AT THE MOVIES

by Isy Jordan

 
Avengers: Infinity War
Director: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Sebastian Stan, and SO many more...

The Avengers and their allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.

We all knew going in as fans of either the movie franchise and/or the comics that this one wasn't going to be pretty. For 18 movies, we've been building toward this showdown with the Titan Thanos and most of us knew we were going to suffer some losses.

Our story starts immediately after the events of Thor: Ragnarok. You have to feel sorry for our friendly neighborhood god of thunder because he pretty much went from the frying pan into the fire in this film as Thanos starts with the refugee Asgardians and it's brutal but I can't give anything away without being spoilery. Let's just say Bruce Banner/Hulk is jettisoned back to earth to save his life and he's able to let the team know whether they were Team Stark or Team Cap that the proverbial s#$% is about to hit the fan.

On earth, Bruce finds Dr. Strange and Wong, and they get in touch with Iron Man Tony Stark when the Black Order, Thanos' generals, arrive on earth. Spiderman also gets in on the action as they try to keep Dr. Strange, who is in possession of the time stone, one of the six Infinity Stones Thanos is seeking, from being taken.

There's one more Infinity Stone on earth, the mind stone which is embedded in Vision's forehead. We see that he and Wanda have become a couple but we're only given a brief glimpse of them before the Black Order come for them. Fortunately, the rogue ex-Avengers Steve Rogers (Nomad though that name wasn't invoked in this film), Black Widow, and Falcon come to their aid. When they hear from Bruce Banner what's happened with Iron Man and crew, they know they have to do what it takes to protect Vision and the mind stone. They head for Wakanda.

The movie in pretty heavy-handed fashion informs us that once Thanos collects all six Infinity Stones, he will eliminate half of all life across the galaxy, including on earth. Half of the population of every planet, completely at random, will cease to exist.

The rest of the film is hard to watch as we lose beloved characters aplenty with the hope that some of them will come back. They have to come back, right? There's loss, sacrifice, betrayal, angst, and a sprinkling of humor that just feels like the directors throwing the viewers a bone while ripping their hearts out at the same time. That's pretty much how it goes.

The film is 2 hours and 29 minutes long and rated PG-13 for for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references. That's putting it mildly. Use caution for younger viewers. Younger children who are particularly sensitive might benefit from having an adult preview the movie first to see how they think the young person will handle it. As you might have heard, this is the franchise's Empire Strikes Back only magnified. A lot.

Best line - Rocket: I'll get that arm.