Newest entry in MCU is not just best movie yet, but quite possibly best superhero movie ever

Erik Jimenez/Staff Writer

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen many strides over the past years; it’s been 10 years since Robert Downey Jr. first escaped those terrorists and decided to become Iron Man, seven since Thor(Chris Hemsworth) fought to take Asgard back from Loki(Tom Hiddleston) and Captain America(Chris Evans) became the first Avenger, and six since they all teamed with The Hulk(Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow(Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye(Jeremy Renner) to create the Avengers.

Since then we’ve had the “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: A Civil War,” “Thor: Ragnarok” and even a Spider-Man appearance. We’ve been introduced to other great heroes such as Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and The Guardians of the Galaxy.The seemingly countless introductions has led to the third installment of the Avengers series.

“Avengers: Infinity War” is the best movie in the MCU  thus far, and it’s the prime example of how great the superhero genre can be. It is simply pure comic-book-movie perfection. The only way Marvel can top this is in next year’s Avengers installment, which has a lot to live up to and after the way its predecessor ends, and it can’t get here soon enough.

The films story is rather simple and get into the jig of things at the very start. Thanos, portrayed by Josh Brolin, simultaneously plays the villain and main character in the film. The villain vows to bring balance to the universe after his home planet, Titan, is destroyed due to overpopulation. The way he plans to do so is by killing off half of the population of the universe, but to do so he has to collect six “Infinity Stones”— gems which have been shown in previous films—and harness their energy with the help of his Gauntlet. With some of the stones being on Earth, it is going to take the combined might of the Avengers, the Guardians and other Marvel heroes to counter Thanos and his massive army from achieving his mission.

The best aspect of the film is Thanos himself. Not only is he the best villain in the MCU, he’s the best villain in any comic book film, period. Thanks to great visual effects and emotional range from Brolin himself, it all pushes Thanos to be something that one would never expect from a supervillain—sad.

There is a constant feeling throughout the film that Thanos isn’t taking any joy from doing what he’s doing. He’s not trying to destroy half the universe because he wants to, he’s doing it because he feels like has to. All this leads to an unexpectedly devastating conclusion that I thought I would never see.

The interactions between the main heroes serves as one of the highlights of the film. Since many of these characters have never met, the way they bounce off of one another is compelling to watch. Throughout a majority of the film the heroes are split into three different teams, and each one involves characters you’d never think would be a fun combo.  

If you think Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange bickering amongst each other is fun, wait until Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) from the Guardians of the Galaxy get involved. And the fun never stops as the rest of the Guardians have to go with Thor to an ancient Asgardian forge to create a weapon that can kill Thanos. The rest of the heroes form the biggest group back on Earth, only because they are dealing with most of the action.

Speaking of action, the film is filled to the brim with it. Each action set piece on its own is about as epic as the final New York battle from the first Avengers film. With “Captain America: Civil War” directors Joe and Anthony Russo at the helm for this installment, their unique approach to the style and format isas creative as their iconic airport fight from Civil War, mainly due to the amount of heroes on screen.

For superhero movie standards many have felt for the past ten years, that the best one is Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” I am here to say that is now changed.

I don’t know how Marvel can top themselves next year with Avengers 4, but until then, All hail “Avengers: Infinity War,” the greatest superhero movie of all time.

5 stars out of 5

Image retrieved from Flickr.