[Published at Film Inquiry] Avengers: Infinity War is a culmination of the last decade of Marvel Studios’ narrative focus. It marks the beginning of some exciting new character arcs as well as the beginning of the end of some characters’ storylines. Some that began unfolding onscreen 2008. The 18 films that Marvel Studios has made since 2008 have all led to this.

Avengers: Infinity War marks the moment in which all of the characters finally come together; the Guardians of the Galaxy finally unite with their earthly counterparts, the Avengers, to take on their biggest threat yet. It’s the moment we see Thanos (Josh Brolin) finally wreak havoc in the lives of the characters that audiences have grown to love. Thanos has been teased as the big bad since The Avengers in 2012. To put that into perspective, 12 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have been released since then.

Avengers: Infinity War is Anthony and Joe Russo’s third film in the MCU after Captain America: The Winter Soldierand Captain America: Civil War. The studio originally planned for a May 4, 2018 release, exactly six years after The Avengers. However, in a surprising marketing campaign, Robert Downey Jr. announced on Twitter that he didn’t want to wait that long, appealing to the hardcore fanbase.

In response, Marvel bumped the release day a week earlier to April 27 for audiences worldwide. The film couldn’t come sooner. At 149 minutes long, Avengers: Infinity War is so action dense and dialogue driven, that it flies by. Unlike many superhero movies experiencing genre fatigue lately, the dialogue in this sequel is witty, well-written, and flawlessly-delivered, and the action scenes are impeccably choreographed and beautifully and realistically realized.

Who Is Thanos?

The official synopsis of Avengers: Infinity War describes Thanos as “a despot of intergalactic infamy.” He is an ancient superhuman being, a Titan, with a god complex and a history of genocidal tendencies and an unhealthy fixation on death.

“Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled. To challenge them is to court…Death.” Thanos is quoted as saying in the post-credits scene of The Avengers. He thrives on the idea of confronting the potentiality of death. In fact, in the comic, Thanos even courted Mistress Death herself, the cosmic personification of death. Thanos sees humans as his ultimate battle, his ultimate hindrance to his master plan of having complete control over life and reality in the universe.

source: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

What does Thanos want? He wants all six infinity stones, which include Mind Stone (AKA Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) scepter/Vision’s (Paul Bettany) forehead, seen in The Avengers, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron), the Space Stone (AKA the Tesseract, seen in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers), the Power Stone (AKA the Orb, seen in Guardians Of The Galaxy), the Reality Stone (AKA the Aether, seen in Thor: The Dark World), and the still-not-featured Time Stone and Soul Stone.

It is said that somebody of Thanos’ strength with all six infinity stones could snap his finger and wipe out all of humanity and beyond. He wants to essentially vanquish everything and everyone in the universe. He’s a little more extreme and larger in scale than your average superhero villain.

Thanos is played with unrelenting menace by Brolin in Avengers: Infinity War, whose diction and deep voice are ideal for an intimidating part like this. Brolin played the part entirely via motion capture and his facial expressions and movements conveyed with CGI. It’s an impressive performance considering most of the acting was done in front of a green screen.

Heavy Action Balanced With Strong Dialogue

The Russo brothers know how to construct a massive action sequences while not making it seem as though they are trying to impress the audience or show off. The fighting isn’t overbearing, and the Russo brothers somehow manage to integrate casual dialogue amidst the chaos that ensues throughout the film, most likely because they get the audience accustomed to such a steady pace of action from the opening seconds.

The Russo brothers have been left with the difficult task of not only visually revisiting the worlds that filmmakers have created in previous MCU entries, but also trying to create realistic dialogue among several characters brought to life from paper to screen by various creative minds and writers, each different and singular in their vision. It’s a genuine perplexity that the film manages to seem so cohesive. Not only that, but the actors have fun with the back-and-forth banter in some of the more needed comedic moments.

It’s wonderful seeing big personalities like Star Lord (Chris Pratt) interact with Iron Man (Downey Jr.) in Avengers: Infinity War, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) develop an unlikely friendship, or Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) unite to kick some alien butt together.

It’s rewarding seeing Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) back to normal again, reunited with his best friend Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). Marvel Studios has invested time and resources into making sure that we’ve invested emotional currency in these characters, and it shows.

source: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Critics applauded Joss Whedon‘s ability to combine so many different creative visions, some of the characters of which had been adapted by various directors (Jon Favreau for Iron Man and Iron Man 2, Kenneth Branagh for Thor, and Joe Johnston for Captain America: The First Avenger).

However, the Russo brothers have even more characters to play with, who are teaming up with the Avengers to fight Thanos, including the aforementioned Guardians of the Galaxy (Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Cooper, Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and Pom Klementieff), the residents of Wakanda (Chadwick Boseman, Letitia Wright, Gurira, and Winston Duke), and Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), among others.

Credit goes to every actor in Avengers: Infinity War for helping to make every line, every situation feel so natural; it helps to sell something that is farfetched, at times even for comic book film standards.

Ready For The MCU Road Ahead

Audiences will laugh, gasp, scream, and some may cry in Avengers: Infinity War. For the first time, it seems, as the MCU’s three phases reach an apotheosis, Marvel Studio’s appears unreserved and unafraid to step on everything they’ve worked so hard to create over the past decade.

Viewers can expect big changes as the MCU begins paving the way for a new generation of heroes, ending with Avengers 4 in 2019. Surprising cameos, plot twists, and shocking, dramatic deaths. It truly feels, for the first time, that Marvel isn’t walking on eggshells to appease fans, and the studio is arguably at their most exciting stage yet. The severity and direness of the plot is in the writing, and the official synopsis is as follows:

“As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.”

source: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It isn’t just Earth that is at stake; it isn’t just humanity on the line. When the stakes are this high, it is inevitable that there is going to be loss of life everywhere, and that characters all over the MCU will be affected. The Russo brothers give audiences some exciting sneak peaks of locations and destinations in the MCU that have yet to be explored or haven’t been shown to much extent, primarily in space, such as the isolated planet of Vormir, Knowhere, and Thanos’ home world of Titan.

As we say goodbye to some aspects of the MCU that we’ve grown accustomed to, we welcome some newcomers to the spectacle as well as some familiar faces. Fans will notice that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Ant Man (Paul Rudd) are out of the picture in Avengers: Infinity War – whether they will return in Avengers 4 is up in the air at this point.

Conclusion: Infinity War Lives Up To The Hype

Believe the hype. Even seeing characters reintroduced to each other and to the audiences is exciting. Characters that have been in hiding, missing, or busy taking care of business abroad. As each character and storyline is introduced, Avengers: Infinity War unfolds as an episodic feature. As each storyline begins to intersect, the action and events unfold at a steady pace, synchronously and harmoniously, building to a gigantic climax. It’s going to be difficult to wait a year for Avengers 4, but after all that was teased in its predecessor, fans are in for a treat as they’re taken on this now-uncertain road ahead.

Avengers: Infinity War begins to close the portal to Marvel Studios’ three phases in an extravagant fashion, combining the star power of several successful franchises to create an enviable ensemble, exercising the strengths of the Russo brothers, and serving as a prime example that story and spectacle can coexist in a summer blockbuster.

Who is your favorite MCU character? Are you nervous for Thanos’ arrival in Avengers: Infinity War?

Avengers: Infinity War opens theatrically in the U.S. to wide release on April 27, 2018. For more information on its release, click here.