All I can say about “Avengers: Infinity War” is that it more than lived up to the hype. I am still reeling from the onslaught on my senses. I certainly plan to see it again, and as quickly as possible.
I have seen some reviews that complained about “too many characters, etc., etc.,” but those reviewers seem to have missed the point that that is what comic book readers expect: multitudes of heroes fighting multitudes of villains. All of Marvel’s films (except the “Deadpool” atrocities) have been leading to the confrontation with Thanos. It helps if you have seen “Captain America: Civil War,” “Thor: Ragnorak,” and “Black Panther” since the story begins where those left off.
In Jim Starlin’s original stories, Thanos was based on Saturn’s moon, Titan, and courted a skeletal figure named Death. Death does make a brief appearance in the film, and Thanos wants to kill half the population of the universe. To do so, he needs all of the infinity stones which have permeated most of the Marvel films. He views the slaughter as an act of mercy that will improve the life of the survivors. Every cheap genocidist in history has tried to justify his or her atrocities with similar pleas.
Of course, from the earliest scenes on, there are casualties, but the recent articles which speculated about who would live and who would die have, with one exception, been dead wrong. The ending is abrupt, and we will have to wait another year to see the second half of the story. That means 2019 will give us the conclusion to the “Avengers” trilogy as well as the current “Star Wars” trilogy. Life is good.