Movie Review - Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War **** (out of 5) (PG-13) Since everyone likely to watch this has already seen plenty of Marvel Comics’ superhero movies, let’s keep this one simple, with a good news-bad news format:

Good - More superheroes appear in this one than you could shake Thor’s hammer at.
Bad - It’s occasionally hard to keep track of who is using which power against which enemy or henchperson thereof.

Bad — It runs 2 ½ hours. Good - The action is so (dare I say?) fast and furious that it sure seems a lot shorter.

Bad - After all that time, the movie ends with a lousy situation, including some surprising deaths, just to set up a sequel.
Good - Since the power to control time is one of the themes, maybe the sequel will undo some of the losses we witnessed in this one.

Good - Stan Lee’s cameo comes early, allowing focus to remain on the main story. Bad - What could possibly be bad about a Stan Lee cameo? They’re always nothing but degrees of good.

Good - Josh Brolin looks and sounds suitably menacing in the role of archvillain Thanos, while also showing more emotional layers than usual for the genre. Bad - The handsome Brolin, in full regalia, bears a shocking resemblance to Ron Perlman, which would be a serious loss of points on the old 1-10 scale if carried over to his real life.

Good - Wonderful comic touches from Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man/Tony Stark and the crew from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Bad - Much of the action occurs in such dark, ominous settings, creating the impression of DC Comics having invaded this universe. Even Darth Vader would have wanted to redecorate Thanos’ spacecraft and environs top cheer the place up.

Bad - Dave Bautista’s endearingly dense Drax is getting even dumber. Good - At least his form of stupidity is funny, unlike the same trend in the US Congress.

Good - Thanos’ evil plot is to save all the planets in the universe that have become overpopulated by wiping out half of their populations in a single stroke. Since he offs them randomly, he thinks it’s fair, making him the ultimate eco-warrior. Bad - See previous comment about US Congress, whose collective thinking is no better.

Good - Scarlett Johansson appears as Black Widow. Bad - She doesn’t get enough screen time to display her lithe and lethal skill set to full advantage. Actually, the same pairing applies to lovable tree-creature Groot, but for very different reasons

Bad - The credits are really, really long. Good - The standard teaser after they finally roll past is worth the wait.

Good - Franchise fans (who, unlike me, already know this isn’t a one-and-done story line) should be delighted by the script and the overall quality of the production, including all the CGI vistas and mayhem. Go to the biggest screen and most enveloping sound system in driving range, since there’s plenty of action worthy of those enhancements.
Bad - If you’ve not already seen a fair share of the zillion movies or read a bunch of the decades of comics featuring Thor, Spiderman, Iron Man and all the other characters converging to defeat this epic threat to the universe, don’t start here. You’ll be a stranger in a strange land. In space, no one can hear you bond. (4/27/18)