Avengers: Infinity War is arguably the most ambitious film ever made (at least since Star Wars in 1977). It’s the culmination of eighteen films, a loose adaptation of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, introducing several new characters, made on a mammoth budget, balancing over sixty characters, and is a crossover of epic proportions. It’s so big that even I, a regular dissenter of Marvel, was excited for it.

And did it come through? For the most part, yes. Infinity War is the rare film that, despite having a sizable portion of flaws, almost entirely lives up to its immense hype. There are several reasons why this film works so well – the visuals are stunning, the performances great, but the element that really pulls this across the finish line is none other than the villain; Thanos.

If you’re at all familiar with the source material, you’d know Thanos is a fairly difficult character to adapt. He’s a giant, purple alien whose motivations are usually so fantastical there’s no way they could make them believable in a mainstream blockbuster. And yet, they manage to not only pull him off, but make him the best MCU villain yet (even rising above the likes of Loki and Killmonger). He’s well-rendered, excellently performed, and terrifyingly brutal (and incredibly sympathetic, strangely enough).

The rest of the cast is excellent, even if some characters were underplayed/not given enough time to shine (if they even showed up at all). The banter between characters is enormously fun to watch, especially characters who have previously never met (ex. Iron Man and Doctor Strange, Thor and Star-Lord).

The screenplay is far and away Marvel’s boldest yet, with some moments being so absolutely out of nowhere I found myself frozen in shock. The comic this film draws inspiration from, Jim Starlin´s Infinity Gauntlet series, is a similarly bold book which makes it all the more appropriate here.

But, as aforementioned, there are several faults to find in this superhero epic. Inconsistency is the main one, especially with the film’s central artifact, the Infinity Gauntlet/Stones. The film, for the most part, portrays the stones as relics that could end the world on a whim (which they should be). However, the film sometimes undermines their established strength, having them either overpowered or rendered useless on occasion.

Another grave issue with this film is the amount of intertwinement with other films (which also works in the film´s favor, oddly). MCU continuity/a lack of self-containment has always been an issue, but this film takes it to new levels. You will have had to see at least most of the previous films in this franchise (i.e. all Iron Man, Avengers, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor, Doctor Strange and Black Panther films) to understand what is going on or who anyone is.

But on the whole, despite its flaws, Avengers: Infinity War is a visually stunning, ambitious, excellently performed film that ranks among the MCU´s very best. Would certainly recommend this one (but seriously – make sure you’re caught up with the MCU).