Reviewing an Avengers film is in itself quite the challenge, let alone one as highly anticipated as the latest in the film franchise, Infinity War. Saying that, even myself, a bit of a novice when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, knew going into this film that it would be a monumental one indeed.
I hate to admit it, but as a kid I was always told that superhero movies were for boys. Even more stupid of me was that I always believed these people (who were totally wrong, by the way). As a teenager, I saw some girls around me really fangirl about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it definitely wasn’t a majority amongst the teenage girl population.
Although I’m a film and fantasy-lover, I was just never drawn to these films for fear that they were too long or that I would just get bored of the drawn-out fight scenes. This seems crazy to me now, as I love long movies and understand perfectly the necessity for such fight scenes when the title of the film is, well, Infinity War…
Onto the subject matter itself, then. Short and sweet, I left the cinema pretty much mind-blown, yearning to experience more of my new-found love for the Avengers. Some more experienced fangirls and boys out there might have expected the conclusion — in which case, the ending might have been less of an emotional blow for them as they, instead, conjured up conspiracy theories about the next installment.
Others, like my novice self, may have expected the Avengers to save the day right up until the very end (maybe at the point where Thor and his mighty hammer came along), and so were impacted greatly by the last ten minutes of the film.
More specifically, seeing Tom Holland play the new Spider-man for the first time (I had only seen Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield before) really made me appreciate him both as an actor and as the latest casting choice for the role. Spiderman: Homecoming is definitely up there on my list of films to watch next.
Of Holland’s performance: he was pretty much a scene-stealer, very relatable, funny and British in his humour, and a welcome relief for the younger crowd of movie-goers. I must say, the added dynamic of having a character around my own age made me really root for him whenever I saw him onscreen, despite this being my first experience of Holland as Spiderman. I think that just goes to show what incredible casting this truly is.
As you can probably gather, one of the only individual characters I had proper cinematic experience of was Spider-man, and it killed me inside to see what happens to this fan favourite. (Same with Loki, but I think I’ve fangirled over my favourite characters a bit too much now). Read it and weep, kids.
The fight scenes themselves were equally dramatically and thematically well-presented, from more intimate one-on-one fights to larger-scale battle scenes – each end of the spectrum was as impactful as the other. To have a film where there are so many characters coming together, it must have been a huge obstacle for the film to put so much emotion into them.
However, it wasn’t a worry in the end. Each of the characters had the necessary amount of care, attention and development given to them, and as a somewhat-novice it was wonderful to find out their backstories all in one film. A triumphant feat for the characterization indeed.
Overall, it was an emotionally pulling film for both fans of the franchise and newcomers alike. Needless to say, I am already in anticipation of the next installment, and of my newfound Avengers adventure.
By Chloe Jade Clarke
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