Movie Review: Avengers: Infinity War

The Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

I have always been more of a DC fan than a Marvel fan, as far as superheroes go. I never really got into the Marvel comic universe outside of Spider-Man and X-Men, and before the advent of the cinematic media juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe all the way back in 2008 with Iron Man, I know the Marvel comics universe mostly on a superficial level. Before the MCU, I didn't even know who some of the Marvel universe's big names like Hawkeye or Black Panther or Vision are, while I could name really obscure characters from the DC Universe like, oh, I dunno, Jemm the Son of Saturn.

That said, though... as far as the cinematic superhero movies go, Marvel won. There is no ambiguity about it, and if you ever need to see a comparison between the two, I'll point to Justice League and Avengers: Infinity War, two movies featuring multiple heroes coming together to fight an intensely powerful CGI alien from space. As much as I love the Justice League, and as much as I hate comparing one movie to another... by god did Marvel Studios manage to absolutely deliver one hell of an epic installment with this huge undertaking. Building up on a history that stretches all the way back to 2008's Iron Man, and building up on some 25+ pre-established characters all moving around, it is genuinely amazing how well-balanced and entertaining the movie is. In a movie where the main villain's motivation is about balance, it is amazing how the movie itself is an intense balancing act. Balancing the screentime given to the multiple characters, balancing how badass Thanos should be and how much the heroes are allowed a 'win', balancing the comedy and the decidedly far-darker tone the movie has... and it's actually done pretty flawlessly.

The big complaint about this movie, of course, is that it's practically impossible for any newcomer (or someone who watched maybe two or three Marvel movies) to hop in and understand what's going on... but honestly? With 18 movies in Marvel's docket, they're allowed to do it, in my opinion. Neither Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Hunger Games start their movies with a re-introduction of every single character, and while Infinity War is far more ambitious, I feel that it's absolutely unfair for some of the reviews out there to pan Infinity War because "they didn't do a good job at intro-dumping the characters", because they assume you watched all the previous movies. And honestly? It's an 'ask' that Marvel has earned, in my book.

It is a culmination of 10 years of movies, but it does so where all the continuity nods and supporting characters that pop up feel organic as opposed to a cheeky "hey, remember character X?" Easter Egg. It's a pretty damn good movie and a very amazing climax, and by god the balls on Marvel for ending the movie on what's essentially a year-long cliffhanger. I've never been a fan of movies with cliffhangers, but as I said before, if there's going to be a movie franchise that is allowed to do it, it's Marvel. After all, they've done an amazing job at keeping most of their work stand-alone, so they're definitely allowed to do this.

Plus, all of the actual things to critique in this movie -- action scenes, CGI, music -- are all simply top-notch. The usage of the intense music, the heroic Avengers riff when Captain America first shows up, the African drums leading to the Black Panther theme showing up when Steve mentions 'a place', to the time when the music knows when to shut up in the intense, emotional parts of the movie... some great editing here. And the CGI... by god, the CGI is pretty impressive. It's not all good, of course, but for a movie that prominently features huge fantastically impossible space locations, as well as multiple entirely-CGI characters, including Thanos himself, it's nothing short of spectacular. I could go on and on about the badass action scenes, and by god there's a lot of badass action scenes, but then I'll be here all week, and I have way too much to say about the actual characters themselves.

I've been keeping shy of spoilers throughout this review, because I'm aware of how huge the movie is, so a more detailed (and hoo boy is it more detailed) review is going to be after the break.

But overall? It's a pretty damn good movie, and I'm not sure if any other movie series will reach the height of interwoven continuity that the MCU has reached. I think in-between now and May 2019, I'll review a MCU movie every month and take a trip down memory lane as we dissect the rest of the Marvel movies.



The main character of this movie is pretty much Thanos. One of my biggest complaints about superhero movies in general (and MCU movies as well) is how bland and flat their villains tended to be. Nine times out of ten, a superhero movie villain tended to just be a motivation rant, an origin story, a big-name actor and a set of superpowers stapled together. Noticeably, Marvel has averted it several times with their most recent movies -- Black Panther's Killmonger, Spider-Man Homecoming's Vulture, and Loki (although he's got the benefit of multiple movies) have all been relatively well-developed characters.

But I worry that in such an over-stuffed movie, Thanos would end up feeling less of a character and more of a plot device, especially since his entire MCU career has been nothing but sitting in a chair and being ominous. Thankfully, the movie spends the most screentime with Thanos, and a combination of amazing CGI and Josh Brolin's powerful performance, as well as an emotional hook in his adopted daughter Gamora ends up making Thanos's journey truly a huge facet of the movie. I shy away from saying that it's the focus of the movie since it doesn't spend that much time with Thanos, but it still does enough to really paint Thanos as a pretty solid character in his own right.

The scenes that really help to establish Thanos as a character is the flashback with young Gamora, where in his conquest to bring his warped idea of justice to 'save' the universe by killing half of the population of every planet, he manages to find love in his adopted daughter, shielding her away from the killing of half of her planet's population. Thanos may be cruel and insane to everyone else (thankfully the movie stops short of making Thanos an actual cackling-mad-with-power villain), but he has a soft spot for his daughter. The scene in Knowhere where Gamora confronts Thanos is intense, but the best scene for Thanos is perhaps the quiet scene on the ship when Thanos arrives with a bowl of soup for his estranged daughter. Instead of the powered god-like titan that has been batting around every single person with ease, the moment when Thanos slumps down on the stairs leading up to his throne as he attempts to connect with his daughter makes Thanos feel suddenly human. Yes, Thanos is the villain here, and he's trying to get Gamora into becoming an intergalactic despot like him, but there's just something very human and vulnerable in seeing Thanos try to connect with his daughter.

And then the very next scene is the fact that Thanos has captured and tortured his other daughter, Nebula, with some really dark and well-executed camera tricks that show that Nebula is disassembled and kept afloat in a forcefield, and it shows that for all his love, Thanos is not beyond using emotional manipulation to get his daughter to do what he wants to do. The journey for the Soul Stone is a lot less smashy-smash and badass power showoff, but rather a highlight of Thanos's own character journey. As he arrives on Vormir, he is informed that the only way to make the Soul Stone show itself is to sacrifice something he truly loves. Gamora scoffs at Thanos, noting that such a hateful being could not find something to love.... only for the tearful Thanos to realize that in order to further his ambitions, he has to sacrifice the daughter that he truly, truly loves in his own twisted way. It's harrowing, it's brutal, and as someone who has honestly never really liked Gamora all that much before this movie, it's pretty damn well-executed as well.

Of course, for the vast majority of the movie, Thanos is just an unstoppable force collecting a bunch of plot devices. The movie needs it, after all, but it really makes Thanos pretty damn compelling. He's dangerous, but not dangerous in the raving-lunatic way that some superhero movie villains fall into. He certainly has a code of honour, which is noted when he acknowledges Tony Stark and Peter Quill in his confrontations against them, but at the same time he's not above just absolutely overpowering everyone in his way. That scene at the end of the movie as Thanos stalks towards Vision and Scarlet Witch and just takes down each and every Avenger one by one, and barely being slowed down by any of them, is insanely intense.

And by god, the cold open for this movie is just intense and works well in introducing Thanos's threat, isn't it? Following straight from the hopeful ending of Thor: Ragnarok, the Marvel title card isn't accompanied by the usual bombastic Avengers theme, but with the screams of the dying Asgardians asking for help. We cut to seeing the mighty Thor already defeated, Loki cowed, with his Asgardian and alien gladiator allies all lying dead or dying around Thanos. The incredible Hulk, easily the single strongest character on the side of good, engages Thanos in a fist-fight, only for Thanos to overpower him punch to punch. Easily. He then proceeds to kill Heimdall and even Loki (more on Loki later on, because he deserves a more detailed talk), and that's just with one of the Infinity Stones. That's just amazing.

I also like how Thanos's quest for the Infinity Stone is paced. He gets three in quick succession -- Xandar's power stone before the movie, Loki's space stone in the cold open, and the Collector's reality stone in the Knowhere sequence (that also allowed him a strong interaction with Gamora) -- but the other three stones revolve around the main character groups of the movie. The Soul Stone revolves around Thanos and Gamora's twisted father-daughter relationship, whereas Team Tony and Team Steve are protecting the Time and Mind stones, attached to Dr. Strange and Vision, respectively. That sort of leaves Thor as the odd man out, since his gang's actually making a weapon instead of guarding a stone, but eh.

And at the end of the movie Thanos is practically unstoppable, yet the movie also establishes that he's still got emotions. At the height of the movie's climax, as he is about to do the iconic snap with all six infinity stones that would wipe out half of all life in the universe, Thanos has a brief meeting with the ghost (?) of child Gamora, noting with a heavy heart that it had cost him... everything. It's pretty intense, and as much as Thanos is a psychopath who is tunnel-visioned into killing half the universe (a modus operandi that plain clearly is nonsense, but Thanos's intense performance really makes us buy that Thanos believes it if nothing else) you can't help but feel for him. He's sacrificed so much -- the only being in the universe he loved -- for his ambitions. And the final scene in this movie is even Thanos on what seemed to be a resurrected Titan, smiling at his handiwork. That's not a villain-wins shot. That's the sort of shot that tends to be reserved for a protagonist, for a hero, after a hard-earned victory. I think that shot was what hammered home that Infinity War was Thanos's story as much as it was the heroes.

And ultimately, he did win. He's fighting for a cause, making him more of an... anti-villain, I suppose? The movie ends with multiple characters killed off for real (Loki, Gamora, Vision and Heimdall being the primary ones) and half the cast disintegrating into dust due to Thanos's epic finger-snap. I don't buy that any of the disintegrated characters will stay permanently dead -- least of all because Spider-Man and Black Panther are among them, and Marvel's got movies planned for them after Infinity War 2, but it's still pretty damn shocking, and Thanos killing the other heroes pre-finger-snap are all pretty damn brutal and seems to be permanent. The movie does get pretty dark at multiple times, and necessarily so -- we don't have a silly "let's have Korg yap while Asgard blows up" mood-ruiner scene here, thankfully, but at the same time the movie also maintains a great balance with comedy and snarks to keep the mood both dark yet still light-hearted at the same time.

There's also a very powerful threadline throughout the movie about sacrificing someone you love. Three pairs -- Thanos/Gamora, Star-Lord/Gamora and Vision/Scarlet Witch have this as the emotional core of their character conflict in this movie, and it's done amazingly well. Thanos, despite hurting so much, ultimately chooses to sacrifice Gamora for his ideals, and both Star-Lord and Scarlet Witch are placed in a position where they have to shoot and destroy their loved ones in order to stop Thanos, and in both cases, Star-Lord and Scarlet Witch chose the option to kill their loved ones only for their attempt to be negated by Thanos's power. It's a neat little running line that sort of contrasts with another viewpoint from the heroes -- both Doctor Strange and Captain America refuses to sacrifice anyone (Iron Man and Vision respectively) for the good of the many because all life is precious. I'm not sure how it ended working out since Thanos ended up the victor of this movie, but I'm assuming that we're going to follow through with the themes of sacrificing a loved one in the follow-up.

(Also, how cool is it that Marvel eschewed the normal explosive, flashy credits in favour for the names of the actors on a black screen, and then the title card just disintegrating? That's some style)

Anyway, those are my two cents on Thanos. He's not perfect, of course. There are times where I wished the movie focused a bit more on why he's so hung up on the "kill half the world" as the only solution, especially considering the fact that he ends up with six reality-warping Infinity Stones at the end of the movie, but it's actually noted as a character flaw, so I'm not too hung up on that. I'm also a bit of a fan about how the movie sort of explains why Thanos has been so passive throughout the events of Avengers and the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He's been waiting for the construction of the Infinity Gauntlet, which this movie gives as taking place around the time that Asgard was under crisis in Thor: Ragnarok, meaning that it's kind of moot for him to actually get out and collect the Infinity Stones, instead relying on his minions like Ronan, Gamora and Loki in previous movies. It's not a perfect explanation, but when you have thread a storyline throughout multiple movies, you do what you have to do.

The movie never actually has its 25 superheroes stand together in the same battlefield, instead breaking up the cast into smaller groups. We've got the initial group of Team Tony, consisting of Iron Man, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange (also Wong and Bruce Banner) who fought against the heralds of Thanos on New York before being forced to go to space, and later join together with Star-Lord's detachment of the Guardians of the Galaxy. We've got Thor, who ended up falling onto the pathway of the Guardians, and then going off with Rocket and Teen Groot to build a Thanos-killing weapon. Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax and Mantis would then go off to attempt to stop Thanos, only for it to end horribly and Gamora being kidnapped by Thanos. Star-Lord's group would meet up with Team Tony on Titan to lay a trap  for Thanos. Meanwhile, on Earth, the rest of the Avengers on Earth has basically joined up together and decided to make a last stand on Wakanda to protect Vision and the Mind Stone.

And I guess we'll break down the characters one by one, based on the journeys they have in the movie. Again, a movie's only as good as its characters, and I do appreciate that in-between the high-octane superhero fights and race for the glowing plot devices, we do have time for character moments. (It also gives me an excuse to post every single one of these fancy character posters here)

So let's start off with Iron Man, the original character in the MCU. Tony is introduced to us in a very stable moment of his life. He's ready to get married, and we first see him walking down the street discussing his wedding with Pepper Potts. In addition to scaring me because of the "character gets tragically killed before retirement/wedding" trope, it is a pretty stark (heh) contrast as a magical portal opens for Dr. Strange and Bruce Banner to drag Tony screaming and kicking into this mad, mad superhero crisis. Robert Downey Jr. shows off a lot of his trademark sass, and plays off amazingly well with Cumberbatch's Dr. Strange, with the two trading sass and tossing their respective egos around, before the two are forced to work together. Also equally hilarious is how the otherwise-serious Tony Stark is forced to deal with the madcap Guardians. It's just fun to see these guys interact. But more importantly, as seen in the quieter, more vulnerable moments, Tony notes how he has been having nightmares about a far bigger threat beyond the capabilities of the Avengers -- something that builds up on his character arcs in Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron, and Thanos is exactly it. Thanos is the name behind the nebulous 'threat-beyond-the-threat' that Tony has been so scared about... and throwing a wrinkle into it all is the presence of his young mentor and son-figure Spider-Man, who had stowed away onto the donut-ship with him.

Iron Man also has some really great scenes facing off against Thanos, who actually knows about him. Tony's brand-new Bleeding Edge armour is insanely amazing, topping Black Panther's nanotech suit in just how insanely awesome it is. Whether it's sprouting swords, wings, transforming his legs into a rocket booster, transforming arms and legs into clamps to disable Thanos in a melee, Iron Man's new suit ramps up the sheer awesomeness of technological gadgets and gimmickry, and it's just a great visual sight to behold.

And as one of the oldest and longest-running MCU hero, Iron Man kind of has a target pointed on his head, and I was extremely shocked in that moment when Thanos rips off Tony's sword and stabs him in the chest. He's immediately fine afterwards (without even needing a time-rewind from Dr. Strange, which I had assumed was going to be the case), but he is utterly defeated after he and his space group engaged Thanos at the end of the second arc. Even moreso when he sees all of his allies, and especially Spider-Man, disintegrate into dust because he failed. Spider-Man's death is an amazing tear-jerker, and it was shot marvelously well, as much as I'm 100% sure it won't stick.

Since we're already talking about Spider-Man, let's go with him next. Spider-Man doesn't really get as concrete of a character arc as Iron Man did, and he's just there mostly because, hey, it's goddamned Spider-Man! From the scene where he first appeared on the bus and zips straight into the chaos, holding back Cull Obsidian's fist to protect Bruce, Spider-Man gets a lot of great scenes. My favourite has to be the sudden revelation of those gigantic spider-claws that manifest from his back that appeared while he was saving Dr. Strange. That was awesome. Spider-Man mostly ends up being a bit of a comedic foil to Dr. Strange and Iron Man, as well as being sort of a child-like sidekick to Iron Man, leading to the pretty sad scene with his death. There's really not that much I could say about Spider-Man, really. He's pretty good, but they don't do that much with him that's not an action scene or quipping jokes. That said, as someone who grew up with Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man movies, it's always a surreal treat to see Spider-Man palling around with these other big faces from Marvel.

Dr. Strange forms the third member of the trio of space travelers from Earth. While Thor and the Guardians are already relatively well-versed about all of this Infinity Stone stuff, Dr. Strange ends up being the resident Earth-bound expert, and after talking to Bruce (who fell into his house after being sent away by Heimdall), Dr. Strange was the one who recruits Iron Man in attempting to protect the Infinity Stones. Strange is callous and ego-centric, putting his mission to protect the Eye of Agamotto above all else, and forms a great foil for Iron Man. I've often mentioned the similarities between MCU's Dr. Strange and Iron Man -- both are super-talented douchefucks who end up being humbled due to a tragedy, and eventually learn to master their respective crafts and become heroes for the greater good without entirely losing their ego. The fact that both Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr are actors who play Sherlock Holmes isn't lost on me or the fandom either. Cumberbatch and Downey are excellent foils to each other, and Dr. Strange's dry and matter-of-fact explanation that he's going to happily consider Iron Man and Spider-Man disposable over the Time Stone. This ends up being challenged, and Dr. Strange ended up surrendering the Time Stone to Thanos when it looked like Iron Man was in mortal danger.

In addition to being absolutely fun, Dr. Strange is also the source of many great visuals. The initial mage battle with Ebony Maw with telekinetic portals and levitating objects is intensely fun, and Strange's cape sidekick delivers some really fun comedic beats in its interactions with Iron Man. But my favourite part is the creative usage of Dr. Strange's magics. One of my biggest complaints is that sometimes in Doctor Strange the movie the magic ends up being reduced to just glowy ethereal swordfights and portals, but here? Dr. Strange makes platforms for Star-Lord to hop around on, creates portals to for Spider-Man and Star-Lord to zip in and out, creates multiple arms before pulling a Naruto and splitting into multiple clones, and then summoning giant chains to wrap around Thanos, summons giant gouts of flame, transforms one of Thanos's black hole-esque attack into butterflies... it truly feels like he's a magician in a way that he didn't quite did in his own solo movie.

Plus, while Dr. Strange is among the heroes erased by Thanos's fingersnap, we did get the scene halfway through the movie when Strange tries to go through some fourteen million permutations of possible events, and noted that in only one of those did they win, so surrendering the Time Stone might be yet another in Dr. Strange's gambits to ensure Thanos's downfall.

The Hulk, despite the large amount of promotional material featuring him, doesn't actually appear that much in the movie. He shows up to be taken down by Thanos in a simple fist-fight, before getting beamed away by Heimdall to Earth to warn the Avengers. Apparently, this unequivocal defeat has shaken Hulk so much that he refuses to come out, leaving Bruce Banner as the main driving persona in their shared Jekyll-and-Hyde body. There are multiple times throughout the movie where Bruce attempts to Hulk out, only for Hulk to refuse to come out, having been traumatized and afraid of the threat of Thanos. It actually plays off the more intelligent Hulk we've seen in Thor: Ragnarok very well, and considering the Hulk's past outings in all of the other movies he's been in, no other villain has ever given the Hulk much of a trouble in actual physical combat. And with both Abomination and Thor, other entities that were able to fight toe-to-toe with Hulk, he at least always was able to have a fighting chance. It's, again, a rare sight for the Hulk to be given a personality as opposed to being just a rampaging beast, and it's definitely a great development from Thor: Ragnarok.

Bruce ends up being the interesting character of the bunch. For the first half of the movie Bruce is more of a plot device, a way to get the various cast members together (Dr. Strange and Iron Man; as well as introducing the plot to Steve Rogers and his batch of Avengers), as well as to play the 'newbie' as to the events that has transpired on Earth to catch up anyone who's not caught up on the 19 MCU movies. But as the movie goes on, Bruce ends up going through a brief bit of character development, driving the Hulkbuster into battle, and always treating the Hulk as a possible get-out-of-jail-free card because he thinks the Hulk will show up at the eleventh hour... except the Hulk never did. This forces Bruce to eventually say 'screw it' and take matters into his own hands, allowing puny  Banner to actually be a hero for once instead of just having his contributions be "run in, summon Hulk". Bruce ends up being one of the few characters to 'get a kill' in killing one of the four Children of Thanos -- perhaps not coincidentally, Cull Obsidian, the one that's a big, hulking brute. It's going to be interesting to see how the Hulk/Bruce relationship develops from here on out.

I guess we'll follow Team Tony and skip over to the space gang? Naturally, the Guardians of the Galaxy are introduced with a fun old 70's song, the Rubberband Man, a sudden whiplashing contrast as we jump from one corner of the Marvel universe to the next, a neat little acknowledgement of the different tones of the different stories being told in this same universe.

Interestingly, it's not Star-Lord but Gamora that feels like the 'main' Guardian in this movie. Gamora hasn't been the most consistently-written character in the Guardians movies, with her role as a plot-driven character, what with her being the adopted daughter of Thanos and all, clashing somewhat with her role as a love interest for the supposed main character of the guardians, Star-Lord. But here, Gamora ends up taking charge and gets thrust into the spotlight. It's a bit neat that the Guardians are already acclimatized with Thanos's backstory and what he's all about, because as soon as they rescue Thor from slapping onto their ship, a quick cut and everyone's in serious mode.

Gamora's story is interesting because we know the broad strokes of what she's all about from the first two Guardians movies, but this is the first time we've really gotten any specifics. Gamora and Thanos's first meeting is shown here, where she's a vulnerable girl who was adopted by Thanos, who raised her as his own daughter... but also at the same time trying to groom her to be his successor. The movie manages to showcase Gamora's vengeful anger in wanting to end Thanos's insane machinations very well, but the scene when Gamora thinks she has finally managed to kill Thanos at Knowhere and breaking down into tears is amazingly delivered, I think. She might know that she has to kill this mad dog of a father, but Thanos was the man who raised him, and as we know from the second Guardians movie as well as this one, Gamora is Thanos's favoured daughter. Call it Stockholm's Syndrome, call it an exaggerated version of a fucked-up father/child relationship, but I really think that Gamora and Thanos's relationship ended up being delivered well here. As I have mentioned up above, the scene on Thanos's throne room, as well as Thanos eventually deciding to sacrifice Gamora, is amazingly done. The way that Gamora's expression changes when she realizes that Thanos does love her, and her attempt to stab herself in the heart only to see her knife get transformed into bubbles... that's pretty damn heart-rending.

Gamora, likewise, is staunch and hard, refusing to back down to Thanos, up until Nebula is threatened, which I thought was neat. Gamora and Nebula's relationship is explored pretty well in Guardians 2, and I think I've gone on record saying that I liked the Gamora/Nebula stuff in Guardians 2 more than I did Star-Lord/Ego. Ultimately the writing and character development for Gamora isn't perfect as she ends up, y'know, sacrificed for the plot to go on, but the movie did do wonders in making me like her a lot more than I did before.

Star-Lord is probably going to be known now and forevermore for his huge fuck-up in the climax of the movie, yeah? But it's really hard to blame him. Peter Quill has always been shown to be really emotional in his own movies, and while he did spend a good chunk of his first few appearances goofing around (his fun bit trying to imitate Thor's deep voice is hilarious!) Star-Lord also gets a bit of drama as Gamora makes him promise to kill her instead of letting her be captured by Thanos... something that comes to a reality on Knowhere. Thanos even cruelly waits to see what Star-Lord would do. With all his allies fallen and the woman he loves held by the Mad Titan, Star-Lord ends up resolving to shoot Gamora... only for that sacrifice to mean nothing as Thanos turns his gun into bubbles. Star-Lord ends up getting some more fun scenes as he interacts with Iron Man's group, but ends up going berserk in rage when he realizes that Gamora is dead. This leads him to going into a rage and striking Thanos when he is otherwise indisposed by the combined forces of the rest of the Avengers/Guardians team, causing Thanos to regain his sanity before the rest of his allies could get the Infinity Gauntlet off, and thus causing Thanos to regain the upper hand. It's both easy and hard to fault Star-Lord for his decisions -- as mentioned in this movie, Star-Lord might put up a facade of jokes around himself, but he has lost a lot in his life, and Gamora, his beloved girlfriend, is the final straw that broke his back. It's not logical, but love isn't. Star-Lord ends up being among the heroes that got erased as well, which I found to be interesting.

Drax the Destroyer doesn't actually do much in this movie, but damn if Batista isn't funny. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has embraced Drax as more of a comedic character, and this movie goes headlong with it. While I'm not quite a fan of his rather long 'I'm invisible' gag, Drax is a laugh-a-minute every time he's on screen. "WHY is Gamora?" "You are a dude. THIS IS A MAN!" "A mix between a pirate and an angel." "DIE, BLANKET OF DEATH!" He ultimately doesn't get to do much, though, mostly acting as another decently super-powered combatant against Thanos in the final battle in Titan. We did get a brief acknowledgement of his vengeance and anger towards Thanos for the slaughter of his planet, but that's mostly waved aside to make way for other characters' conflicts.

Likewise, Mantis doesn't really get to do that much, mostly just hanging alongside Drax as another one of Star-Lord's hanger-ons. Mantis is easily another one of the movie's funniest characters, though, between his happy jumping in the background while Iron Man, Star-Lord and Dr. Strange is discussing strategy, or her adorable 'mean face' when ordered to by Star-Lord. She ends up being kept out of the final battle on Titan, because she's the secret weapon that Dr. Strange drops upon Thanos's head to completely immobilize the Mad Titan with her sleep-inducing abilities. That's pretty cool. Both Mantis and Drax end up being among the Guardians wiped out by the finger-snap, seemingly to leave Rocket as the sole surviving Guardian? We'll see.

Nebula gets a fair bit more to do than her fellow Guardians. She has been captured by Thanos some time before this movie, and as mentioned before, the camera rotation as we see her levitating in a room, and then the revelation that she's actually had her robotic components disassembled.... that's pretty dark. She ends up being more of a plot device for Thanos to get Gamora to cooperate, but ends up escaping and informing Star-Lord's group of Thanos's location and eventually joins their fight in Titan. Nebula... doesn't actually do that much, which I thought was weird since the two Guardians movies really highlighted just how much Thanos's shitty upbringing and favouritism really fucked Nebula over in the head. I'm actually somewhat disappointed at the relatively minor role she plays, to be honest. Maybe she'll get more to do in the 2019 sequel?

The other two Guardians, Rocket Raccoon and Groot, end up going off with Thor to Nidavellir to help Thor build the weapon. Rocket is hilarious as usual, and gets a lot of fun scenes with both Thor and later on Bucky, but Rocket's best scene, I think, is a repeat of his scene with Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, when he attempts to play captain and talk to Thor, causing the mighty thunder god to quickly divulge just how desperate and broken he is. Rocket's a very interesting character due to him hiding his own considerable pain and insecurities under a facade of brusqueness, making him a very interesting foil for the likes of Thor, Star-Lord and Yondu. He even admits that he's got some people he can't afford to part with, and, ironically, he ends up being the sole surviving member of the Guardians of the Galaxy at the end of the movie. Rocket's mostly just around just to give Thor someone to interact with (and call "Rabbit"), but he's a very interesting foil for Thor, and that scene where they talk about their vulnerabilities is pretty well-scripted.

Groot is an angry teenager playing video games. He's... he's nowhere as likable as his calm-adult self or his adorable baby self, I'm sorry to say. He's not in this movie all that much, though, mostly just tagging along with Rocket and Thor, with his biggest contribution being chopping off his arm to form the handle for Thor's new weapon, the Stormbreaker. We did get to see him create giant root-waves in the Wakanda battle, but that's about it before he gets wiped out.

Thor Odinson is perhaps the most interesting of the characters here. Thor Ragnarok was a resounding success, despite its rather jarring tone for a Thor story, and I thought that this movie takes a pretty damn huge risk in suddenly reverting Thor's happy ending on his head. His small victory at rescuing the Asgardians from death ends up being annulled as Thanos kills half of the remaining Asgardians (the ship did blow up at the end, though...) in the cold open, with the on-screen deaths of his ally Heimdall, and his reformed brother Loki (more on Loki later) really hammering in how today is not Thor's day.

Thor ends up encountering the Guardians of the Galaxy and catching them up about just what Thanos has been doing, and we do get a pretty fun bit where Thor and Gamora bond over their fellow fucked-up families, and the brief moment of "my backstory is sadder and more tragic than yours!" competition with Star-Lord. It's later also noted in a conversation with Rocket that all Thor has right now is the fight and revenge for the Asgardians, because he quite literally has no one left other than his friends on Earth. It puts Thor's attempts at cracking jokes and bravado in a different light, as he's likely just doing so to try and distract himself from the fact that everything he's been fighting for has been destroyed.

His storyline is the one that's the most detached from the rest of the characters throughout Infinity War, with him travelling to Nidavellir to craft a brand-new axe to match Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet, the Stormbreaker. It's better than the silly nightmare pool from Age of Ultron, I suppose, but it's the one bit of clunky character distribution in this movie because it's obvious that they're just saving Thor for the epic comeback in the climax.

Although god damn that epic comeback as Thor descends upon Wakanda and absolutely lays waste upon the alien army with his lightning and thunder is amazingly shot. It's primal in a way that I don't think any of Thor's prior showcases has quite been. Maybe it's Chris Hemsworth's very dangerous-sounding delivery of "Bring me Thanos"? Thor's story is pretty well-delivered, and the way he's just a literal force of nature really hammers it home that he is the God of Thunder. And he actually comes the closest to ending Thanos, using the mighty Stormbreaker to cut through Thanos's knuckle rainbow beam and slamming it in his chest... yet it wasn't enough. It's an exploration of Thor as a pretty vengeful and angry, well, avenger, and I'm curious where he goes from here.

(The jury is still out on whether Valkyrie and Korg survived the attack -- they clearly aren't among the dead, and Thor explicitly said that Thanos only killed half of the crew)

Among the big Avenger names, I don't think anyone on Earth really end up getting that much development, though. Captain America, (or is it Nomad now?) his fancy new beard and his fancy new dual-arm Vibranium gauntlet-stabby-shield things look badass as all hell, and it was a triumphant moment when the Avengers theme swelled up and he arrived to beat back Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive. He is mostly static throughout this movie, taking up the 'stable good leader' role like a glove. He gathers the heroes on Earth, and organizes them getting to Wakanda, but other than his insistence that they cannot throw Vision under the bridge and sacrifice one life for another, I think that Steve is pretty under-used in this movie beyond being a goddamn badass superhero.

I mean, I'm not the biggest Captain America fan, but him holding Thanos's gauntlet in the climax of the movie? God damn yo.

It's pretty interesting, I think, that the Earth side of the story isn't actually about Captain America and his Avengers, but rather about protecting Vision from the armies of Thanos. Sure, Steve Rogers is the leader of the group, but he's also not the actual focus of the story. The Earth side of the movie feels more of a "assemble every hero for a final stand against Thanos's forces". And it's fine, I suppose -- it's a lot simpler than the more emotion-driven stories out there.


Likewise, none of Captain America's #TeamCap allies from Civil War really end up doing that much beyond being action heroes. Black Widow and Falcon essentially are what Drax and Mantis are to Star-Lord in this movie, except they get slightly more dialogue when interacting with other characters since, y'know, prior relationships. Black Widow and Hulk's weird romance angle from Age of Ultron is thankfully dropped with an awkward "um hi", which I thought is hilarious. Black Widow ends up getting a fair bit of action screentime, battling Proxima Midnight in the first act, and getting into a rematch in the climax, where she teams up with Okoye and Scarlet Witch for a girl-power team.

Falcon likewise doesn't do that much. He gets a bit of a fun action scene dropping bombs and blowing shit up in the Wakanda scene with War Machine, but ultimately he's just sort of...  there. Granted, Natasha and Sam has always been the more stable members of the Avengers, so it's to be expected, I guess? Falcon ends up being among the fallen, while Black Widow survives... it's a bit odd that all the original Avengers end up surviving, but eh.

War Machine, in a fancy new armour, gets a pretty badass scene when he confronts the government agents led by Ross. Noting that the Sokovia Accords are bullshit in that they force him to move against his fellow superheroes, and how they are being obstructive bureaucrats that want Captain America and company arrested even in the face of a universe-threatening crisis, we get a pretty badass moment as Rhodes just essentially tells them all to 'fuck off, let us superheroes handle this'. Rhodes also gets a fun bit as he trolls Bruce Banner to bow down before T'Challa, and we get a pretty damn awesome scene as War Machine really lets loose with a fuck-ton of explosions that will make Michael Bay proud. Like Falcon and Widow, War Machine doesn't get that much character-driven scenes, but he's got a bit more than those two. I also do like that he holds no grudges against Captain America, Falcon or Vision for his crippled state and still treats them as best buddies.

All of the Earth-bound Avengers not getting that much focus, of course, is because the focus is given to the pair of Scarlet Witch and Vision. We check in with the two of them living together in a random house somewhere, with Vision apparently having gotten some shape-shifting abilities that allows him to transform into a more human form and allowing Paul Bettany to finally appear in a Marvel movie in the flesh. However, being linked to the Mind Stone, Vision is acutely aware of the crisis going on with the rest of the Infinity Stones, while still wanting to enjoy the peaceful domestic life he has with Scarlet Witch.

Of course, this is all rent asunder as the pair of Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive arrive to assault the pair, with the pretty shocking revelation of their presence with a goddamn spear straight through Vision's chest which apparently disables a lot of his more powerful abilities. The fight between Vision and Glaive, and Wanda and Proxima, are pretty intense as I pegged for Vision to die quickly for Thanos to obtain the Mind Stone, but the arrival of Captain America and his crew, of course, stopped that. Vision ends up being established as somewhat of a plot device and a dude-in-distress, but at the same time I think this is the most character that Vision has ever gotten.

Initially, Vision insists that Wanda use her connection to the Mind Stone to shatter the stone and deny Thanos from getting his hands on it. Wanda, being, y'know, in love with Vision, refuses, and likewise, Steve and the rest of the Avengers refuse to sacrifice Vision, instead wanting another way -- with the help of Shuri, they decide to separate the Mind Stone from the rest of Vision. It's a pretty neat little plot point, and while Wakanda ends up being assaulted by Thanos's armies, the Avengers band together to protect Vision, and Vision himself even got to avenge himself by stabbing Corvus Glaive through the back, protecting Captain America from dying.

Likewise, Scarlet Witch's conflict is a significant part of this story. Wanda's powers, granted to her by the Mind Stone, is the only thing that is able to destroy Vision's Mind Stone, a cruel fact of life since she's the one who loves him the most. And Wanda's desperation in defending Vision from Thanos's heralds, and later on her amazing showcase of power (to quote Okoye, "why the hell was she up there all the time?") is pretty awesome to behold. Scarlet Witch and Vision end up being part the emotional climax of this movie, with Vision finally telling Wanda to do it -- to destroy his stone, lest Thanos destroys everything. And Wanda's conflicted cry and her eventually using her magics to shatter Vision's Mind Stone while every other Avenger and Guardian charge in to buy precious seconds as Thanos comes... it's pretty intense and heartbreaking, and it allows Elizabeth Olsen some chance to finally get the spotlight in a Marvel movie. And even more tragically... Thanos reverses Vision's death and kills him anyway by ripping out the Mind Stone.

Poor, poor Wanda is among those wiped out to dust, and it really is more of a mercy-killing at this point. The poor girl was forced to kill her beloved (Vision's last words had to be "I love you", too), to watch that sacrifice be annulled, and to lose her beloved all the same. I'm curious if this is just it for Vision -- I'm pretty sure everyone 'dusted' will return back to life in Avengers 2019, but Vision isn't dusted... and while Bruce and Shuri did imply that there's 'enough of Vision' without the Mind Stone... I'm curious how they'll handle this. Again, for a pair of characters that never really got much spotlight beyond being cool superheroes, I can't believe just how much I got invested in Vision and Wanda's story.

The king of Wakanda, Black Panther, doesn't really do that much. Wakanda is the place where the climax of Infinity War happens on Earth, and the armies of Wakanda join forces with the Avengers to fight against Thanos's heralds and their army of four-armed, eyeless Venom knockoffs, the Outriders, and Black Panther is, of course, the first into the fray. He mostly acts heroic, although it's always a treat to return back to Wakanda. I've never realized how much Black Panther left an impression on me until I audibly cheered when the African drums heralded the scene change to the kingdom of Wakanda. There's really not much to say about Black Panther -- he gets a fair amount of action scenes, and acts as the 'big good' that organizes Wakanda's shields and armies. Surprisingly, though, Black Panther is among those erased by Thanos's finger-snap. While obviously it's not a death that'll stick (Marvel would be crazy to kill off T'Challa) it's definitely a shocking death as the scene was framed to focus on Okoye, so her disappearing would make a bit more sense. Good fake-out there, Marvel.

A bunch of Black Panther's supporting cast also returns, chiefly Okoye, who gets a lot to do here! Serving as Black Panther's second-in-command, Okoye gets as much action scenes as Black Panther does, even joining Black Widow in taking on Proxima Midnight in a pretty badass sequence. Princess Shuri also returns, standing in as the resident technological expert while Tony Stark is in space, assisting Vision in attempting to extract the Mind Stone. She doesn't get to do as much as Okoye, although she did get to blast Corvus Glaive with her sonic-boom armoured gauntlets. Shuri ends up getting taken out of the movie after that small role, though. M'Baku of the Jabari tribe, my favourite minor character in all of MCU, also returns, whacking aliens with his badass stick and his Jabari chant. Not much to say there -- it's just really cool seeing all these characters again.


We also get the return of Bucky, who has now taken the name of "White Wolf" as opposed to the Winter Soldier. He's.. he's honestly just kind of there? After an epic recruitment scene by T'Challa where he's given a brand-new Vibranium arm, we get a reunion bro-hug between Bucky and Steve... and... and he's just kind of there. He helps the good guys shoot and fight the aliens, and doesn't really get to do that much beyond the fun little scene where he dual-wields a gun and Rocket-holding-a-gun. Bucky is the first character to get wiped out by the finger snap, which is a pretty goddamn shocking scene, too!

And that's honestly about it for the 'main' players. There are a bunch of other secondary characters I'm going to rapid-fire talk about, but first of it is definitely going to be Loki. Tom Hiddleston's Loki has been one of Marvel's most enduring and complex characters, I think, starting off as an egotistical prince who wants to usurp his more popular brother in Thor, eventually falling into a bad crowd and working as a minion of Thanos in Avengers, threatening to destroy the whole world, and later working alongside his brother in Thor: the Dark World but ultimately faking his death and betraying him at the end of the movie... but Thor: Ragnarok took a very interesting direction with Loki, with Thor noting that Loki has never grown beyond their petty rivalry and his chronic backstabbing obsession, forcing Loki to actually, y'know, change and grow, and eventually pick a side -- the side of Asgard.


And thusly, while he initially seems to be ready to swap sides back to Thanos at the beginning of this movie, it would betray all the character growth he's had in Ragnarok, and also from a more practical standpoint a distraction since, y'know, Tom Hiddleston is a very charismatic and magnetic actor and that'd split up attention between him and Thanos. But that final death scene, as Loki tries his best to silver-tongue his way out while preparing a dagger, and identifying himself as "Odinson"... that single word, acknowledging his adoptive father after multiple movies of hatred and strife between him and his family... that was extremely touching.

And poor, poor Loki is rewarded by a slow, throttling death that went for a surprisingly long time with pretty graphic practical effects showing how the air gets cut out of his face as he dies. It's pretty tragic, and honestly? The fact that this death takes place in the first five or ten minutes of the movie really sets up the sudden threat of the movie -- if a long-running character like Loki can be killed by Thanos, how safe is everyone else? And besides, it's a pretty damn awesome exit for Loki, dying as a last stand and accepting his heritage.

Wong gets a poster, but he actually isn't in the movie that much. He hangs out with Dr. Strange in the Sanctum while talking to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, and is the source of some really fun hijinks, and he gets to participate in the fight against Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian -- even throwing the latter into the Arctic and slicing off his arm -- but after that opening salvo, Wong ends up retreating to the Sanctum to protect it. I suppose it's logical, but I also sort of want Wong to hang out a bit more. I like Wong. He's fun.

The only new character that's not one of Thanos's minions is Eitri the dwarf, played by Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame. Ironically, while Eitri is called a dwarf, he towers over everyone present, which I thought was a neat subversion of getting Peter Dinklage to play a dwarf character. Eitri ends up being more of an introdump machine, explaining where Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet came from, and as another victim of Thanos's rampage across the cosmos (why did Thanos kill all but one of the dwarves when he kills half of everything else?), as well as an excuse to get Thor a brand-new fancy badass axe, the Thanos-killing Stormbreaker. Plus, all the visuals in Nidavellir is really damn pretty.


The Collector, not been seen since Guardians of the Galaxy, appears briefly in Knowhere, with Thanos batting him around in his search for the Reality Stone... and that's a pretty badass scene, too, where the Collector is revealed to be nothing but an illusion Thanos creates, and Knowhere has actually already been razed by Thanos. Collector's entertaining in the brief scene he shows up in, although the jury's out on whether he's dead.

The biggest surprise to anyone is the mysterious wraith-like guardian of the Soul Stone on the stunning planet of Vormir, where the Stonekeeper reveals himself to be none other than Red Skull. Red Skull had died at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger when the Tesseract beamed him up to space. While seemingly dead, the manner of his death was open enough that a return is possible, although Hugo Weaving's disinterest dispelled any real chance of Red Skull returning. (Walking Dead's Ross Marquand replaces Weaving, although I didn't even realize it's a different actor) So it's definitely an unexpected surprise for the former leader of Hydra to pop up, apparently cursed to become the warden of the Soul Stone. It's perhaps a bit of an unnecessary cameo, but Thanos did need someone to tell him about the whole sacrifice thing, and I guess why not use someone already tied to the mythology of the Infinity Stones? It's neat.

In the post-credits scene, we briefly see Nick Fury and Maria Hill witnessing the effects of Thanos's finger-snap. It appears that when you remove half of the world's population... it causes a fair bit more deaths because driverless cars crash and pilotless helicopters blow up. Maria Hill and Nick Fury are wiped out in quick succession, although not before Nick Fury finally lets out a trademark Samuel L. Jackson "motherfucker" and presses a pager that appears to summon Captain Marvel... whose movie is one of the two Marvel movies between Infinity War and its sequel.

We also get mentions that Ant-Man and Hawkeye are absent because they are on house arrest after the events of Civil War, since they've got their families to think about. Poor Hawkeye! Ant-Man's going to have a movie later this year, which apparently chronologically takes place before Infinity War, so neither Ant-Man and the Wasp and the set-in-the-past Captain Marvel will spoil anything about the events between the two Infinity War movies.

What else? Pepper Potts appears briefly in the beginning, talking about a wedding and imploring Tony to not go and risk his life. Peter's buddy Ned also appears briefly for a fun scene distracting everyone. Thaddeus Ross also appears as the asshole military dude that War Machine tells to eff off. They don't really end up figuring into the plot that much.

I suppose I'll talk a bit about the Black Order, or the Children of Thanos. They were okay, I suppose, but they are clearly just meant to be just lieutenants to antagonize the heroes before Thanos himself arrives. Ebony Maw (a.k.a. "Squidward") is the one with the most dialogue, I feel, being the one that seems to be the leader of the four Children of Thanos. He's also the first to arrive on earth with the giant brute Cull Obsidian, using his telekinetic powers to engage Dr. Strange in some cool telekinetic battles, and later tortures Dr. Strange with microsurgery needles before being, rather unexpectedly, the first one to be killed and jettisoned into space by Spider-Man and Iron Man.

Cull Obsidian is everything Ebony Maw is not. He's big, he's brutish, and he's got a cool-looking scythe. He's just a big heavy threat for the heroes to fight, and he lasts for quite some time, even participating in the final battle in Wakanda until Bruce Banner shot him into the Wakandan forcefield and blew him up.

Corvus Glaive, the white goblin-looking dude, is perhaps the coolest looking of the four, just looking so sinister and evil, and he's constantly shown to fight Vision... and he ends up getting seemingly mortally wounded by Captain America's group, and actually presumed to have died off-screen... only for him to sneak around everyone to attack Vision during the attack in Wakanda. He's cool and sinister, and gets killed through a karmic death. Glaive's partner Proxima Midnight ends up being the leader whenever Ebony Maw is not around, commanding the more brutish Cull Obsidian and Corvus Glaive in the final battle in Wakanda. She's pretty cool -- she's got a cool design, but ends up getting killed by Black Widow, Okoye and Scarlet Witch. Again, these dudes are all just goons that are powerful enough to serve as threats.

Overall, that's my views on all the characters and how they were utilized in the movie. Pacing-wise, I thought the movie had a pretty neat balance between jumping from one superhero group to the next. While Thor's little side-quest to create the Stormbreaker really did take up way too much time, it did end up paying off in a pretty damn epic way. Again, a good chunk of the story is spent oN Thanos's own quest, leading to the two big climactic fights -- Thanos versus Team Tony in Titan, and later Thanos versus everyone else in Wakanda. The usage of the Black Order/Children of Thanos as secondary antagonists to pin down the heroes on Earth is pretty ingenious, I think, allowing for a heightened sense of threat even without Thanos's presence. Again, I don't really have that many complaints about the pacing or storytelling.

And overall? It's pretty damn good. As a sequel and as a culmination of multiple stand-alone stories taking place in the same universe, Infinity War succeeds on all fronts. But what really impressed me is that it's not just a story of "let's gather all our heroes and have them fight a big threat" the way Avengers or Justice League were. Instead, they actually gave each character a chance to shine, they gave a significant amount of the characters their own personal story arcs, and Thanos in particular is definitely an interesting antagonist to focus on. While the more standalone Marvel movies tended to tell the stronger stories, I think Infinity War is a movie and a story that manages to fire on all cylinders as far as epicness and a character-driven narrative goes. I could nitpick and find fault about this movie... but I'm not going to. This is an amazing phenomenon for comic-book based stories, a cosmic-scale storyline that still has a focus in characterization. It's genuinely something that I never would've thought possible in live action format a decade ago, and by god it's epic. If it were just a simple superhero-smashy-smash movie it'd already be entertaining and fun. The fact that it actually develops its characters, has a very strong villain in Thanos and still manages to subvert expectations while still being a good movie? Yeah. Good show, Marvel. Good show.
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Marvel Cinematic Universe Continuity Checklist:

I'm not as well-versed in the Marvel comics as I am with DC, so I can't make as detailed an analysis on which the comic-book origins of the characters, so instead I'm just going to talk a bit about the bit of the continuity tie-in with the past 18+ movies. So let's do a bit of a continuity thread, yeah? 

• Stan Lee's requisite cameo, this time around, is as the bus driver for Peter Parker's class.
• Thanos himself made his first appearance in the post-credits scene of The Avengers, revealed to be the sponsor behind Loki's Chitauri army (played by Damion Poitier before Josh Brolin was cast in all subsequent appearances). He has since made a short role in Guardians of the Galaxy as Ronan's master, as well ass being intrinsically tied to the backstories of Gamora and Nebula. Thanos then had a brief appearance in the post-credits of Avengers: Age of Ultron, grabbing the Infinity Gauntlet, and last appeared (well, his ship, anyway) at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. The cold open of this movie takes place immediately after the confrontation between Thanos and the Asgardians in Thor: Ragnarok.
• Infinity Stones: The backstory of the Infinity Stones was largely given to us by the Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy, but it's also been hinted in multiple other movies (Captain America: The First Avenger; Thor: The Dark World; Avengers: Age of Ultron) and recapped by Dr. Strange here. Here's a recap of all six stones and how they were relevant in previous movies.
• Power Stone: The purple one. It's the main plot device in Guardians of the Galaxy, where the newly-formed Guardians had to keep it out of agents working for Thanos, namely Ronan, Gamora and Nebula. Ronan would wield the Power Stone to assault the planet Xandar, until he was stopped by the Guardians. The Power Stone had been kept by Nova Prime of Xandar since that movie. As mentioned by Thanos, shortly before the events of this movie, he obtained the Power Stone and killed half of Xandar's population.
• Space Stone: The blue one, a.k.a. the Tesseract. Perhaps the most prolific stone in all of Marvel, it was first seen during WWII in Captain America: The First Avenger, recovered from what appeared to be a tomb with Asgardian markings, and was the plot device that Red Skull and Captain America fought over. It was lost at sea until Captain America and the Tesseract was recovered, and ended up being the main goal of Loki's conquest in The Avengers, where Loki used it to bring forth the Chitauri army. It was taken by Thor back to Asgard at the end of Avengers, and remained in their care until Thor: Ragnarok, where, prior to Asgard's destruction, the cube was spirited away by Loki.
• Reality Stone: The red one, a.k.a. the Aether. The plot device of Thor: The Dark World, the Aether was used by the Dark Elves led by Malekith in aeons past in battle against Asgard, before it was sealed away by Bor, father of Odin. The Aether was released and found a host in Jane Foster and later Malekith, and after Malekith's defeat, the Aether was secured by the Asgardians. Thor's allies would give the Aether to the Collector, noting that it was folly to keep two Infinity Stones close to each other, unaware of the evil designs the Collector has, and the stone remained there until the events of this movie.
• Time Stone: The green one, a.k.a. the Eye of Agamotto, is the plot device in Doctor Strange, where it was the most powerful of the artifacts in Kamar-Taj, with the wizards there being charged to keep it safe. Dr. Strange would use the Eye of Agamotto in his encounter against Dormammu, but afterwards resolved to not abuse the power of the Time Stone too much. 
• Mind Stone: The yellow one. The Mind Stone was apparently within Loki's mysterious scepter which he used to mind-control people in The Avengers, which he got... from... Thanos? After Loki's defeat, the scepter was kept under SHIELD lockdown, and during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it's revealed that the Hydra-infiltrated part of SHIELD, led by Baron Strucker, has used the scepter's powers to create the powerful mutants metahumans Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. It then featured greatly in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the Avengers defeated Strucker's forces and Tony Stark obtained the scepter. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner used the scepter to create the highly-advanced AI Ultron, who then proceeded to acquire the scepter, destroy it and use the Mind Stone within to empower his 'perfect body'. However, the Avengers would capture this perfect body, and the Mind Stone would fuse into it, forming the entity known as Vision. 
• Soul Stone: The orange one, the Soul Stone was mentioned before, but only first seen in this movie. 
• Secondary characters: We've seen the main heroes last in their respective individual movies, but let's keep track of where we last saw some of the secondary characters, yeah?
• Nick Fury & Maria Hill: Nick Fury and Maria Hill were last seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where, after retiring at the end of Winter Soldier, Maria showed up at Tony Stark's party, while Nick Fury showed up at Hawkeye's farm to advise the Avengers. The two would also arrive with the Helicarrier to aid in the evacuation of the Sokovians. Neither character have been seen since until now. 
• Red Skull was last seen all the way back in Captain America: The First Avenger, where he was apparently killed and disassembled by the Tesseract, who sent him shooting up into space. Apparently he survived, and according to this movie, he has been given the knowledge of how the Soul Stone worked, and cursed to remain as some sort of prophet. 
• Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, first seen as an antagonist in The Incredible Hulk, was last seen in Captain America: Civil War, as the government figure pressuring Tony Stark and the rest of the pro-accords Avengers to arrest their counterparts. 
• The Collector, a.k.a. Tanaleer Tivan, was first seen in the post-credits scene of Thor: The Dark World, and later had a minor role in Guardians of the Galaxy where he gave some exposition about the Infinity Stones to the Guardians, who then decided to not give the powerful plot device to the madman. His fate in this movie is unknown. 
• Ant-Man & Hawkeye were both last seen at the end of Captain America: Civil War, and dialogue mentions that they have both taken a government deal to be placed under house arrest, due to both of them having families. The upcoming movie Ant-Man and the Wasp is going to reportedly take place before Infinity War, which might explain what Scott's been doing. 
• Nidavellir is one of the Nine Realms in Nordic mythology, the home of the dwarves. Apparently, in the Marvel Universe, it's a planet with metallic rings. 
• Loki's line, "We have a Hulk", of course, is a call-back to the iconic line Tony Stark says in response to Loki's boasts about having an army. 
• In Gamora's flashback, the giant, eel-like Chitauri leviathans (as well as Chitauri soldiers themselves) prominently featured in 2012's The Avengers were seen as part of Thanos's army. The remnants of the Chitauri Leviathans would also be seen in Age of Ultron and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• Rocket's line about wanting to get Bucky's arm, as well as his possession of a spare eyeball, is a reference to how throughout the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies Rocket has a weird obsession with obtaining prosthetic body parts.
• The Hulkbuster makes a return after being mangled in Avengers: Age of Ultron. 
• Dr. Strange asking Tony Stark if Peter is his 'ward' is likely a sly nod to how so many child sidekicks in superhero material (most iconically Batman and Robin) are often adopted into the wards of the older superhero's alter-ego. 
• Both Thor and Thanos note how Loki has faked his death before, which took place at the end of Thor and around halfway through Thor: The Dark World.
• We've got multiple mentions of the plot points of movies! In quick succession, and excluding Infinity Stone related plotlines:
• The actual state of Thor, Hulk and the Asgardians is straight off the heels of Thor: Ragnarok. Thor also mentions Asgard's destruction, the death of Odin as well as his psychotic sister Hela while talking to the Guardians, as well as the fact that his mother was killed by a dark elf, which happened in Thor: The Dark World. 
• Gamora and Nebula's backstory was given in Guardians of the Galaxy. Star-Lord mentions his biological father killing his mother in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as well as having to kill Ego himself. Drax's family was mentioned to be killed by Thanos's agent Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy, explaining his vengeful streak here. Drax and Mantis also bring up Star-Lord saving the universe with a dance-off. 
• Spider-Man's Iron Spider suit was briefly seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming, where Peter refused the suit at the end. Tony and Pepper's proposal is also implied to have happened there. 
• Bruce is caught up to the events of the Avengers splintering in Captain America: Civil War. War Machine has been able to properly walk since then, and several extra fall-out from that movie (Scott and Clint being placed under house arrest; Vision absconding to go live with Wanda; Steve, Natasha and Sam being fugitives) are mentioned.
• Wakanda opened itself up to the real world in Black Panther, and Bucky, with the brand-new moniker White Wolf, was confirmed to be up and about in the post-credit scene of that movie. Additionally, an extra detail noted that not many of the Border Tribe is left, considering they joined in with Killmonger during the events of that movie. 
• Tony Stark references his recurring nightmares about a far bigger fleet than the Chitauri arriving and attacking Earth, which was the plot point of much of his motivations in Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron.