Avengers Infinity War is a culmination of 10 years of the Marvel cinematic universe; 18 movies, multiple TV shows and several end credit scenes later, here we are. Infinity War provided a beginning to the end of a decade of superhero films, a genre not too common in 2008 but ubiquitous in our film culture today.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) did not introduce the idea of a superhero movie: that can be attributed to the early X-Men films, the Spiderman trilogy, and other DC movies. However, the MCU brought great strides to the genre, and inspired several other comic book companies to pursue the creation of a conjoined movie universe, like the DC Cinematic Universe.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe started off with Iron Man in 2008. Iron Man was a great leap forward for Marvel, as they had never made a film with such a direct connection to the original creators of the character. Previously, with movies such as Spiderman and X-Men, another studio acquired those rights to the character from Marvel. Marvel had some input, but in the end, the director made all the final decisions.

With Iron Man, Marvel Studios could call all the shots. They hired a good but relatively unknown actor, and they set out to make a movie that had several homages to the comics. When it premiered in May of 2008, the creators were in for a shock. They never imagined that their movie would create such great ripples in the world of entertainment and the world of action movies.

Iron Man was a great start for the MCU, and Marvel had many plans for the future of this universe. In Iron Man, they introduced the first end credit scene ever, which showed Nick Fury, an important Marvel character, talking to Iron Man about something called the “Avengers Initiative.” This hint to the future of the MCU was the perfect device to let viewers know that there would be more of this and a larger overarching theme.

Phase 1 of the MCU, sometimes called “Avengers Assembled”, consisted of 6 total movies and earned over $3.8 billion dollars. This phase started with Iron Man, and continued with The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. Finally, The Avengers came out in 2012, and earned over $200 million dollars in the opening weekend. This movie established the Avengers, and was the start to something great, as it was one of the first combined superhero movies which established a universe where several characters existed and interacted with one another, that spanned across movies, TV shows, and comics. It also had an extremely important end credit scene, which introduced the world to Thanos, the villain in Avengers Infinity War, and set up an overarching plot to all three phases of the MCU.

“The idea of the end credit scene is ingenious; they often put an epic end credit scene in that leaves fans talking for weeks after they watched the movie. I know I was very eager to see how the world of Marvel would play out when I watched the first Avengers movie and its end credit scene in 2012,” says sophomore Aadil Manazir.

Phase 2 of the MCU made even more total money that phase 1 did, earning over $5.2 billion dollars total. This phase was made up of 6 total movies as well, with sequels to many of the movies in phase 1. Phase 2 began with Iron Man 3, which picked up directly after the aftermath of The Avengers, and continued with Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man. This phase also had the second season of the TV show Agents of Shield and the first season of Daredevil; both these shows are set in the MCU. Guardians of the Galaxy was a movie that no one expected to be any good; a bunch of unknown superheros put together in a team that would bring justice to several planets in the stars doesn’t initially sound like a good idea. However, Guardians of the Galaxy defied everyone’s expectations and did surprisingly well. Avengers: Age of Ultron also continued the Avengers saga and did very well, earning over $190 million in the opening weekend.

Finally, we hit phase 3, with many modern Marvel movies included. Marvel has now become a household staple; it seems like every other movie they release sets the bar even higher. Marvel started off phase 3 with Captain America: Civil War, which answered the question: what if you pit the Avengers against each other? This movie earned a significant amount of money and also was rated very highly. Phase 3 introduced many new characters, with Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and Black Panther all coming out of this phase. Marvel had a great year in 2017 and 2018, with movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok all coming out in the same year. All three of these movies were well accepted, especially with Thor: Ragnarok restoring the esteem to the Thor franchise. 2018 started off with Black Panther, a world renowned movie that started a cultural revolution. Black Panther earned over 200 million dollars in the opening weekend, and featured a Shakespearean plot with a great cast, securing its spot in one of the greatest superhero films of all time. However, there is still one more movie that fans had been waiting for since 2012, and that is Avengers: Infinity War.

Avengers: Infinity War premiered on April 27th, and surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens in opening box office, for the most earnings ever in the first weekend. Infinity War is a film that has surpassed all expectations; the giant cast is great, and it handled so many characters extremely well.

“It seems like every movie we’ve doubled or more than doubled the size of the ensemble,” said Anthony Russo, one of the directors of Infinity War.

Infinity War has a plot that has spanned all the way back since the end credit scene in Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. In both these movies, an object known as the Tesseract is displayed. It is the first of the Infinity Stones recognized in an MCU movie, as it is formally known as the Space Stone. The first Avengers movie also has a plot centered around the Tesseract.

Infinity War finally introduces the character of Thanos as the main antagonist in an MCU film. Thanos’s goal is to collect the six Infinity Stones in order to bring balance to the universe by extinguishing half the life in it. The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy must band together in order to stop Thanos from achieving his goal.

Avengers Infinity War was an amazing movie. If you haven’t seen it already, it is definitely worth watching.

For a spoiler-filled review, please continue reading down below:

SPOILER REVIEW

This movie defied all expectation, as one did not see so many things coming. The movie picks up right after Thor: Ragnarok; the Asgardian refugee ship is floating through space, and is met by Thanos’s ship, as Thanos has already begun his conquest for the Infinity Stones. It starts with an incredibly intense scene. Half of Thor’s ship is dead, and Thor is at Thanos’s knees. Thanos had already taken the Power Stone from Xandar (introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy) and used it to defeat Thor, Loki, and the Hulk. In the end, Loki is forced to give Thanos the tesseract and Thanos ends up getting the Space Stone, and killing Loki afterward. The fact that Thanos was able to defeat the Hulk in a few hits right at the beginning of the film shows the power of just one singular infinity stone to the audience. Loki’s death also shocks the audience as he was such a beloved character, cheating death many times before but not this time.

The movie then moves to Earth, where the Hulk has crashed into Doctor Strange’s sanctum. Banner immediately tells Strange that “Thanos is coming.” This warning and reference to the comics also shows the audience the danger of Thanos and adds to the overall anticipation.

Thanos ends up sending his black order to collect the rest of the stones while he finds the Reality Stone and searches for the Soul Stone. The location of the Soul Stone was a highly anticipated reveal, and fans were shocked when Gamora knew where it was the whole time. Thanos brings Gamora to the planet of Vormir, and they stumble upon one of the greatest reveals in MCU history.

The guardian of the Soul Stone was Red Skull, the villain in Captain America: The First Avenger. He was last at the end of that film grasping the Tesseract and trying to unlock its power. The Tesseract housed the Space Stone, and the Space Stone’s power was that it could transport anyone or anything anywhere. Red Skull was shot up into space and the audience was left guessing where he went; now we know that he had been guarding the Soul Stone this whole time, and was unable to take it for himself. This reveal adds to the overall intensity of the film.

When the Red Skull informs Thanos that he must sacrifice something he loves in order to receive the Soul Stone, he pauses for a second. Then, Gamora shouts that he has lost as he loves nothing. There is a short moment of silence there where Thanos thinks for a second. The audience can guess what is about to happen, and they keep telling themselves no. Finally, Thanos turns around and throws Gamora off of the cliff, killing her and winning the Soul Stone. While this is happening, the score is heartbreaking, with the music echoing the feeling of the viewers.

Near the end, when Thanos snaps his fingers (a reference to the foreshadowing at the beginning of the film) and his conquest is brought to an end, repercussions throughout the universe are felt. But most of all, the death of Spider-Man brought the most emotion to the audience. When Peter Parker, or Spider-Man, goes to Iron Man and tells him that he doesn’t feel too good, and when he collapses onto the ground and says “I don’t want to go” and Iron Man is telling him to stay with him is heart wrenching. The connection made between Iron Man and Spider-Man was first introduced in Civil War, and has connected with the audience’s emotion.

The Future of the MCU

Infinity War set up many future plotlines and created many questions. For one, why did Doctor Strange give Thanos the time stone when previously he had said he would sacrifice Iron Man’s life to protect it? The answer lies in another scene, when Strange using the Time Stone to view every possible outcome. Strange looks through millions of them, and he seeing that in only one, they win. What if Iron Man had to be alive in order to beat Thanos in the end, even if it meant allowing Thanos to win at first and even if it cost Strange’s life?

In the end, Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to take half the life in the universe. One theory is that the souls of all the lives he took have gone to the Soul Dimension that exists in the Soul Stone. Thanos is seeing visiting it and talking to a younger Gamora after he snaps his fingers.

The remaining Avengers consist of much of the original cast, and not many of the new Avengers. This is not a coincidence, and could mean many things for the future. Also, after Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet, it looks like it has been mangled and changed. This could mean that the Avengers may have to create another one in order to restore things to how they were.

The post credit scene involved Nick Fury, just before turning to dust, activating an old pager with the symbol of Captain Marvel on it. This could mean that Captain Marvel has been in the MCU all along, and that she is the one that the Avengers will use to defeat Thanos, as there will be a Captain Marvel prequel that releases in 2019 detailing the origins of Captain Marvel.

Overall, Avengers: Infinity War, was an amazing movie, and will last in the memories of viewers for decades to come.