10 Years in the Making! From the beginning with Ironman, we have been on a roller coaster adventure that has all lead to this point. This movie was a Hall of Fame Roster of Marvel Superheroes teamed up together for the Ultimate Worldbeating Villain himself, Thanos. Through the Good, Bad, Ugly and in between, this journey has to lead to this very point. This was the MCU Dream Team of All-Time Greats teaming up for an Epic War of Massive Proportions. For years, Marvel's biggest flaw was in their Villain Department. The Heroes were well written, but their Achilles Heel was always the rival. Fans complained for years about how the Villains are not very well developed and how they are easily beatable. With the exception of Loki, the average MCU Villain was one and done. However, Marvel has slowly but surely turned things around as of late. From Vulture (Spider-Man Homecoming) to Hela (Thor: Ragnarok) to Killmonger (Black Panther), the MCU has slowly been turning the tide to make improvements to balance things out between the Heroes and Villains.
In order to be a truly great Hero, you need a great Dance Partner to bounce off of. This time, Marvel made the biggest improvement because Thanos is the culmination of everything they have been building up to. Even when everyone was talking about the greatness of Erik Killmonger, I kept saying "You haven't seen anything yet" because I was referring to Thanos. As good as Killmonger was, Thanos makes him look like a Boyscout. With the hype building further for this movie, I knew that it would go beyond expectations and I was not disappointed. With the previews, I already knew this would be a wild ride, and it truly was. Marvel kept a slow build up in the beginning as Black Panther was gaining momentum. Once Black Panther became a surprise smash hit at the Box Office, Marvel revved up the engine for the Infinity War marketing machine. From that point, it was off to the races. With all of the speculation and predictions about the movie, I knew my prediction about the beginning would become a reality. It is time to get into that and more.
This movie did not waste time establishing how much of a Monster Villain Thanos is because things got savage very quickly. Infinity War starts off where Thor Ragnarok ended where we saw Thor and Loki staring at a Giant Spaceship which turned out to be Thanos' ship. From that point, the movie starts off with the Asgardian Refugee ship destroyed with the bodies of dead Asgardians laying on the floor. Thanos watches over the dead bodies with his minions the Black Order. Meanwhile, they surround Loki as he watches Thanos grab Thor by the head to torture him. As Thanos burns Thor's head with the Power Stone, Loki tells him to stop as he reveals the Tesseract (Space Stone). Loki gives Thanos the Space Stone to spare Thor's life. Before that happens, Loki tells Thanos that there is a Hulk on the ship. He used the same line that Tony Stark used on him to send Hulk to attack him in the first Avengers Movie "We have a Hulk". The Incredible Hulk rushes in to attack Thanos and gives him a sick combo. However, Thanos counters Hulk to get out of the corner. From that point, Thanos proceeded to annihilate The Hulk from a series of combos to a Gorilla Press Slam. Heimdall sends Hulk to Earth, only for Thanos to stab him with the Sword. as Loki gives Thanos the Tesseract he also tries to betray him by pulling out a dagger. Thanos would not be fooled by Loki's shenanigans, as he also reminds Loki of his failure from the battle of New York. Loki's arm freezes as he attempts to stab Thanos. The Mad Titan grabs Loki by the throat to kill him by breaking his neck. Thanos would say "There will be no Resurrection" meaning Loki is gone for good. Thor watches helplessly while his brother is killed mercilessly. After Thanos kills Loki, he leaves with the Black Order while destroying the Asgardian Ship. Meanwhile, Thor floats into Space after the chaos.
From that point, we also see the Team-Up of Ironman, Dr. Strange and Bruce Banner in New York outside of the Sanctum Santorum with the invasion Ebony and Obsidian. Banner tells Stark and Strange about Thanos and his mission to gather all of the Infinity Stones. Bruce still cannot transform because the Hulk lost his confidence. Meanwhile, Ironman and Dr. Strange battle Thanos' henchmen until Thanos' ship arrives on Earth. The battle continues there. Meanwhile, Peter Parker sees the ship from his Bus as he escapes to become Spider-Man. Parker gets on the ship, but Ironman finds him as he deploys the Iron-Spider suit for Peter to wear. Tony and Dr. Strange get into an argument about how they got in this position. Meanwhile, Tony is also trying to figure out how Peter got into this situation. Dr. Strange is tortured by one of the Black Order members as they try to take the Time Stone from him before Ironman makes short work of him. From that point, they arrive on Thanos' Home Planet of Titan.
The movie goes to the Guardians of the Galaxy storyline as they are flying the Milano Spaceship. As they are flying, they see a mysterious body floating from Space as it lands on their windshield. When the Guardians bring the body inside, they find out it is Thor. I actually enjoyed this interaction as well, because it seems like a great matchup. When Thor wakes up, Starlord stares him down as he mocks his accent. When you team up Thor with the Guardians, expect some jokes at some point. Thor tells his story as he tells them about Thanos and his quest to gather the Infinity Stones. As Thor talks about the Soul Stone, Gamora has a look on her face as if she already knows about it. Gamora tells Starlord that she knows where the Soul Stone is, but she got rid of the Map. She tells Quill to promise to kill her over the Soul Stone. From that point, you knew that her time was ticking. Fast forward to when they see Thanos as he collects the Reality Stone. The Guardians think that they have beaten Thanos, but he uses the Reality Stone to trick them as he takes Gamora to Soul World. In order to retrieve the Soul Stone, you have to sacrifice something or someone that you love and that someone who Thanos loved was Gamora. We are also met with an unexpected surprise with the appearance of the Red Skull on the Mountain where Thanos sacrifices Gamora. As Thanos looks over, Gamora tells him that he loves nothing. However, Thanos sheds a tear as the Red Skull tells Gamora that those tears are for her. Tragically, Thanos kills Gamora by throwing her off the cliff for the sake of the Soul Stone. This shows how ruthless Thanos can be to get what he wants the most. We also witness a flashback to when Thanos first took Gamora as his Daughter.
In between that time, we see Vision and Scarlet Witch together in Scotland where they have taken residence following Civil War. Vision has taken on a human form to disguise himself so that they can separate themselves from their lifestyles as Avengers. However, their time together is interrupted by an attack from the Black Order as they try to take the Mind Stone from Vision's head. However, Captain America comes in for the rescue. Proxima Midnight throws her Spear at Cap, only for him to catch it. Falcon and Black Widow join in for the save as well. From that point, they meet War Machine to discuss how to save Vision. They are also met by Bruce Banner. When they talk about a way to receive help from someone Technologically Advanced, Rogers says that he knows who can help. This is where the Black Panther music plays as we transition to Wakanda. Cap flies the jet to Wakanda to meet with King T'Challa and his Army of Dora Milaje led by General Okoye. Here, T'Challa gives everyone the marching orders as he tells his people to give Cap a new Shield. Meanwhile, Shuri scans Vision's database and his mind to heal him. Black Panther tells his team to give "White Wolf" aka Bucky Barnes a new Metal Arm. Steve reunites with Bucky to take on the aliens that Thanos sends to invade Wakanda.
When Thanos arrives at Titan, he is met by the Guardians, Ironman, Spider-Man, and Dr. Strange where they have another Great Battle with great attacks from Ironman, Spider-Man as well as Starlord and Strange. However, the course of their mission is drastically changed when Thanos is held down by Ironman and the others as he shares the tragic news of Gamora's death. Starlord finds this out as he goes into a rage over her death. Instead of helping his Team take the Gauntlet away from Thanos, Quill takes his frustrations out on him in a blind rage. It got so bad to the point where Ironman had to hold him back. Ironman goes toe to toe with Thanos in an Epic Showdown where it looked like Ironman would die. Thanos even said "I hope they remember you" after he stabs Stark. However, Dr. Strange came in for the save as he gives Thanos the Time Stone to save Tony's life. Strange also tells everyone that out of 14,000.000 outcomes, they only win one so this is their "Endgame" as he tells them. With the Time Stone, Thanos goes to the last place of Battle, Wakanda.
While all of these things are going on, Thor has been on his own side Mission with Rocket and Groot to go to the Planet where Mjolnir was built. There, he receives assistance from one of the Giant Dwarfs played by Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones. It was amazing to see how they made him such a Giant. Thor has to go into a device where he forges his new Weapon, Stormbreaker out of the heart of a dying star. It was so intense that Thor almost died. However, Groot came through at the most crucial time as he saw the Axe had been formed. Groot chops off one of his arms to create the handle that this new weapon needs. From that point, it is on to the Final Showdown with Thanos. As Black Panther, the Dora Milaje, the Jobari Tribe (M'Baku's Team) and others fight alongside Cap and his team, lightning strikes as Thor, Groot, and Rocket make their Grand Entrance to Wakanda to clean house. While that is going on, Thanos finds Vision to take the Mind Stone. However, Scarlet Witch takes the Stone out of Vision's head to destroy it. Unfortunately, Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse Time to the point where the Mind Stone was destroyed so that he could put it back together. When Thanos puts the Stone back together, he kills Vision. At this point, Thanos accomplished his mission of collecting all of the Infinity Stones. Thor gets the chance for revenge as he throws Stormbreaker at Thanos as it stabs him in the heart. We think that the Avengers have won, but Thanos is still alive. Thanos tells Thor that he should've aimed for the head, and for good reason. Suddenly, Thanos performs his most Iconic Move from the Comic Book as he snaps his fingers to wipe out half of the Universe. Gamora and Thanos have each mentioned this previously. From this point, we see the aftermath of Thanos' action. Out of nowhere, we see people dissolving into dust as they are wiped out. The most notable characters and biggest surprises were Black Panther and Spider-Man. Other characters that turned into dust included Scarlet Witch, Bucky, Falcon, Groot, Starlord, Drax, Dr. Strange, and Mantis. The Original Avengers Team survived, along with War Machine, Okoye, Rocket and Nebula. On Titan, Tony mourns the death of Peter Parker as he cries before he leaves. That was the most touching scene along with Gamora's Death and T'Challa's death.
When it was all said and done, Thanos sits down looking at the Sunset reflecting on what he accomplished. The only Post Credit Scene shows Nick Fury with agent Maria Hill as they are involved in a car accident. The people that were driving before had suddenly disappeared. The camera shows Agent Hill disappearing, followed by Agent Fury himself while he pages someone. The person that Fury pages turn out to be Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.
Overall, I was very pleased with this Movie. It reminded me of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back because of the cliffhanger ending. The Storylines were well established and developed as each character had plenty of screen time. Enough to go around for everyone to share. Thanos had great battles with everyone in their own special way. Even though there were characters everywhere, the Russo Brothers knew how to create a healthy balance between them. My Co-MVPs for this Movie would have to be Thanos and Thor with Ironman and Dr. Strange following right behind them. This was Thanos' Movie, Thor was the Most Improved since Ragnarok, Ironman was seen as the Building Block of the Avengers, and Dr. Strange came through in the clutch by saving Tony's life. I would give this Movie 10 out of 10 Infinity Gauntlets.
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