By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Action/Adventure

Age Rating/13+

Lemonradar/74/100 “sweet/sour”

So What’s The Story?

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing Marvel’s newest installment to the Avengers franchise, Avengers: Infinity War. After the devastating ultimate destruction of the planet Asgard and having the “Power Stone” acquired from the planet Xandar, Thanos and more of his adopted children hunt the other so called “Infinity Stones” so Thanos could be the most powerful god (or person) in the Universe, it is up to the Avengers to team back up and stop the titan.

How Was The Cast?

Analyzing the cast in this jumbo installment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe we see more familiar faces return after a while, performing power hungry titan villain Thanos is well-known Western actor Josh Brolin, once again playing the important character Vision is actor Paul Bettany, reprising the role Spider-Man is young, fresh actor Tom Holland and finally performing somewhat “main character” Iron Man is actor Robert Downey Jr. As I said before returning back to the Marvel Universe is Josh Brolin, known for True Grit, Jonah Hex, Deadpool etc. playing Thanos. Considering the lousy camera angles they produced for Thanos in the trailer, Josh Brolin did his best as the “pink titan,” combining decent experience with hard-core action films, a mingling, but productive script and a somewhat scary appearance the actor did have some gas-left-in-the-tank to last the amazingly bloated 2 hr 36 mins of the overstuffed “war film” which may be an endorsement for die-hard Brolin fans. Coming back from a long pause from Marvel is actor Paul Bettany known for The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind, Legend etc. playing small, but big-character Vision. Like all the actors in the Cinematic Universe, Bettany tries extremely well to play a believable superhero, Vision (not portrayed as a “main character in other films”) gets a real story for the actor to work with, becoming well-noticed was risky after so many other movies ignored him (annoyingly), but actor Paul Bettany handled the sudden recognition very well bringing his powerful, very emotional story onto the big-screen for everyone to listen to, the final result is he succeeds massively. Thirdly, as I said playing the newly reprised “plucky, funny” Spider-Man is actor Tom Holland known for Locke, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Lost City of Z etc. Remembering other Holland Marvel installments the actor is a supposed “genius” for the role Spider-Man, and the final result is absolutely yes, he was truly amazing, funny and acting on a brilliant script; Talking back to Infinity War it was a different story, while providing some stray laughs throughout the movie with a good sense of charm, Tom Holland was just not given enough to work with losing valuable steam that he had so well in other superhero films; Most likely because of such a serious concept in the movie, the actor had no choice but to play out the plain parts in this bloated, CGI-fueled despite occasionally thrilling threequel. Robert Downey Jr. known for Zodiac, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder etc. returns as most-important character Iron Man for the film. 10 years since the original Iron Man that is quite some time, and yet actor Robert Downey Jr. has proved that he still had it through all these years of the growing succession of the Marvel franchise, putting together a genius, funny, smart script and using previous superhero talents to create a well-paid role that truly makes Iron Man great again as one of the other main characters.

Is It Worth Your While?

Following two other directorial debuts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are the Russo Bros, Anthony and Joe otherwise known for You, Me and Dupree, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War etc., though however risky for the Russo Bros to direct a third film in an already major developed franchise (formally directed by Joss Whedon), they proved to be useful with enough experience. Like I said just before Anthony and Joe Russo have had valuable time working with the Marvel Universe directing two Captain America installments (both were amazing), now coming to this was pretty similar, adhering to usual Marvel formula, amazing action/special effect sequences and a brilliant cast; However not everything went so well with Infinity War, the renowned superhero directors let many disappointing things slip by including too many special effect extravaganzas, a somewhat decent but flimsy narrative and a story that is sometimes way too bloated to add in an Action/Adventure flick (considering the 2 hr 36 mins run time), on the good side though despite some flaws, the Russo brothers managed to improve on both other Avengers installments considerably in many ways and still produced another thinly written, but sometimes very thrilling and exciting installment to the Marvel Universe. Coming after the jumbo budget Marvel’s The Avengers brought in (220M) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (costing 279.9M), it just got bigger with third installment Avengers: Infinity War costing a risky 300M on production with a huge cast, desperate special effects and amazing set pieces, according to that shocking information the Marvel franchise does have a specialty for CGI-fueled films; However the newest release set a new bar, becoming the highest budgeted Marvel film to date with snappy visually pleasing eye candy action sequences (rolling over smarts in the film), believable CGI, wonderfully realistic and imaginative set pieces and an all-star cast, the entire movie does seem the the visuals are more important than the actual film, but it does give infinite fun to those looking for action. Story and plot wise, I was not expecting much thinking about how the heck the directors were going to put 76 characters into one film, this was both a major problem and very impressive with me, packing all of those tales and characters into the movie was certainly bold, but it somehow did not turn out as great as expected with special effects and action tearing through the movie much, much too often and a widely bloated run time that bores you half the time you are sitting in the theatre wearing 3D-glasses; On the good side though, the storyline was very interesting, cannot be accused of a lack of ideas and was “occasionally” emotional and thrilling which may-or-may-not be much of an endorsement considering the high-bar set by other superior Marvel movies.

Aging 'The Infinity Stones'

Scanning the film, this was considerably similar compared to other recent Marvel films such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Black Panther, with lot’s of Sci-Fi action sequences, minor flirting and kisses and formulaic language, with one exception, this jumbo-budgeted superhero flick is much more mature and unrelentlessly scarier than other typical Marvel installments. Starting with any serious violence there are many explosions, Thanos massacres entire cities for power, important deaths are long and emotional, there is common laser-gun fights, the villains are portrayed as much more “no-mercy” kind-of-people. (killing women and children like there is nothing to lose) There is also common, usual uses of s..t, ass, a..hole, douchebag, jokey use of nut-sack, dammit, d...hole, hell, crap and screwed, while this is more-or-less fine for children who have seen mature action films, it is a little more than your usual superhero flick. Like other installments to the franchise there is many little flirts and kisses along with the film including a scene that is implied after sex, more and more kisses and flirting scenes.

2018 Marvel Showdown

Avengers: Infinity War 75% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Age Rating: 13+

Black Panther 85% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆☆

Age Rating: 11+

Avengers: Infinity War 75% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Black Panther 85% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

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