It's the movie that was ten years in the making, packed with literally too many stars and heroes to count. But does it live up to all that hype?

Overall, the reviews are -- in one word -- breathless. In two words: breathless and/or exhausted. Clearly, Marvel brought all its game to this epic final battle. Some were more wary than others (I guess 19 movies will do that to any franchise, even Marvel). But while everyone had their own individual critiques and flaws to point out, the general agreement is that you will not be disappointed.

SEE ALSO:Thanos isn't as lame as the MCU has made him seem

Mashable's own Angie Han deemed it an aggressively fine ride in the grand scheme of things:

Infinity War's very structure makes it feel like the less than the sum of its parts. It's full of stuff– there are something like two dozen major characters here, hopping back and forth across half a dozen worlds. But it's tough to tell, at this point in time, what any of it amounts to, or how satisfying any of this will end up being.

Avengers: Infinity Warwill clearly be the talk of the town for quite some time. So here's what we're gathering from other critics:

He's the biggest bad of all

Angie Han, Mashable

In those moments, Thanos makes for a pretty good excuse to bring together the Avengers (and the Guardians, and other assorted do-gooders), or split them up again. As an actual character, though, Thanos leaves something to be desired. Infinity Warhints at surprising depths for its biggest of big bads, but never quite gets around to completing the full picture. At least not in this movie. 

Kaila Hail-Stern, The Mary Sue

I don’t know about Thanos being the best villain in the MCU’s history, as the Russos kept insisting. I think Killmonger and Loki still get to share that crown. Thanos is certainly more nuanced than many of Marvel’s villains, although he seems to flash back and forth from “sad dad” to “genocidal maniac” enough that you get whiplash. Josh Brolin does what he can, but it’s a damned shame about his CGI chin. Still, they’ve certainly made for a memorable character.

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

Thanos has thoroughly thought through his ambition, as well as the moral and emotional toll it will take to achieve it. He's utterly ruthless, but well aware of the price he must pay, which makes him much more than a thick stick figure of a super-villain. The character looks as though he's been carved out of a massive tree trunk, but Brolin's calm, considered reading of the character bestows this conquering beast with an unexpectedly resonant emotional dimension.

Epic is the only word for it

Kaila Hail-Stern, The Mary Sue

Mashable Top StoriesStay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news.Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletterBy signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Thanks for signing up!

Infinity Warcould be subtitled I Was Never Bored. The film moves at a fast clip, and two and a half hours vanish before you know it. It darts between a daunting number of locations, from New York and Edinburgh and Wakanda to many, many locales in space. Title cards remind us where we are, because it can be difficult to keep track. This is a Marvel movie on an epic scale, and the Russo brothers don’t want you to forget that; they are also making homages to many other movies.

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

The scale of that action is astonishing. Some of it is set in space or in different realms on assorted planets, while other scenes take place in New York and elsewhere. When the intergalactic conflict winds up in Wakanda, Black Panther's African homeland, it provides a bit of a start: Wait, we were just there a few months ago, and here we are again already for another giant battle?

The feels are real

Angie Han, Mashable

It delivers plenty of those moments, including a few that literally made this reviewer applaud. There are lots of laughs (practically everyone in the MCU is good for some one-liners) and even a few bittersweet moments. 

Kaila Hail-Stern, The Mary Sue

I’ve been writing about Infinity Warfor the better part of a year, but I was not prepared for what it had in store. I stared at it slack-jawed for the last ten minutes, astonished at the places where Marvel took this film.

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

Without giving anything away, the climax is startling in its gravity and no Marvel fan will leave before the long final credits scroll gives way to the traditional kicker tease at the very end, which amplifies the ending by serving up even more questions, not answers. T

Hey, it's everyone all together!

Angie Han, Mashable

Given the sheer amount of elements in play here, it's probably no shock that Infinity War feels, at times, more like a logistical puzzle than an organic narrative. You can occasionally feel the filmmakers straining for reasons to send this character to that planet, where they'll meet up with that other character to hatch a plan to solve a problem currently unfolding on some other distant location with some other characters.

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

This grand, bursting-at-the-seams wrap-up to one crowded realm of the Marvel superhero universe starts out as three parts jokes, two parts dramatic juggling act and one part deterministic action, an equation that's been completely reversed by the time of the film's startling climax.

Kaila Hail-Stern, The Mary Sue

For those of us who are fans of the MCU, Infinity Waris a sprawling culmination of 10 years of build-up. All the characters that we know and love are there, and many of them get to interact for the first time. That’s worth the price of a ticket alone.

Is anyone else really tired?

Angie Han, Mashable

It underlines just how apocalyptically massive the stakes are here – how grave the danger is, and how great the cost of fighting it off to live another day. 

It's also a lie.

Kaila Hail-Stern, The Mary Sue

If you don’t know these movies or characters, you are going to be extremelyconfused. No one really gets any kind of introduction or explanation of their powers. Unlike, say, Black Panther, which was very much its own world apart from the MCU, Infinity Warrelies on you knowing everything about everyone going in. If you’re bringing a non-MCU friend with you, prepare for a lot of “Huh?” questions.

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

Marvel could arguably make that boast today, and it's crammed almost all of them into this one densely packed superhero orgy, the first half of which is basically dedicated to finding a semi-coherent way of shuffling them into the same dramatic deck.

---

Featured Video For You

---

---

TopicsMarvel