Cast your minds back to April 2012. The Avengers was right around the corner and we were nervously waiting to see if Marvel Studios could pull off the near-impossible task of making a coherent movie about a cast composed of giant green monsters, Norse Gods, World War II heroes, robot dudes and someone who was just really good with a bow and arrow.
As we all know, they knocked it out of the park, delivering everything comic book fans had been craving and more. Six years later we’re in pretty much the exact same position with Avengers: Infinity War, wondering whether Marvel Studios can really contain their sprawling cast of superheroes to a single movie.
Well, one person who seems pretty confident is Captain America himself, Chris Evans, who spoke to Screen Rant during their Infinity War set visit and said the following:
“I think just the nexus of all these different films. It was fun with Avengers, bringing all these characters to life, but they weren’t all separate threads of characters that’ve had their own separate adventures. I don’t think this has ever been done before, where you have so many different franchises coming together to kind of really try to make one stew. Like I said, Avengers was pretty ambitious, but this really blows that one out of the water.”
Despite this, I can’t help but be a tiny bit skeptical about Avengers: Infinity War. After all, with over 20 characters on the poster, can the script really do justice to all of them? Is there really enough room in the film for all of the Guardians of the Galaxy to get time to breathe alongside the likes of Black Panther and Doctor Strange?
At roughly 2.5 hours, it certainly has enough time, but it also has to tell a coherent story and the big names like Evans, Hemsworth and Downey Jr. are sure to eat up a decent chunk of that screen time. Maybe they should have dug up Robert Altman and put him to work on the project.
I want to get over this skepticism. Trust me, I do. After all, Marvel Studios have demonstrated time and time again that they know what the hell they’re doing. Still, I suspect it’ll only be when I’m burrowed into that multiplex seat, popcorn in hand and watching the credits roll (eagerly waiting for whatever the after-credits scene is) that I’ll be able to exhale.
Can Infinity War really blow The Avengers out of the water? We’ll find out on April 27th.