Starring: Robert Downey Jnr, Chris Evans, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Tom Holland, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, Karen Gillan, Letitia Wright, Josh Brolan, Danai Gurira, Don Cheadle, Benedict Wong

Directed by Anthony & Joseph Russo

Disney, out now

The spoiler-free review is below – scroll down for the spoilers!

The fate of the universe hangs in the balance as Earth’s mightiest heroes – with a little help – face off against intergalactic warlord Thanos, hunting for the Infinity Stones so that he might harness their power to bend creation to his own will.

Has there ever been a genre movie with more weight of expectation on its shoulders than this one? The Force Awakens, maybe. Possibly The Phantom Menace. But even those movies didn’t have the same type of pressure as this – the culmination of ten years and eighteen movies’ worth of effort, with a cast of dozens and a villain who’s been teased now since that first grinning glimpse in the post credits of Avengers Assemble, all the way back in 2012. So can the Russo brothers do it? Can they deliver a movie that feels satisfying, exciting and simply epic enough to serve as the end point of all that work? The short answer is yes. The long answer is more interesting.

From its opening moments, the movie lays down a hard statement of intent as to what kind of character its main villain is going to be, and it isn’t pretty. Thanos in these opening scenes is a brutal, cruel thug of a creature, with a penchant for dishing out pain himself despite having perfectly capable lieutenants. It’s clear from even this earliest scene that defeating Thanos isn’t going to be a simple prospect

As the movie progresses, we get what is undoubtedly one of the more complex and terrifying villains of the MCU. While utterly loathsome and not in any way sympathetic, Thanos is still a horrifyingly real character in terms of his motivations and ideals. You will never condone what he is doing, but it’s possible to see why he’s doing it, as evil as it may be. It’s a tricky balance and one that the MCU hasn’t really tried before – the closest it has come being Black Panther’s Erik Killmonger – and it’s executed here extremely well, ensuring that our heroes have a real and scary threat to go up against.

And what a cast of heroes the movie gives us. With a few minor exceptions, every major MCU character from the last decade makes an appearance. Even the cast list of Civil War pales in comparison to how many balls the Russos are juggling here, and even in a movie of this prodigious length (149 minutes) by rights there shouldn’t be adequate room for them all. Fortunately, just like they did with Civil War, the Russos pull it off, although here their method for doing so is a little different. It’s bloody clever though, and it gives the movie the ability to not only manage its enormous talent list but also to keep proceedings feeling fresh as it barrels along from scene to scene.

The tone feels spot on as well. The Russos already proved that they can mix serious, dramatic action with just the right amount of humour, and that form is repeated here. By quantity, this movie easily packs more jokes in than both their previous efforts combined, but that’s necessary, given the amount of darkness this story carries. And there’s plenty of that.

Unlike previous Avengers films, there’s less of a ‘party’ feel to this one. Assemble felt like a bare bones excuse to get the gang together, Ultron like the gang partied a bit too hard and then had to pick up the tab. This one feels like the world (and the universe) is in genuine peril from an all-powerful madman, and everyone has to pull together to try and put a stop to him. There’s none of the triumphalism that marked the previous Avengers films here – just a sense of an ever ticking clock and a desperate race to stop it any way that’s possible.

If there’s a criticism I can level at it, it’s that there are certain moments within it that don’t quite land the way that I suspect the movie wants them too, but that’s more to do with the nature of the franchise, the anticipation of various sequels and so on. It’s not so much a failing of the Russos themselves as a built-in limitation of the medium in which they are working.

That said, the word ‘epic’ gets thrown around too much these days with regards to movies, and mostly it is mistaken to mean ‘long’. At 149 minutes Infinity War is certainly a lengthy proposition, but so much goes on that you will barely notice that time passing. Epic here is deserved – this feels like a proper, serious story, told with an extensive cast on a beautiful canvas, and it’s so rammed with content that I suspect I may be unpacking it for days to come, and a second viewing feels like the very minimum that will be needed.

Verdict: A pretty much perfect way to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this unique movie franchise. A powerful and powerfully realised villain, great characterisation and a finely balanced juggling act of all the separate elements give us easily the best Avengers movie to date and certainly one of the best entries in the MCU franchise as a whole. 9/10

Greg D. Smith

WARNING: The review beneath does have spoilers. You have been warned.

Thanos has had enough. It’s time to gather the Infinity Stones and balance the universe. The only people in his way, scattered, demoralised and unprepared, are the Avengers.

Infinity War makes it clear just what you’re in for inside the first five minutes. The hard fought, desperate hope that Thor: Ragnarok arrives at is trampled beneath Thanos’ boot. Heimdall dies. Loki dies. Thor is maimed. Banner is only saved at the expense of Heimdall’s life.

Roll opening credits.

That pace never slows down. Ever. We careen from there to Banner’s arrival on Earth, minutes ahead of Thanos. From there we cut between Thor being rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Avengers staging a last stand in Wakanda, and Tony Stark’s ragtag team of a-holes, fighting s rearguard action on Thanos’ former home world. On the way we get a chunk of Thanos’ backstory, one of the most surprising cameos Marvel have ever pulled off, Thor literally jumpstarting a star and a ton of deeply unusual, and very successful, odd couple pairings. Tony Stark, peak rationalist, fighting side by side with Stephen Strange, Sorceror Supreme is exactly as funny as you hope it is. Tony and Peter Parker doing an extended riff of their cool dad/hyper excited puppy son routine is a flat out joy and Tom Holland steals a good chunk of the movie. But these partnerships have been designed carefully to echo all the way down the movie. Thor and Rocket have a surprising, and deep, friendship. There are hints, not enough honestly, of Widow and Okoye getting on far better than Widow’s last encounter with the Dora Milaje would lead you to believe. There is a single, glorious moment where Shuri owns the brightest minds of the MCU. Best of all, Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen work miracles with the sketched in relationship between Vision and Wanda and make it feel real, heartfelt and worth defending.

None of this matters. And the movie’s genius is in making you think it does.

The film escalates exactly like Marvel always do, albeit on a larger scale. And at the end, when all seems absolutely lost, Thor rides to the rescue, the tide turns and…

Thanos snaps his fingers. And half the universe dies.

Cynics will tell you that of course this doesn’t matter, that the characters we see die will all return. They’re half right. Yes, most of these characters will return (Gamora, whose death is arguably the hardest one to see, is clearly a massive part of how Thanos’ relationship with the Infinity Stones will change in the next movie). But that return doesn’t mean that seeing them go down like this doesn’t viscerally hurt. Peter Parker’s final moments are heartrending, this brilliant, brave, funny kid spending his last seconds sobbing in terror, convinced that he’s done something wrong and begging a powerless Tony to help him stay. Gamora is hurled to her death by her father in a Faustian bargain for power, sees it coming and does not go quietly. Perhaps worst of all is the final shot we see of Steve Rogers, the embodiment of fundamental decency in the MCU, slumped, white as a sheet, looking at the space the person he loves more than anyone on Earth used to occupy. This movie ends hard and it does so well at sticking the landing that knowing most of these folks are coming back doesn’t matter.

Besides, the post-credit scene here is, if anything, more finely tuned than the movie. The first hint of Captain Marvel is exactly what this film needs to end on. A flash of colour, a sudden orchestral sting. Hope.

Verdict: Infinity War ties every previous MCU movie, to varying degrees, into a bow. It’s a startlingly ambitious, successful and tonally courageous movie that’s, as the best Marvel movies do, raises the game for other blockbusters. Grimmer than you know, funnier than you dared expect and essential if you’re a fan. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart