I have seen Infinity War.
...we were right to be afraid.
I hate Spoilers. They're the only thing that ruin a movie experience for me, so there won't be any. I'll wait a week and give my Spoiler Review then. For now, you are safe. See, when Star Wars: Force Awakens came out, I waited a day or two, and managed to get the major spoilers by accident, a few hours before I left for the theatre. I still enjoyed the movie, but I wouldn't wish that feeling on a friend.
I live in Australia, and saw the first session of Avengers: Infinity War: Part One. Timezones worked in my favor. I'm glad I bought my ticket a week ago, because I'm told every session at my local theatre is sold out for the next three days.
Marvel didn't hold anything back here. They went all out.
Typical Action Movies have a weakness, that they spend time on the action, and so you never really feel anything for the characters, because you don't get to know any of them. Action movies with that kind of heart are a rare breed, and always enjoyable.
Only now do I realize the true scope of Marvel's plan. The last ten years of movies have done nothing but make us relate and care about players that are from our world, as well as the ones that are nothing like us. A billionaire, a sorcerer, an ancient Storm God from a long forgotten culture, a psychopathic raccoon and a talking tree; and we care about them every bit as much as we do a high school kid who fell over into powers, and the ex-con who wants to make his daughter proud.
Marvel has spent ten years making us see ourselves in these people, and in IW; they are all bought back, specifically for the Grim Reaper to flip a coin over each of them.
For the last year, we've been trying to figure out who's most likely to die, who's almost certain to live. I don't believe I'm giving too much away when I say this: Throw those lists away. Nobody is safe. Not for a second. Not even a little bit.
Marvel has a talent for adding humor and brevity and heart to huge battles for the fate of the world. Infinity War continues that trend. It's entertaining, and the characters bounce off each other in ways that fanficcers have always expected them to.
Also, it's interesting to see how superheroes plan a strategy. Every superhero movie has one or two heroes up against a room full of faceless cannon-fodder bad guys, and we all watch in eager anticipation as our champions smash their way through them. The really interesting stories are the ones where the heroes can be curb-stomped by the bad guys; and have to find a way. For two straight hours, I've sat through that.
A word about Thanos. The worst thing Marvel could do was serve us a weak villain. Marvel films are at their best when you liked watching the bad guy as much as the good guys. Thanos has been crowing closer like Winter about to break, for a dozen movies now. And seeing him at last, he filled his own shadow pretty well. I've heard that the backstory for him personally will be told in a a spinoff novel. That's fine. I look forward to reading it; but I doubt it's necessary. See, in Avengers 1, Coulson's last word to Loki was: "You're going to lose. Why? Because you lack conviction."
Well, one thing you should never, not ever, doubt about Thanos: He has Conviction. It may, in fact, be his defining character trait.
You've heard people say 'edge of my seat' and 'holding my breath the whole time'. Well, in this case, you keep holding your breath while the credits run.
(Oh, and about that, I won't tell you about Post-Credit scenes. Not even how many there are, or if they exist at all, because even that is a spoiler.)
I knew there would be a cliffhanger of sorts. There's a part two, only a WHOLE FREAKING YEAR away; but I figured it would be like Lord of the Rings. We'd have an ending that set up the next movie.
Well we got an ending, but I have no idea how it sets up the Part Two. And I'm not even going to talk about that, because that's the biggest spoiler of all.
IW is a smart, fast paced, extremely high-stakes show, that makes the fate of the universe feel about as personal as a punch on the nose. If you've seen any of the Avengers, either the crossover films or solo films, this is the most important part of the collection.
And now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go sit in my room for a while and rock back and forth, hugging a pillow.