Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The snap is genuinely stunning. That silence. The dust. Heroes dissolving into nothing while Tony Stark stares into the void with this look of total, helpless horror on his face. I'll give Avengers: Infinity War that much: in that single moment, the Russo brothers pulled off something bold and properly shocking. The first time I watched it, my jaw was on the floor. And Josh Brolin's Thanos, motion-captured and carrying the weight of genuine conviction, is far and away the best villain the MCU has ever put on screen. He's not cackling from a throne. He believes every word. That distinction matters, and it gives the film a spine it badly needs.

But here's the thing. Once the dust settled, literally and figuratively, I found myself asking whether any of it had actually landed. And I'm not sure it had.

For all its scale, and the scale is genuinely staggering, worlds crumbling, armies clashing, characters bouncing across the galaxy, Infinity War feels strangely hollow at its centre. It's two and a half hours of reacting, running, and fighting, but precious little thinking or changing. The characters we've followed across ten years of films are essentially pieces being moved around a board. Competently moved, often spectacularly moved, but moved nonetheless. There's a difference between a story and a chess match, and this film spends most of its runtime being the latter.

The emotional beats are where it really loses me. Gamora's death, Vision's end, the weight of sacrifice the script keeps reaching for: none of it quite earns what it's asking you to feel. The film assumes your investment because it knows you've built it up over years of other films. That's a cheat. A film should make you feel something on its own terms, not cash in on the emotional bank account you've been depositing into since 2008. When those moments rush past, surrounded by quips and CG carnage, they don't hit the way they should. They hit because you remember loving these characters elsewhere, not because this film has done the work.

And that pattern, the checklist approach, is something I've felt creeping into the MCU for a while. I had similar reservations writing about Avengers: Age of Ultron, a film that also mistook busy-ness for storytelling. Infinity War is bigger, technically more impressive, and has a better villain. But it shares that same sense of being assembled rather than crafted. Fan-service moments, witty exchanges, enormous set pieces, narrative glue, repeat. It's not badly made. Not even close. But there's a difference between impressive filmmaking and deeply felt filmmaking, and this sits firmly in the former camp.

As a pop-cultural event, as a thunderous, noisy payoff to a decade of setup, I completely understand the response it got. I was there. I felt the electricity in the cinema. But strip away the context, the shared history, the decade of anticipation, and what you're left with is a film that borrows its emotion rather than generating it. It's a climax with no real heart of its own. And I say that not to be contrarian, but because I think the MCU, at its best, has genuinely done better. Captain America: Civil War managed spectacle and genuine emotional stakes in the same breath. Infinity War, for all its additional firepower, doesn't quite pull that off.

There's plenty here to admire. Brolin's performance alone justifies a watch. The technical craft is extraordinary. And yes, that ending is bold in a way blockbusters rarely dare to be. But good isn't the same as great, and impressive isn't the same as resonant. As a spectacle, it delivers. As a story, it's a bit of a ghost: all presence, no soul.

Three stars.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2018  | Watched: 2025-07-30

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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