Avengers: Infinity War's first critical reviews praise Marvel blockbuster as epic and mind-blowing

Avengers: Infinity War is undoubtedly a huge moment in the history of cinema. It’s the 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the product of literally a decade of storylines across multiple movies.

It was always going to feel epic, but whether it would actually be a quality film was another matter. The true test is whether Infinity War is able to top previous high-water marks in the comic genre — like The Dark Knight and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The first encouraging signs came on Monday (April 23) when preview audiences practically raved about it. The professional critics have had their say now too and, while most of the reviews are positive, some have made the point that Infinity War is overstuffed.

Digital Spy‘s three-star review argues that co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo’s vision is just too ambitious to pull off flawlessly, especially since the final act has to set up Avengers 4.

“It’s epic, sure, but if anything it’s too epic,” our own Rosie Fletcher and Hugh Armitage contend. “The characters are too many, the action too massive, the stakes too high, the players too powerful.

“And at times, it’s like watching dominoes fall down – you can sit and watch, and enjoy the spectacle and the technical proficiency, but you know exactly where they’re going to land in the end.”

There were certainly many critics who have penned glowing odes to Infinity War, like those below:

The Hollywood Reporter

“No question about it, barely two months after the release of Black Panther, Marvel (and Disney, of course) has returned with another of the most expensive films ever made that will pull off another of the biggest commercial hauls of all time. This franchise isn’t going away anytime soon.”

Empire

“Marvel has solved their third-act problem and villain problem and then some. However prepared you feel, you are not ready for Thanos. But then, neither are our heroes.”

USA Today

“Marvel has pulled off all sorts of cinematic flavors in its 10-year legacy, from heist films and political thrillers to space operas and fantasy epics. Now it boasts a full-fledged Shakespearean tragedy.”

Screenrant

“For the most part, the Russo brothers and Marvel Studios delivered on their promise to bring the disparate corners of film franchise together for a battle against Thanos, all while staying true to the characters who made the MCU so popular.”

Entertainment Weekly

“There is something thrilling about watching just how much fun the Russos and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are having messing with the fans here. Even if, in the end, that little subversive act of freaking them out only lasts until the next sequel.”

The Guardian

“It’s just a supremely watchable film, utterly confident in its self-created malleable mythology. And confident also in the note of apocalyptic darkness. I know it’s silly. And yet I can’t help looking forward to the next supersized episode of mayhem.”

The Independent

“Infinity War is a wildly ambitious and entertaining ride in which good old fashioned team work just about carries the day.”

Den of Geek

“This is a knockout sci-fi movie that travels around the universe and back, and not only does it capture the vastness of that but it’s also perhaps the most beautiful, colorful film Marvel has released to date.”

CinemaBlend

“It’s a unique, exceptional achievement that somehow leaves you both fully satisfied and desperate for more.”

Other critics took a more nuanced (or even negative) view in evaluating the latest Avengers sequel:

Rolling Stone

“The Russo brothers have clearly never learned the concept that less is more. They’ve used the premise of an Avengers reunion to put on a fireworks explosion of action and laughs (those roguish Guardians!) that won’t quit.”

Los Angeles Times

“Not even the threat of universal annihilation, it seems, will keep this assembly line from chugging ahead with its signature polished, mechanized efficiency.”

The Globe and Mail

“Those of us exhausted by this cycle of corporate hegemony-as-entertainment may well wish to find our own bloated corpses washed up at the feet of Mistress of Death. But as Infinity War glumly, hopelessly suggests, not even death itself can offer a release from Marvel’s mighty movie gauntlet – a weapon of cultural dominance that doesn’t so much expand the blockbuster to infinity as demarcate its ever-contracting perimeter of possibility.”

Time

“There’s no pacing in Avengers: Infinity War. It’s all sensation and no pulse. Everything is big, all of the time.”

New York Times

“The noisy, bloated spectacles of combat were surely the most expensive parts of the movie, but the money seems less like an imaginative tool than a substitute for genuine imagination.”

Avengers: Infinity War will be released on April 26 in the UK and April 27 in the US. Book tickets now.

Source: Read Full Article