AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
In the past ten years, we've grown pretty accustomed to Marvel's cinematic brand and the regular release of their superhero films. Audiences are now aware of what a 'post-credits sting' is and the difference between Marvel and DC - even so, for an ageing geek like me, it's surprising to me that these stories have been so successfully marketed to a mass audience in the way that they have. It was unthinkable when i was young, that the comics I was reading would be deemed appropriate as blockbuster fodder by mainstream movie studios. They're such huge budgetary risks to take - which is why it wasn't common to see a comic adaptation until Tim Burton's Batman. It was during this fallow comic book film period that Marvel Comics, thinking that cinema was not something it could ever hope to be involved with - licensed many of its most popular comic characters to other studios: Spiderman, Fantastic Four and X Men to name but three. Once the success of Batman showed that there was life in these brands, comics were then quite frequently adapted by filmmakers - but the results were often mixed - films such as The Mask, Blade, Barb Wire, The Shadow, Timecop, The Crow, Spawn and Marvel's own Blade. Studios kept trying, but the right formula for success eluded them.
It wasn't too long ago when Jon Favreau was begging the studio to take a chance on Robert Downey Jr, a recovering drug addict and ex-con who, at one stage, couldn't be insured on a film set and had to be vouched for by then A-Lister Mel Gibson so that he could star alongside Gibson in Keith Gordon's film of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective.
Iron Man was a risk, when it's closing credits featured a 'sting' that alluded to a larger story in which Iron Man would play just one small part, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just a hope for Marvel Studios. They were making a play that could well have ended before it began. So it's worth contemplating just how tempestuous and fickle the film business really is - and how many mega-budgeted films flop every year - so we need to understand just how exceptional it is, to make 18 films - in succession, that have all been popular with audiences and where each has built on the back of the film that preceded it. Marvel have built a brand for themselves, something of an expectation - similar to that of Pixar - where audiences expect a certain style of storytelling and a specific tone. So with each successive film, Marvel has added another piece to their cinematic version of the Infinity Gauntlet/Infinity War mythology, the story breadcrumbs being carefully laid out, with the intention of a huge story pay-off.
Avengers Infinity War is the culmination of Marvel Studio's business strategy, it's also the culmination of a ten year story - a transition to the next phase of Marvel’s storytelling. Marvel is at its zenith right now, they have the keys to the Hollywood kingdom and they seem to never put a foot wrong. Marvel Studio's President Kevin Feige, has managed to maintain a fine balance of character and CG action bombast in their storytelling that, thus far, has worked.
Other studios have tried to build their own cinematic universes, though this never seems to meet with the success that Marvel films have. Universal had a showy press announcement for their 'Dark Universe', set to feature the universal monsters from Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Though when the Tom Cruise vehicle The Mummy tanked spectacularly, Universal hurriedly abandoned the idea of an extended universe. Warner bros. struggle with their 'Extended Universe' but have abandoned any hope of a connected one. Despite Suicide Squad and Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice making money, they were not good films. The brand attracts audiences, yes - but there's no stories or characters to keep them there. Thus any attempts to entice audiences to other connected stories would fail. Sony are attempting to build an extended Spiderman universe, with Black Cat & Silver Sable in the offing as well as the Tom Hardy version of Venom. Building a cinematic universe like Marvel has requires patience and vision - something movie executives inherently lack.
Avengers Infinity War sees our heroes separated into smaller teams (Empire Strikes Back style), scattered throughout the galaxy on missions that will help defeat Thanos (a mo-capped Josh Brolin) an intergalactic (and genocidal) warrior-god/philosopher, who, throughout all the previous Marvel films, has sought to accumulate all the Infinity Stones (Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Soul, and Time) which he hopes to house in an enormous gold gauntlet on his left hand. These stones, and their powers, have been demonstrated throughout all the previous Marvel films, and once they're all together, they give the one who wields them the powers of a God.
Despite juggling such an insane amount of characters, directors Joe and Anthony Russo show the remarkable skill they displayed with the Captain America trilogy (my personal favourite being Captain America: Winter Soldier) and ably mix action and character beats – which are all balanced nicely, so every character gets a satisfying turn. There’s some great comic beats with the Guardians of the Galaxy team and between Iron man (Robert Downey Jr) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) - who do ping off each other in a satisfying way – which is not a shock given Doctor Strange had a virtually identical setup in his own film, as Iron Man did in his: ‘arrogant man of many talents has an epiphany of greater responsibility to the world’ etc.
The CG FX are worth mentioning, not only are they terrific (and probably most of the budget) -there are some brilliantly dynamic (and fun) action sequences, such as the one that opens the film but also particularly with Thanos, Josh Brolin’s performance as 'the purple one' is very much front and centre. Up till this point we’ve seen glimpses of him, a huge purple hulk sitting on his big gold toilet floating in space however in this, he totally sells the character – which is an interesting one because he believes he is righteous in his mission to ‘cleanse’ the galaxy. He’s philosophical, emotional and works really well as an antagonist – particularly against Iron Man/Tony Stark.
Is it good - hell yeah! It's a ton of fun, though as I've said, its reliant on the preamble to the story that's been laid out during 18 previous films - so your enjoyment depends on how deep you've dived. The uninitiated may be a tad confused but it'd still be a fun ride. For the fans, it's a kick ass culmination of the faith we've had in Marvel from the beginning and even though its stuffed to the gills and groans under the weight of its gargantuan cast list, it's still moving, funny and hugely entertaining.