MOVIE REVIEW: Superheroes galore, but villain the one to watch in 'Avengers: Infinity War'

Vision, (Paul Bettany), was conceived as a bit of code written by Tony Stark and later uploaded into a robotic body. He’s now a socially awkward but endearing superhero with the ability to change his body density and one of the main characters in Avengers: Infinity War.
Vision, (Paul Bettany), was conceived as a bit of code written by Tony Stark and later uploaded into a robotic body. He’s now a socially awkward but endearing superhero with the ability to change his body density and one of the main characters in Avengers: Infinity War.

It's taken almost 80 years for Marvel to assemble the current make-believe universe they've created, so it's forgivable if entire galaxies don't fit easily into 2 1/2 hours.

If you want to get technical, Ghost Rider's not here, and the X-Men are stuck in school, but the sheer number of mutants, cyborgs, demigods and people who've played with radioactivity still feels redundant. Black Panther is a fine example of how a single Marvel superhero can carry an entertaining movie. Thor: Ragnarok proved that a couple of them (Thor and Hulk) can have delightful chemistry taking on mutual enemies.

Avengers: Infinity War

82 Cast: Karen Gillan, Elizabeth Olsen, Josh Brolin, Carrie Coon, Tom Holland, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, Pom Klementieff, Chris Hemsworth, Sebastian Stan, Robert Downey Jr., Zoe Saldana, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, Chadwick Boseman, Dave Bautista, Letitia Wright, Vin Diesel, Jeremy Renner, Danai Gurira, Paul Rudd, Benicio Del Toro, Paul Bettany, Kerry Condon, Bradley Cooper, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Peter Dinklage, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Douglas, Angela Bassett, Anthony Mackie, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Callan Mulvey, Terry Notary, Sean Gunn, Winston Duke, Benedict Wong, Don Cheadle

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Rating: PG-13, for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references.

Running time: 2 hours, 29 minutes

Avengers: Infinity Wars still has its share of fun, but even Marvel's cornucopia of vivid heroes and villains upstage one another this time around. It's delightful to see the Guardians of the Galaxy again, but it's even more fun to watch them argue with themselves than to hear them bicker with Thor (Chris Hemsworth).

In case you wonder why they might get into disputes with Asgard's most famous resident and future king, Thanos (Josh Brolin) has attacked what's left of the world where Thor lived and has stolen an infinity stone. He's also the adopted father of the green-skinned Guardian Gamora (Zoe Saldana). As we discover later in the film, she's got every right to have daddy issues.

He needs a series of jewels or infinity stones to place in his metal gauntlet. If he completes the set, he'll be able to destroy half of the living beings in the universe. If you had purple skin and a chin that made your face look like the grill of a car, perhaps you'd mistake interplanetary genocide for a merciful way to reduce overpopulation.

The stones are only slightly harder for Thanos to obtain than if he'd merely stopped by Jared. While the Guardians have some skills to go with their scruffiness, Earth has two of the stones, so the Avengers and a few others must reassemble to thwart the menace from space. Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his mystical gifts are certainly necessary as are Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and his weaponized outerwear. Everyone is needed, but not accounted for. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) isn't up to being Captain America again, and Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) have fled as well.

It's a given that after the success of Black Panther's (Chadwick Boseman) last outing, he's going to be involved, as is the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Some of the heroes make welcome returns, while others seem to have "contractual obligation" practically written into their dialogue.

Screenwriter Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely deserve some credit for finding intriguing ways for characters in the Marvel Universe to interact. For example, having lived most of his life in Asgard, Thor isn't sure what sort of creature Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is. When you walk among deities, it's hard to identify rodents. They also add some complications that keep the fights -- there are a lot of them) from getting excessively predictable.

Markus and McFeely throw out lots of amusing pop culture nods and more than a few deep cuts for the previous Marvel movies. Sibling directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo have a good eye for action scenes and have mastered the right tone for a superhero movie. Unlike Zack Snyder, who has made the DC Universe glum and tedious, the Russos understand that comic book movies not adapted from Frank Miller or Alan Moore aren't supposed make viewers reach for Prozac.

Thanos is also one of the first computer enhanced villains who is menacing. The cloudy blob that passed for Galactus in Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer wasn't. His facial expressions match Brolin's own and don't look rubbery. His eyes look suitably single-minded, and losing half the population of the universe is about as heavy as the stakes can get for a film.

What prevents Avengers: Infinity War from being as entertaining as some of its predecessors is that there aren't many small moments that make the explosions and CGI monsters more meaningful. For example, the Russos also directed Captain America: Winter Soldier where Steve Rogers struggled with the loneliness one might experience if nearly all your friends have died decades before you. This makes his struggles against Hydra seem even more eventful and brave because he's battling both them and his own demons.

With so many of Marvel's finest assembled, the characters don't make as vivid an impression as they can on their own. There's also no getting around that Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige has clearly set his sights on another Avengers outing. In some ways, building to a cliffhanger is anticlimactic because Feige and company clearly have something else in mind, and the wait might not be that rewarding.

Yes, some of your favorite characters aren't going to triumph over Thanos, but Feige's long game could have a drawback if nobody wants to catch the next installment. Universal won't be making any more Dark Universe offerings, and Wonder Woman is more entertaining when she leaves the rest of the Justice League behind.

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Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) join forces to once again try to save the universe in Avengers: Infinity War.

MovieStyle on 04/27/2018

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