Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds into Infinity War, and I knew that this Avengers movie was not playing by any rules. They weren’t pulling punches and they certainly weren’t sparing us the heartache of war. This continued to compound for the next two and a half hours, leaving me with no doubt that this will be the most divisive Marvel film yet.

Let’s be real. Anything I say will spoil some part of this for you. If I tried to be 100% spoiler free, all I could say is Tony Stark is arrogant; Dr. Strange is haughty; and Peter Parker, well, he’s just freewheeling his way through a complete cluster… You get the idea. It’s nothing you don’t know.

I will say that this film has massively improved its villain. We’ve been waiting for Thanos for ages, but the trouble with Marvel flicks is that aside from Loki, nobody has had any staying power. The closest has been Ultron in terms of intrigue, but his overall arch was underplayed. What’s funny is Thanos’ motivation for destroying half the galaxy is not that far off Ultron’s. I look at it like this:  If Ultron is the green college freshman with wild conspiracy theories and a pocket full of protest energy, then Thanos is the seasoned senior whose battle jaded. I have this great image in my mind of Thanos and Ultron chilling at a college bar. Thanos’s just trying to drown his crappy week and Ultron’s at his elbow pestering him with ideas for the revolution.

“But…but why aren’t you smiting the human scourge!! Come on!! Make with the smiting. I’ll help.”

“Yeah, I saw your robot science project. Thanks, but I got this. Don’t you have a mid-term to study for? An internet connection to slow down, perhaps?”

For the number of people in this movie, it should be a bloody mess, but the Marvel crew has managed to eek out a balance that seems to work all the way through. You don’t see everyone. I’m hoping some of them are simply being saved for part two, but there is no guarantee of that either. The problem with reviewing this, besides not giving away spoilers, is that it also hampers what I can say about future movies in the franchise, because this movie leaves a lot up in there air, and at the same time, it doesn’t. Sound vague? That’s fair because it’s almost impossible to not give something away.

If you watched Thor Ragnorak and thought, “Hooray, Thor saved the day!” Oh honey,  are you in for a terrible opening sequence. Infinity War starts the carnage early and doesn’t break the pace. The thing that worked the best in the first Avenger’s film was that they rallied, and they had time to regroup. There is no regrouping, no saving grace. Every battle is fought out of a brawling necessity. Tony Stark, Dr. Strange and Spiderman for example are within proximity of each other in an early battle, and there is no time to call for backup or form a plan. It’s this no holds barred approach that makes Avengers Infinity War easily the most intense emotional rollercoaster ride of the MCU. One minute you’re dialed into the planning, and the next, it all gets ripped away. Then, you’re in recovery and expecting a regroup, but nope, more carnage. Then nothing, then jokes, then oh whatever the heck they decide to throw in, because they know we’re emotionally invested monkeys who they can play like a cheap accordion. “They” being the filmmakers, that is.

Someone asked me the most basic movie review question:  “Did you like it?” No lie, I didn’t know how to answer. Yes. No. Mostly. Damn spoilers! Let me put it like this. It is a bold, terrible, nail biting ride for anyone whose invested in the MCU, which will leave you desperate for the next installment and dreading it in equal measure, because by God they better not… again spoilers. Just go see it. Much like our heroes, we’ve come too far to turn back now.