Scarlett Johansson in “Avengers: Infinity War”

Written Reviews:

Daily Beast – Nick Shager

Yet while that inherent construction may frustrate those looking for stand-alone cohesiveness, the directors so capably capture, and blend together, their myriad disparate personalities for a thrilling campaign against annihilation that their would-be epic ably justifies the studio’s interconnected storytelling approach—and immediately solidifies Avengers 4 as the multiplex event of 2019.

Entertainment Weekly – Chris Nashawaty

The problem is that with so many characters to shoehorn in and so many realms of the galaxy to put out various fires in, the heroic horde is broken into four or five smaller subgroups that we keep cutting back and forth to. And some, naturally, are more entertaining to sit through than others. And some just seem to vanish for long stretches until you find yourself wondering when the hell are we going back to Wakanda or wherever? It ends up feeling a bit too disjointed – like we’re flipping the channels between four different movies instead of watching one cohesive one

Forbes – Scott Mendelssohn

Avengers: Infinity War may be the biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, it is nowhere near the best. It is esssentially set-up for whatever comes next year. But it works as big-scale entertainment.

The Guardian – Peter Bradshaw

Whatever else it does, this Marvel movie shows its brand identity in the adroit management of tone. One moment it’s tragic – the next, it’s cracking wise. It’s absurd and yet persuades you of its overwhelming seriousness. And there are some amazing Saturday-morning-kids-show moments when you really do feel like cheering.

The Hollywood Reporter – Todd McCarthy

This grand, bursting-at-the-seams wrap-up to one crowded realm of the Marvel superhero universe starts out as three parts jokes, two parts dramatic juggling act and one part deterministic action, an equation that’s been completely reversed by the time of the film’s startling climax.

Indiewire – Eric Kohn

“Infinity War” moves so fast and runs so long (over two and a half hours) it seems intent on exhausting even the most committed of viewers. But even as the movie forces audiences to submit to so many cataclysmic events, the directors manage to direct the cascading mayhem to a unique kind of cliffhanger.

The New York Times – A.O. Scott

Considered on its own, as a single, nearly 2-hour-40-minute movie, “Avengers: Infinity War” makes very little sense, apart from the near convergence of its title and its running time. Early on, someone menacingly (and presciently) says, “You may think this is suffering. No: It’s salvation.” That’s a bit overstated either way. It’s puzzlement and irritation and also, yes, delight.

ScreenCrush – Matt Singer

If you’re a fan of these characters and you’re invested in their fates, there’s plenty of thrills in watching them team up, and zing each other with witty banter. A couple of shots will give you chills. But you better be really invested, because what’s generally missing are the moments where the film can just breathe; where the characters enjoy a shawarma or try to lift Thor’s hammer or simply carry on a conversation longer than 15 seconds about something other than the Infinity Stones. With very few exceptions, Infinity War is all business from the moment it begins to the final end credits.

Slash Film – Josh Spiegel

The best thing about Avengers: Infinity War is, in many ways, the best thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole: an incredibly charming and almost overqualified ensemble cast. Though a few of the actors in the nearly 20 films of the MCU haven’t worked out so well, many of the performers are key to making the heroes of this fantastical series fresh and exciting. Whenever the sometimes-unwieldy, epic-length Infinity War works, it’s largely thanks to the actors, not the action sequences or the effects or anything else. The cast makes this movie, not the other way around.

Uproxx – Mike Ryan

And Avengers: Infinity War feels like a really special event. There are at least ten moments in this movie that made me want to just yell out, “yeah!,” at the screen. If you are a human being who likes comic books or comic book movies, it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the spectacle of it all – even though you might leave the theater a little disappointed…

USA Today – Brian Truitt

While it’s hard to beat the wonder of that original Avengers film — remember when superhero team-ups were still a novelty? — Infinity War does its best to change the game again. There are unexpected returns, true surprises, real sacrifices and a cliffhanger ending that’s going to freak fans to their superhero-loving core, yet is, quite simply, marvelous.

The Verge – Bryan Bishop

The long-awaited face-off between the Avengers and Thanos (Josh Brolin), the MCU’s ultimate big bad, is massively entertaining, deftly incorporating dozens of characters across multiple storylines with a kinetic flair. Its devotion to banter and one-liners makes it one of the funniest movies in the studio’s history, but it’s also a film where very bad things happen to good people. After years of movies where even the most mediocre heroes appeared to be invulnerable and indomitable, it’s an arresting jolt — and exactly the film the franchise needed.

Vanity Fair – Richard Lawson

That said, Infinity War does find a clever, somber way to keep its successor’s proportions in check. It’s both arresting plot development and efficient solution; like so much in the Avengers series, Infinity War is really a feat of good management above anything else. As Marvel nears the end of this particular saga—or, at least, this particular lineup of actors—it’s a mild, partly begrudging thrill to see them pull it off.

Variety – Owen Gleiberman – [SPOILERS]

“Avengers: Infinity War” can, at times, make it feel like you’re at a birthday party where you got so many presents that you start to grow tired of opening them. But taken on its own piñata-of-fun terms, it’s sharp, fast-moving, and elegantly staged. It also has what any superhero movie worth its salt requires: a sense that there’s something at stake.

Vox – Alex Abad-Santos

*It’s frustrating that it’s so difficult to fully appreciate the fantastic work that went into orchestrating these massive spectacles when we’re constantly being jostled from place to place. Midway through, all these different settings and all these jumps begin to feel exhausting…But also as in comic books, there’s one absolute bombshell of a moment that grabs you by the neck and drives you back into the story. Infinity War boasts the most breathtaking, audacious moment in superhero movie history, one that rocketed through my brain and tore apart everything I thought I knew about the past 10 years of Marvel moviemaking. For the first time in a while, I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

Vulture – David Edelstein

I invoke Kurosawa not out of elitism but to suggest how little Marvel’s films — which are, essentially, war movies — have in the way of a vision. The thousands of fallen bodies have all the weight of computer-game figures. Even Ryan Coogler — whose boxing-ring work in Creed was masterly — could in Black Panther barely rise above competence in showing people being slaughtered wholesale. It’s a matter of philosophy, of ethos, and Marvel’s is to throw more attention on whooshing entities in souped-up suits and stuff blowing up real good than on anything halfway human.

The Wrap – Alonso Duralde

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo move their many playing pieces around with as much grace as possible, and they offer up jolts of pleasure throughout. The violence is ratcheted higher than usual — parents, please note we get both torture and genocide this time around — but the wisecracks still work; on this outing, the audience needs them more than usual, and the experienced cast knows how to throw them around as a way to keep their characters sane in the face of Armageddon.