Avengers Infinity War blasts into NZ Cinemas this Anzac Day April 25th and culminates 10 incredible years of Marvel Studios movie-making and an egotistical, slightly troubled and very attractive, dysfunctional family of characters that we’ve all grown to love.
It’s undeniable. “Marvel movies” and their impact on modern cinema are such that there’s no way, NO way you don’t know that this movie is coming out this week; so if you’re in any way endeared to these movies then I urge you to see Avengers Infinity War in cinema on the biggest screen you’re able to see it on, as soon as you can. I love the #ThanosDemandsYourSilence campaign; which is an earnest effort by directors Anthony and Joe Russo and the cast to encourage fans to keep the plot-points and character arcs secret. However, I just don’t feel confident that you’ll be kept safe and innocent from little spoiler hints, saucy winks or outright ruining of the incendiary spectacle that Avengers Infinity War is. So in honour of keeping the surprises safe for you; and in my usual #NoSpoiler review style I’m going to focus on some other aspects that will make you want to see Avengers Infinity War and what you need to know before you see it!
To fully enjoy Avengers Infinity War I honestly think you’ll need to have seen at least a couple of the following Marvel Studios movies that I’m going to list for you, first. I reckon if you check out: The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok before hand then you’ll be in good stead to understand what’s up without having to watch or re-watch all of the Marvel Studios movies first. Not saying these are the best of the movies, my favourites or that Avengers Infinity War is most similar to these suggestions; but rather I tried to think of Avengers Infinity War from a completely fresh perspective – if someone knew NOTHING about The Avengers going in to see Infinity War and was pressed for time, then what is the bare minimum of Marvel Studios films they would need to see first? The list above is them.
No matter how you feel about Avengers Infinity War there’s another thing that’s undeniable: it’s an amazing feat that this movie was even made. I’m a movie nerd that LIVES for production stories, insights and director’s commentaries on Blu Ray; so for me thinking about the sheer magnitude of a challenge it would have been to accommodate the 25 most important cast members on set and to their schedules is a massive undertaking. 25 S-T-A-R-S of varying fame of course but that’s a very large number of famous bodies to be responsible for on-set. For feeding them, giving them a place of their own to be in between takes (to their contract’s specs of course!), a place to workout because with these superhero bods reality is they need to work out between 4-6 hours a day as well as act onscreen; they need transport, their own costumes for different stages of the story for continuity all stored and cleaned, an area for make-up and hair and their mood boards for each character, their assistants and trainers – all of it. So much responsibility.
Now, what do I think of Marvel Studios Avengers Infinity War…honestly? Infinity War is certainly one for the fans; questions you want answered will be and loose threads shall be tied up; WARNING if you “Don’t like Marvel and Superhero movies that much” then straight up don’t go see it, there’s no point for you and let us hopeless Marvel romantics have our fun! Avengers Infinty War is a veritable banquet of SFX, digital artistry, costuming, character design and fantastical locations. Astoundingly with 25 major characters in play the screen time given to each is surprisingly balanced or at least measured out as it should be in relation to the importance of their character; with perhaps only the slightly sliver of more time being meted out to Thor. As simple as the motivations of Thanos are (get the infinity stones for his big blinging MJ glove…) I think one of the most effective aspects of Avengers Infinity War is that we’re reminded by each character how monumental this face off with Thanos is for them. They’ve all lost out due to his galactic cleansing and be it redemption or revenge each character is getting it with Thanos now. The comedy in Infinity War is superb and I laughed harder at some of the gags in this than I did in recent rom-coms and comedy romps. Trading on our love of these characters and our intimate knowledge of them; an effective joke comes in the form of an eye-roll, a knowing quip or even just an introduction. That said precisely the same history we have with these heroes dictates that the moments of pain, loss and sadness in Avengers Infinity War are felt all the more keenly too – that’s all I’m saying!
When are you seeing Avengers Infinity War? In respect of the #ThanosDemandsYourSilence directive for #InfinityWar I invite you to slide in my DM’s on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and chat with me about the parts you loved in Avengers Infinity War most, as let’s face it – you’re going to want to talk to SOMEONE about what you saw and still remain a well-mannered non-spoilery citizen for the next couple of weeks at least! So hit me up and let’s chat about what you didn’t quite get, loved or loathed in Avengers Infinity War…I’m ready!
Deepest thanks to Walt Disney Studios AUNZ for inviting me along to the NZ advance screening of Marvel Studios Avengers Infinity War so that I could review it before release.
