Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
★★★ — Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Avengers: Infinity War arrived in April 2018 as the culmination of ten years and eighteen films worth of Marvel Cinematic Universe storytelling, a scale of long-form franchise building that had no real precedent in Hollywood history. The Russo brothers, Anthony and Joe, had come up through television (Community, Arrested Development) before Marvel handed them Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014 and then the enormously sprawling Civil War in 2016, making them the obvious choice to manage a cast of roughly thirty established characters here. The $300 million production budget was among the largest ever committed to a single film, and the global box office return of over two billion dollars confirmed it as one of the highest-grossing releases of all time. Loosely drawing on Jim Starlin's comic run and the 1991 miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet, the film was shot back-to-back with its direct sequel, Avengers: Endgame.
It’s hard to deny the sheer scale of Avengers: Infinity War. The number of characters, the global (and galactic) scope, the visual effects that make entire worlds crumble in stunning detail. On a technical level, it’s impressive. The snap alone, the silence that follows, the dusting of heroes, it’s bold, shocking, and undeniably impactful the first time you see it. Josh Brolin’s Thanos is also the most fully realised villain the MCU has produced, treated not as a cartoonish destroyer but as a fanatical true believer, which adds a layer of weight most of these films lack. But for all its spectacle, the film feels strangely hollow. It’s two and a half hours of characters reacting, running, fighting, but rarely thinking or evolving in meaningful ways. The emotional segments are often rushed, relying on nostalgia or past films to carry the weight, rather than earning it in the moment. You’re meant to feel devastated when Gamora falls, when Vision crumbles, when Tony stares into the void, but too often, the script assumes your investment rather than building it. And that’s the problem with these later Avengers films: they look incredible, but they feel soulless. They’re less stories and more checklists. a series of fan-service moments, quips, and CGI battles stitched together with the bare minimum of narrative glue. It’s not badly made, but it’s not deeply felt either. It’s a climax without a heart of its own, borrowing emotion from everything that came before. It works as a pop-cultural event, yes, a thunderous, noisy finale to ten years of setup. But as a standalone film? It’s flashy, occasionally powerful, but ultimately empty. A spectacle without a soul. Good, not great. And certainly not the masterpiece so many claimed it was.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2018 | Watched: 2025-07-30
Where to watch (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
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Joe Russo: Captain America: Civil War (2016) · Avengers: Endgame (2019)
More with Robert Downey Jr.: Captain America: Civil War (2016) · Iron Man 3 (2013) · Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) · Avengers: Endgame (2019)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
