Way, way back when I was a little kid in the midst of Europe, I didn’t grew up with superhero comics. My heroes were “normal heroes” with inseparable partners: Astérix and Obélix, Tintin and Haddock, Don Rosa’s Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories, Vicky the Viking and the crew of his dad, or Alfred J. Kwak and his friends.

This all somewhat changed, when Spiderman by Sam Raimi hit the theatres, I must have been around 11 years old. I was just so fun! Spiderman 2 cemented that wonderful feeling, I went to see them with my childhood friend several times in the cinema.

The Spiderman 2 Gamecube game thus also holds a special place in my heart, not only for being a splendid game with a fantastic open world, but also for my childhood friend and me beating the final boss together. We both held the controller together, one pushing the button to dodge, the other with the punch button to wait for an opening to finally take down that villainous Doctor Octopus. What a wonderful time that was, to see the joined effort come together and to celebrate in the flicker of the end credits.

Many years later then, when I was in middle school, I heard of Iron Man in 2008, and I was surprised. There are even more heroes? And apparently they had been around for many decades? In comics? Like my Tintin and Astérix? My nostalgia was not for them, Spiderman was a lovely memory of my past, but nothing that would carry significantly into the present.

Iron Man and Thor were fun, the rest was so-so or didn’t even catch my interest, and when it was finally revealed that all these heroes would come together in a thing called “Avengers”, a name I had never heard before, I remember sitting in the cinema and muttering after the title came on screen: “Oh man, I would so laugh if this film sucks.”

I would be very wrong.

Because it was very, very fun.

Avengers showed that the big superhero crossover was possible. Many heroes with backstories in their own films, then coming together in another movie, leaving time for the crossover event itself, not needing additional time for character introductions or presentations. Even the villain, Loki, had been introduced before, getting his chance to shine – with many jokes, big action setpieces and a simple, yet engaging plot, Avengers took the world by storm. In the background, it was also building up to something.

More heroes got introduced, the universe got bigger. Antman got my interest, as it was by one of my favourite directors, Edgar Wright, and even if he didn’t direct it in the end, his tone shined through, making it immensely fun. Guardians of the Galaxy came in with technicolour rainbow fun and an oldschool groovin’ soundtrack, and then the second Avengers rolled around, not as super satisfying as the first one, but still a great time in the theatre. And it was still building up to something.

Phase Three rolled around, where Marvel really got into their groove, and here you will find my favourites: Thor: Ragnarök and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, films which combined emotional strength and comedy to entertaining cohesive bundles of joy – Doctor Strange and Spiderman: Homecoming also being very strong entries that I would wholeheartedly recommend. And they continued to build up to something.

That something has now arrived, after being 10 years in the making:

Avengers Infinity War.

Just a fraction of the gigantic main cast, with three intersecting franchises: Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Hulk.

A gigantic threat is looming upon the galaxy: Thanos. A galactic overlord who wants to collect all six Infinity Stones, which grant the power to rewrite reality if they are combined into one weapon – a gauntlet in this case. In many different films before that, we know where the Infinity Stones are, and in some, they even played very big roles.

The plot is simple, yet effective: Thanos is coming, he must be stopped. And in order to do that, the power of all the Avengers and their friends is needed. Good guys set out to defeat the bad guy. Simple, straightforward, boom, done.

However: It’s the execution where this film shines. To take over 20 main characters and fit them into one big story is not an easy task, but it succeeds in an entertaining and satisfying way. Not all characters appear at the same time, they enter the stories at different points, and then get split up into groups. Some combinations are logical, the Guardians of the Galaxy are one group, surely, and Iron Man will team up with Spiderman, that much is clear from the previous films.

This team-up can only go well. Just look at them.

But over the course of the film, they get re-shuffled, and go to their own intertwining substories, and this is where the main fun is to be had. As the audience already knows all of these characters, the burning question is: How will they all react to each other? Will they get along? Will there be banter? Or will they end up as a harmonious bunch? Some of these combinations I had never seen coming, and also never expected them to work so well. Especially [backwards: tibbar hsart eht dna dog esron eht] was a duo that really hit home, and if you would have told me that before, I wouldn’t have believed you.

The character interactions are where the fun lies, and the smaller teams with unique combinations keep everything fresh and interesting. (Hence, I would also recommend that you watch many of the MCU films before Infinity War, if not all. Some people will tell you different things on what to skip or not, but I think most people will agree that you will absolutely need Thor: Ragnarök and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, as the events of the two lead directly into this film.)

Of course, not everything is fun and games in this film, there will be emotional moments as well, and these blend perfectly into the comedic segments. It never feels like one mood is overstaying its welcome, the mix between “funny and sad” is balanced out extremely well, and gives a great flow to the film. In the 149 minutes of film, I never felt as if it had lengths or dragged out moments, everything felt snappy, powerful and going forward.

In addition, the villain of the story, Thanos, is given enough room, and even his own parallel plotline, so that he receives depth as well, making him one of the best, if not the best villain in the MCU so far. All I can say is: This finale (or rather, the first part of the finale, as the continuation will be next year) was absolutely worth the time waiting.

Sidenote: I also want to praise Klaus-Dieter Klebsch as the German voice of Thanos, he is one of my favourite voice actors, and he was born for that role. He has spoken many villains from my childhood as well, maybe adding that little bit of extra to my enjoyment.

Conclusion

Back in 2008, when I was saw Iron Man with doubtful eyes, I could have never imagined where it would all lead. I was proven very wrong in my prediction, and I am pretty sure that many were too, such a big film franchise had never been attempted before, and some other franchises have tried to copy it afterwards, but nobody achieving it to this extend.

While some initial films of Phase 1 or 2 were drab or not very engaging, Marvel has now found the perfect formula of entertainment, big bombastic fun with an equally big, beating heart, that ties everything together emotionally.

And Avengers Infinity War also managed something that many films hadn’t done recently: to surprise me. Not only in shocking moments, but also in emotional ones I hadn’t seen coming, without being “out of nowhere”. It’s a tight bundle of many cohesive and strong storylines, that comes together after many, many years. And it was beautiful.

Behind me in the cinema was a little kid with their parents, maybe 11 years old or so, and it was very well behaved, didn’t interrupt others, enjoyed the film and only occasionally spoke something out loud. And yet, I couldn’t help but smile at the little hollers and exclamations of “Oh no!”, “Yes!”, “Whoa!” and several very big “What?!”.

I remember a little kiddo also sitting in the cinema, being very excited about Spiderman 2, and looking forward to seeing my fantastic super heroes on screen, and going to see the films several times in the theatre, smiling at the visual fireworks of action and heart in front of my gleaming eyes.

The eyes full of doubt from a decade ago were finally shining again like they did on this very day.

The End.