Marvel Entertainment Studios released one of their biggest blockbusters on April 27th: “Avengers: Infinity War” directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. This movie is the second most expensive film ever made, with a budget of $300-$400 billion, and it certainly paid off. This movie can, and most likely, will, be considered a cinematic masterpiece.

The movie follows “Earth’s mightiest heroes” on their quest to stop archenemy Thanos from getting all the Infinity Stones. This movie has been on the books since 2012, the setup being made in the original Avengers movie in which Thanos sends Loki to Earth to take over for him. The lead up to this movies was tremendous, with Infinity Stones popping up throughout a number of other movies in the forms of the Tesseract, Vision’s Stone, Loki’s Chitauri Scepter, and Doctor Strange’s Eye of Agamotto.

This movie included so many iconic old and new characters like Captain America and the Black Panther, meaning that this movie offers numerous viewpoints and complex subplots in addition to the main storyline.

Spoilers!

This is where the actual spoilers start!

All of the original Avengers live, but not many others.

Hawkeye isn’t in this movie. 

Prior to the movie’s release, many fans were upset due to the lack of Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, in any of the trailers. As it turns out, Hawkeye isn’t in this movie in any capacity. Neither is Ant-Man. Although both heroes are mentioned, they apparently took a plea deal at the end of “Captain America: Civil War” to ease the burden on their families and are now under house arrest. It will be interesting to see how becoming an international fugitive has affected Ant-Man in the upcoming movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

Loki dies, apparently for good.

Although the God of Mischief has had many “deaths” throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this one appears to be permanent. After double crossing Thanos in the first “Avengers” and stealing the Tesseract and even trying to stab Thanos, one could argue that Loki has had this coming for a long time. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, fans watched in abject horror as Thanos snapped Loki’s neck on screen, a death far more graphic than any of his past ones.

Hulk doesn’t want to reappear. 

Along with killing Loki, Thanos also beats the Hulk in a fight, something we haven’t seen anyone else in the MCU do. Although fans speculated the Hulkbuster armor in the trailer was Tony, it turns out the armor is being piloted by Bruce Banner as the Hulk refuses to come out in the movie, the apparent running joke that he is too afraid of Thanos. We think that this is probably a gear-up for a large fight between two of the strongest beings in the cosmos in the unnamed “Avengers 4”

Gamora dies all alone. 

Thanos, after getting his hands on the Reality Stone kidnaps Gamora, separating the Guardians of the Galaxy. He takes Gamora to his ship, where it is revealed that he has captured and is torturing Nebula. It is also revealed that Gamora has known the location of the so-called “lost” Infinity Stone the entire time because she  previously found and destroyed a map to it. Thanos then forces Gamora to take him to a planet known as Vormir where they learn that to get the Soul Stone, Thanos needs to sacrifice something he loves. While Gamora gloats that he loves nothing, it is revealed that he does, in fact, love her, because after he throws her off of the cliff, he receives the Soul Stone. This scene is heartbreaking for many in the theatre especially coupled with Gamora’s line from the first “Guardians of the Galaxy”: “I have lived my life surrounded by enemies. I will be grateful to die among my friends.” Gamora dies all alone, betrayed by a person she once loved.

Thor forges Stormbreaker.

A mystical ax, forged in the same heart of a dying star as Mjölnir, Stormbreaker was created when Thor, Rocket and Groot travel to Nidavellir to forge the weapon destined to kill Thanos.

Scarlet Witch kills the Vision in vain.

To prevent Thanos from getting his hands on the Soul Stone, Scarlet Witch was forced to kill the Vision, who she is in weird robot-human love with. Unfortunately, using his newly acquired Time Stone, Thanos just reverses time to before Vision dies and ripped the Soul Stone out of his forehead. Ow.

Stormbreaker fails. 

Yeah, the ax doesn’t really come through for Thor. For one brief moment, it appears as though the Avengers have won as Thor plunges the ax into Thanos’ chest and blood starts to pour. Unfortunately, that moment ends abruptly as Thanos tells Thor that he should have gone for the head. With that, Stormbreaker and the Avengers themselves fail.

Thanos kills half the universe.

With a snap of his fingers, one half of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe falls apart. Literally crumbling into dust. Victims include all of the Guardians of the Galaxy except Rocket, Black Panther, Falcon, Spider-Man (in a heartbreaking father-son scene with Tony Stark) and basically everyone except the original Avengers, Nebula, and War Machine. Yikes. Other victims include Nick Fury and Maria Hill who, in the post-credits scene, managed to  send a signal to Ms. Marvel aka Carol Danvers, setting Marvel up nicely for their new movie “Ms. Marvel” which is coming out next.

Conclusion:

All in all, this movie was excellent. There weren’t any parts that we felt were dull. We were on the edge of our seats the entire time in the theater, waiting for the climax of this incredible movie, and when it came, we weren’t prepared. The intricate layers of subplots and plot twist added a level of depth to this original movie that is almost unheard of. All the elements of this movie combined to form an incredible cinematic experience that Marvel fans won’t soon forget. We recommend this movie to superhero lovers and action movie junkies.