exhibited as all our beloved superheroes ban together in a highly anticipated fight that the past eighteen films have been leading up to.

Anthony and Joe Russo’s “Avengers: Infinity War” was the perfect example of Marvel Studio’s ability to amazingly craft a movie that caters to long time and casual fans.

The third “Avengers” film brings the villainous Thanos (Josh Brolin) into the storyline, whose soul objective is to bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of its population. With the snap of a finger, he can easily complete this task after gaining all six Infinity stones. As any superhero movie goes, heroes including the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy band together to stop Thanos from achieving his endgame in a battle that leaves half the universe’s lives in their hands.

After audiences have watched and gotten to know the different characters in the MCU through their individual movies, it was exciting to see all of them come together for one film.

Although it was hard to incorporate all the heroes into one film without belittling or modifying the characters, the Russos were able to pull it off, for most of the characters got adequate screen time with at least some lines as well as good fight scenes. Even though characters like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) or Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) might have delivered more important lines and had more screen time, audiences are still exposed to others including Drax (Dave Baustista) and the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), who each add to the story in their own ways.

Thanos was a complex villain brought into light after a few years of short cameos. Although his actions and goals deemed him the spot of the antagonist of the movie, his motives were deeper than the usual villains we see in superhero movies.

Instead of wanting to conquer or annihilate the universe for no concrete reason, even though he would be technically wiping out half the population if he reached his end goal, he is doing what he believes would restore happiness and balance to the universe, making this a matter of perspective and adding to the complexity of his character.

The film was able to deliver a great balance of different emotions throughout the movies, engulfing audiences in an emotional whirlpool.

With “Avengers: Infinity War” being one of the most impactful films of the series that largely contributes to the MCU storyline, it could have been tense and gloomy for the whole while through. However, the script offers many needed comedic breaks throughout the film from typically humorous characters like Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Star-Lord, Drax and Thor (Chris Hemsworth).

Marvel’s popularity has grown over the years, as seen through the $640.9 million “Avengers: Infinity War” racked in worldwide during its opening, according to Variety. The Russos were handed the challenging task of creating a movie that pleases a variety of moviegoers and fans, a hard task for such an anticipated and important film in the series. Frankly, they did a great job given that they had to pack a gargantuan list of characters and a grand plot into one movie.

The film is lined with notable actors including Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Chris Pratt, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Zoe Saldana as Gamora, just to name a few. They are able to deliver their characters superbly due to the fact that they have played these roles in at least a couple movies leading up to “Infinity War”, giving them plenty of time to fully embrace and perfect their parts.

Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely supplied audiences with a witty, comedic script, as well as a more solemn script that creates a great, emotionally balanced movie that hit upon big aspects needed for future films. Elements from the original comics were also kept alive in the film through things like the sense of humor and accuracy of characters like Thanos and The Black Order that Marvel fans could appreciate.

“Avengers: Infinity War” accomplished its job of setting up for the next Marvel movies, and any viewer, whether it be diehard followers of the MCU or casual moviegoers, are left hooked and waiting for more after such an action-packed and enthralling movie.