Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

This is the film that the MCU has been building up to since at least the original Thor movie in 2011, which means 15+ movies feed directly into its story line. The cast of the film is massive, which makes it even more impressive that no one (with the possible exception of Black Widow) feels like they were short changed in their amount of screen time. The disparate threads of the sprawling Marvelverse come together quite nicely in this, and the film further reinforces my assertion that you could pair any character with Rocket Raccoon and it would be entertaining. The degree of audience manipulation that the movie engages in will largely be determined by what happens in the yet to be titled sequel coming out next year, and I have little doubt that there will be some pretty major stakes muddying. Yet I forgive Infinity War because it was still pretty awesome, and I especially liked Thanos. Now I better unpack that, I am opposed to mass genocide, but what I liked about the character is that he wasn't just a power mad megalomaniac, villains in these movies have tended to be not that memorable. Thanos had a very specific mission that he set out to accomplish, and he did so because he genuinely believed it was for the greater good, and was willing to sacrifice his own interests to achieve that, however misguided the result. So with a few misgivings towards the end Infinity War was probably as good as it could have been. ***1/2