Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Avengers: Infinity War
August 14, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War - Buy from Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, or 4K Combo Pack
Avengers: Infinity War and its still unnamed sequel are the culmination of ten years of the MCU. This is a massive undertaking, even more so than the first Avengers movie, and with the MCU’s outstanding track record with critics and moviegoers alike, expectations couldn’t be higher. Can the movie possibly live up to expectations? Or was it destined to disappoint?
This movie is a mess. It’s a Game of Thrones-level mess, but I mean that in a good way. There are unacceptable spoilers that happen within in the first five minutes, but the film is just under an hour old before we are introduced to the last of the main cast. (Or an hour and eight minutes, if you want to be pedantic.) There’s no way to describe what’s happening in the plot chronologically, without spoiling the plot. If you want absolutely no spoilers, you can read my rankings here. I’m going to avoid major spoilers here, which means there will be a lot of gaps and key pieces of information excluded, but there will be some unavoidable spoilers.
Avengers: Infinity War begins mere moments after the end of Thor: Ragnarok. If you don’t remember what happened there... Thor’s sister, Hela, wanted to rule Asgard and lead it in its old imperial ways. Thor decides the only way way to save the Asgardian people and stop Hela is to destroy Asgard. This works, but Thanos catches up with the refugee space ship almost immediately and does what Thanos usually does, which is kill half of the Asgardians. Even Hulk is no match for Thanos in a hand-to-hand fight. Heimdall is able to send Hulk back to Earth to warn others. Meanwhile, Thanos sends his children, Ebon Maw and Cull Obsidian, to New York to retrieve the Time Stone from Doctor Strange, while Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive go after the Mind Stone from Vision. He destroys the ship as he leaves.
Back on Earth, Hulk arrives in New York, or to be more specific, Bruce Banner arrives in New York. He warns Doctor Strange and Wong that Thanos is coming. They recruit Iron Man, but when Ebon Maw and Cull Obsidian show up, the Hulk won’t make an appearance. Spider-Man does show up and the four of them fight hard, but Doctor Strange is captured and taken aboard the space ship. Iron Man and Spider-Man also manage to get on board, which means they have a chance of rescuing Doctor Strange, but it also means they are on a one-way voyage to Titan, Thanos’s homeworld.
Meanwhile, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive attack Vision when he’s with Scarlet Witch. The two sides are relatively evenly match, until Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon show up. Vision is injured and the only place where they figure he can be helped is back home, despite four of them being wanted criminals. Vision says the only way to stop Thanos is to destroy the Mind Stone, but that would kill him. Bruce Banner says they might be able to separate the Vision from the Mind Stone, at least someone with more advanced technology might be able to. Someone like Shuri. So it is off to Wakanda.
Meanwhile in Space... The Guardians of the Galaxy hear the distress call put out by the Asgardian ship and investigate. There they find the debris and the only survivor, Thor. When he wakes up, he informs them Thanos has two of the Infinity Stones and is after the others. He concludes Thanos will be heading to Nowhere to get the Reality Stone from the Collector. Obviously they need to stop them, but before that, Thor needs a weapon capable of killing Thanos. He gets help from Rocket Racoon and Groot to go to Niðavellir to get a new weapon from Eitri and the dwarfs. Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis will travel to Nowhere to stop Thanos.
At this point, we know where nearly all of the main characters are and what they are doing, so we will stop the plot summary before we really hit unacceptable spoilers.
Avengers: Infinity War was filmed at the same time as its unnamed sequel and oh boy, can you tell. This isn’t a full movie, it is the first half of what will end up being a nearly five-hour movie. In fact, one could argue this is the middle third of a much longer movie. If you haven’t been paying attention to the MCU, then you could be lost. Unlike the first Avengers movie, there’s not even a short primer to get new viewers caught up, as we start right in the action. Fortunately, the MCU is the biggest franchise currently going and arguably the biggest franchise in movie history, so assuming the audience is aware of who Thanos is and what the Infinity Stones are is OK. So are audiences rewarded for all of this knowledge? Yes. Yes they are.
If you’ve read my MCU rankings, then you know Infinity War is my new number one film in the MCU. There are so many elements of this movie that are simply amazing, but this list has to be led by Josh Brolin, whose performance as Thanos is this movie’s anchor. In fact, one could argue he’s the star of the movie and the heroes are his obstacle. I’ve heard some people say this movie humanizes him, but that’s going a little too far. Both the script and the performance make it clear that he thinks he’s doing the right thing and that the actions he has to take weigh heavily on him, but that doesn’t humanize him as much as it makes him much, much scarier. He’s a true believer, who is willing to commit evil acts in order to create a better world. That makes him a more compelling villain than we usually get.
I also really like the heroes' interactions. We get so many scenes of heroes meeting for the first time and the usual result is conflict. Doctor Strange and Iron Man immediately clash, mostly due to egos getting in the way. Peter Quill trying to make himself seem more important and serious when they are talking to Thor is another highlight of the movie. I also like how Thor is surprisingly empathetic and compassionate when he learns of Gamora’s connection to Thanos. “Families can be tough.” The next time the Guardians of the Galaxy meet another hero, it doesn’t go as well, so this was a nice touching moment.
It is important to note that Infinity War is a big-budget action film with a $300 million production budget, most of which was spent on flashy action scenes. However, the parts of the movie that stand out the most are the character moments. The action scenes are phenomenal, don’t get me wrong, but it is the character moments that make the film stand out compared to the average film in the genre.
Extras begin with an audio commentary track with the two directors, Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, as well as the two co-writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The two Russo Brothers are also part of the optional introduction. Up next are a quartet of featurettes with a total running time of 32 minutes. The first of these is Strange Alchemy, which is a look at how the many, many different characters work together. “Poorly.” is the first answer. There are a lot of personality conflicts in this movie, but that’s a selling point. The Mad Titan is about Thanos. Beyond the Battle: Titan looks at the size of the movie in general and one of the many major action scenes in the movie in specific. Beyond the Battle: Wakanda is similar, but about the climatic final battle. There are four deleted scenes with a total running time of 10 minutes, and finally 2 minutes of outtakes.
There is also a 30-minute long director’s roundtable with several of the directors who have worked on the MCU over the years. It is only available on the digital copy, which comes with the Blu-ray.
This isn’t a great selection of extras, especially given its box office performance. That said, it’s enough.
Avengers: Infinity War is the best film in the MCU and while the extras on the DVD, Blu-ray Combo Pack, and 4K Combo Pack are not great, it is still the Pick of the Week. It might be hard to get the film from Amazon, because the Amazon / Disney dispute has just entered its fifth year and shows no sign of slowing down.
Video on Demand (Theatrical Release) or Video on Demand (With Bonus Features)
The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Cate Blanchett, Paul Bettany, Josh Brolin, Bradley Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benicio del Toro, Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Robert Downey, Jr., Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Chris Pratt, Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Benedict Wong, Stephen McFeely, Tom Holland, Michael Shaw, Elizabeth Olsen, Terry Notary, Dave Bautista, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Christopher Markus, Pom Klementieff, Letitia Wright, Carrie Coon