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'Avengers: Infinity War': A Crowded, Epic Blur

Marvel Studios

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that the 19th installment in the Marvel universe is on screens around the world. Avengers: Infinity War recently became the fastest movie to earn one billion dollars.

It is jampacked with everyone’s favorite superheroes -  Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther...  But do those epic proportions work to the advantage or the detriment of the story at the heart of the film? 

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"I found the movie to be a bit crowded, overly long, and not enough character development for lack of a better term," says film contributor and arts and entertainment editor of the Shepherd Express newspaper, Dave Luhrssen.

"There are ideas floating around in here, but they tend to get lost or overlooked amidst this conglomeration and blur of hurling people across entire planets and smashing up entire worlds," he adds.

Not that audiences expected anything less, says Luhrssen, as with all Marvel movies lately, "more leads to more."

No specific spoilers, but if you haven't gathered already, there are a lot of character deaths. However, since Infinity War is the first part of two films depicting the story, Luhrssen notes that the events that unfolded may not have as big of an impact on audiences.

"I don't believe it when somebody tells me a popular character is dead and gone. Because even if the author really wants to kill the character and move on to other things, popular demand will insist that this character come back again," he says.

Luhrssen notes that there are many things he enjoyed in the film. The story's villain Thanos, portrayed by Josh Brolin, is a more sophisticated character that adds greater depth than your typical "destroy the Earth" storyline, he says.

"I guess you could say (the movie) does point out that good doesn't always win," says Luhrssen. "The only useful thing a critic can do is to sort through the movie, unpack it a little bit and try to determine what the movie is telling us about our world, about our society, about the mood of today. And I guess maybe one thing is the mood of today is kind of dark."

Audrey is a WUWM host and producer for Lake Effect.
David Luhrssen is arts and entertainment editor of the Shepherd Express, co-founder of the Milwaukee International Film Festival and co-author of A Time of Paradox: America Since 1890. He is the winner of the Pace Setter Award for contributions to Milwaukee's film community from the Milwaukee Independent Film Society. David Luhrssen has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and Milwaukee Area Technical College.