Earth’s mightiest heroes team with the Guardians of the Galaxy to take on Thanos, a mad titan intent on collecting six infinity stones, so he can kill half the people in the universe…

Infinity War is a self-assured, brilliant culmination of 10 years of Marvel films, and takes significant risks. The more films in the Marvel universe you’ve seen, the more it rewards you (eg if you never caught Guardians you’ll miss a chunk of the references and emotional motivation).

Directors the Russo brothers demonstrated in Civil War that they have a mastery of big cast plotting, keeping the character’s individual voices, while balancing them out perfectly. The scripting is impeccable, often laugh out loud funny, and densely packed with inventive action, and it never drags over 2 hour 30 minutes. Thanos himself is given plenty of screen time. He’s something of a Christian fundamentalist (wanting half the people in the universe removed in a Godly act) mixed with a Jerry Springer daddy (sporting the ‘children’ of Thanos, and his adopted daughters). Brolin owns the role, and the cgi is spot on. His motivation has enough depth to elicit sympathy at points, while his henchmen are wonderfully assholey, with the wizard a particular prick (it’s nice to really hate a villain on screen sometimes).

Infinity War stands in stark contrast to Age of Ultron, a movie where I couldn’t have cared less what was happening in the final act. Instead this is top to bottom the most frightening and tense film Marvel have made, primarily because we all know major characters are going to die (contracts are up and the cast is bloated) but also because the threat from Thanos feels utterly overwhelming. This death-risk is made clear early on, and from there anyone is up for the chop regardless of popularity (something not felt since the Transformers animated movie). Indeed I’ve never seen a film get this sort of audience reaction at the end, the emotion was raw and the tears were flowing. I won’t say why, but watch Infinity War with a crowd as it’s not something you’ll experience again.

Infinity War ranks as the best Marvel film, for now. That’s likely to change with time, as looking back on the first Avengers it already feels awkwardly dated. But this will always remain an unforgettable experience by virtue of its emotional punch.

Grade: A