Ten years ago there was an idea: an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people and see if they could become something more.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was created in 2008 with the release of “Iron Man”, and now 10 years later and 18 movies after the beginning of it all, “Avengers: Infinity War” is the culmination of this universe.

“Infinity War” begins with Thanos in control of two of the Infinity Stones: the Power Stone and the Space Stone. The Avengers are still separated from the events of “Captain America: Civil War” and now with the looming threat of Thanos, all the heroes of the MCU must band together to fight a war on multiple fronts.

In space, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Thor and the Guardians of The Galaxy fight to protect the Time Stone (Strange’s Eye of Agamotto) as well as finding the Soul Stone while the team in Wakanda fights to protect Vision and the Mind Stone.

“Infinity War” is one of the most engaging and action-packed MCU films that has been released over the ten years.

The cast of this film is astronomical and features some of the best performances that the MCU has ever seen.

Every actor has a chance to shine from larger roles, such as Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, to minor roles including Peter Dinklage as Eitri and Ross Marquand as a mysterious character who holds the Soul Stone.
The film is able to balance the serious scenes and performances with lighter, more funny roles such as the difference between the Guardians at the beginning and the scenes involving Cap’s team in Wakanda.

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo understand and emphasize the actors strengths,such as the witty banter between Robert Downey Jr. and his comedic foils Chris Pratt and Benedict Cumberbatch to the more serious scenes involving Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Brolin shines as the best MCU villain out of any we have by giving us a more nuanced performance than maniacal villains who are commonplace in superhero films.

Like Erik Killmonger, Thanos may be evil, but Marvel allows viewers to see the sympathetic side that is connected with his adopted daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana). One of the best scenes in the film is a very emotional and heart wrenching moment between the Mad Titan and the most dangerous woman in the universe, where we see that Thanos always loved Gamora even when she thought he was only cruel.

The ability to make audiences feel for the villain helps Thanos live up to the expectation that had been building towards him and exceed it to become the best villain in the entire MCU.

The fight choreography in the film is superb and Marvel delivers many diverse situations in all sorts of areas and landscapes. The locations include a fight in Scotland to a brawl on Titan and the film masterfully uses these scenes to ramp up the action and keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

“Avengers: Infinity War” has been built up for over ten years, and now it has become the best movie that Marvel has delivered audiences for the lifetime of the MCU. Great action, engaging and emotional performances and the culmination of the entire MCU allows this film to stand apart from the rest of the lineup that Marvel has given us. The film accomplishes the idea of creating a connected cinematic universe and bringing every character in that universe together in a masterful way.

I give “Avengers: Infinity War” 5 stars out of 5.