Avengers: Infinity War Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Avengers: Infinity War Blu-ray Movie Review

Everyone's Here! But it's their fates that are at the center of 'Infinity War.'

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 3, 2018

With the plethora of great Marvel films out there, hailing any of them as "the best" is sure to cause a ruckus amongst the legion of rabid fans. But most would not argue that Avengers: Infinity War makes as strong a case as any of them for that title. The film pushes all the right buttons, leaving the characters and universe in an ever-evolving state of flux and the viewer in a constant state of amazement. Less than 10 minutes into the movie and infinity War reshapes the Marvel landscape and continues to turn the universe upside down on through to the end, an end that is not just a cliffhanger but an end that leaves the state of Marvel, and the studio's enormous fanbase, precariously teetering atop Mount Everest. The film is action-packed, sprawling, and heartfelt. The roster is huge and the story is consequential. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who shot the sequel immediately after shooting Infinity War, have a tall task to live up to this and to resolve the seemingly unresolvable.

Trouble is coming.

Chaos rules the galaxy. The imposing, powerful Thanos (Josh Brolin) holds two of the five Infinity Stones, having just extracted the second from the Tesseract. He eyes Earth, where two of the remaining three remain. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), privy to Thanos' plans, is transported to Earth where he warns Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) of the coming invasion. Strange, in turn, enlists the help of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and The Avengers to defend the planet from the assault. As Earth braces for additional attacks and various heroes assemble, including Vision (Paul Bettany), who holds one of the stones, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) relives her dark past and maneuvers through an uncertain present alongside her villainous adoptive father. Meanwhile, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finds himself seeking a new weapon to wield his powers, aided by the mischievous Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and the teenage Groot (Vin Diesel). But can the collected powers of all of The Avengers -- and many additional allies -- stop Thanos and his army from acquiring the ultimate power to wipe out half of the universe's population?

For a movie that runs well over two hours, Infinity War finds a lightning pace and never relents. For as sprawling as the film may be, connecting characters and worlds and actions and interweaving story lines and bringing unlikely allies together in various pursuits to save the universe, it's surprisingly texturally rich and easy to follow. Certainly a foundational understanding of characters and continuing storylines and familiarity with the glut of past Marvel films is helpful, but not entirely essential. The film stands on its own as a dramatic powerhouse and an action extravaganza, with both presenting in equal proportion in terms of screen time and screen merit. It's rare to find a film of so much flash and so much substance, the latter coming in the ways of seriously consequential galaxy-spanning events, the strains on intimate bonds shared between characters, and the very real possibility of failure. Themes of love, sacrifice, fate, friendship, and shared goals interweave throughout the film as The Avengers' battles against Thanos appear increasingly hopeless across each of the several battlefields upon which the "Infinity War" is fought.

As the film plays to the characters' strengths, it tests and strains them like never before. Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely don't simply drop every drip of past Marvel movie characters and dynamics into a blender and hope for the best. The film sees constant shifts in dynamics and power and unlikely and unusual pairings that individually feel off but ultimately prove critical as the film develops, as Groot, in this film a lazy teenager glued to a handheld video game, plays a significant role in returning a hero to his former glory. Stephen Strange and Tony Stark develop an unlikely bond. Vision's relationship with Scarlet Witch is put to the ultimate test. Peter Quill faces an impossible choice with Gamora. Chaos reigns through the film, structurally and dramatically alike, and no Marvel film has pushed so hard, frayed and bloodied so many characters, and poured on the significant drama to the same extent as Infinity War. It's a highly rewarding film, particularly for those who prefer their movies bleak and always teetering on the edge of disaster. It's unrelentingly intense, offset by key outbursts of mild humor (particularly from Drax), but the darkly dramatic crux carries the film to heights previously unreached by any other Marvel film.

Digital effects dazzle. There's not a character or location or action sequence that isn't absolutely convincing. The sense of spectacle is high but the feeling of character intimacy is also significant, thanks in large part to a dedicated cast that is willing to share the screen with a Hollywood who's who that brings almost literally every Marvel hero, and numerous support figures, together in one film. Of particularly noteworthy mention is Josh Brolin, whose digital performance of the imposing Thanos is as towering as the character he portrays. The villain's own character arc, which expands significantly into the emotional realm beyond the power to reshape the universe to his liking, is the film's centerpiece. That a digital villain can carry a movie populated by countless superheroes who have individually earned billions of dollars in their own films is a testament to both Brolin's performance and Marvel's willingness to highlight its best and build around what will work rather than merely what might be most marketable.

Avengers: Infinity War Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Avengers: Infinity War dazzles on Blu-ray. Practical and digital details alike are revealed with seamless, fluid, naturally complex definition. Whether natural skin textures or computer-generated faces and limbs, the 1080p image is a constant stalwart, presenting every finely intimate detail with depth and precision. Image sharpness is maintained for the duration; expect no softer corners here. The digital source photography maintains precise clarity throughout and leaves no detail, on any world, in any condition -- clear, smoky, battle-riddled, on Earth, in the reaches of space -- in any way less than superbly revealed. Colors are likewise terrific. The film's palette is fluid and ever changing as the action shifts between environments and characters, the former nearly as varied as the latter and each benefiting from intensive, but never overdone, saturation. Color vitality and precision are top-tier. From earthy terrain to dazzling battle hues, from dull backgrounds to colorful character costumes, each shade finds its perfect, individualized prominence and the entire palette meshes together with faultless intensity. Black level depth is striking, shadow details are wonderfully resolved, and skin tones across humans and aliens, real and digital alike are consistent and spot-on in every lighting condition and environment. Noise is very minimal and no other intrusive source or encode flaws are to be found. This is a top-level 1080p presentation from Disney.

Avengers: Infinity War Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Avengers: Infinity War's Blu-ray does not include the UHD's Dolby Atmos track. The disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack again suffers from Disney's reduced output encoding. At this reviewer's normal calibrated listening level, the track produces a light, shallow sound, with dialogue approaching whisper levels and action lacking audible intensity. Moving the volume dial upwards alleviates the sound level, but the track's lack of low end finesse remains an issue. Battle scenes are certainly not lacking for surround activity. Once a good, representative volume is found, listeners will enjoy no shortage of sweeping sounds that convey energy and motion and throw the audience in the middle of the action. It's at an increased volume where the sound design's true strengths are found, as every blast, thump, thud, bit of scattered rubble, and any and all sonic details, critical and subtle alike, become more prominently audible and intensely engaging as the sound designers almost certainly intended. A track is not this complex with the end goal of forcing the listener to strain to hear and enjoy it or to reduce its potency. Regardless, the track is a lot of fun at its core level, and even if the low end output is not prodigious, there's enough essential power to support action. The surrounds additionally carry a good number of light but environment- and mood-critical sound elements that shape less invasive scenes. Musical delivery follows, lacking the vitality at standard volume but finding more intensity and satisfying delivery at higher outputs. Dialogue, hushed as it may be, is fine when the volume is properly adjusted.

Avengers: Infinity War Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Avengers: Infinity War features an intro, four featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and an audio commentary track. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. The release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Intro (1080p, 1:32): Directors Joe and Anthony Russo offer a few thoughts. Available only under the "Play" menu screen option.
• Strange Alchemy (1080p, 5:08): A look at bringing together so many of the characters from the Marvel universe.
• The Mad Titan (1080p, 6:34): A focused exploration of the film's antagonist, Thanos: history in the films, motivations, Josh Brolin's performance, additional character arcs as they relate to him, and more.
• Beyond the Battle: Titan (1080p, 9:36): This piece opens with another look at bringing all of the Marvel characters together but finally moves to more closely exploring the making of the film's battle on Titan: visual style, Brolin's performance, practical photography and digital construction, end movie twists, and more.
• Beyond the Battle: Wakanda (1080p, 10:58): A look at the Georgia location that stood in for the fictional African kingdom, constructing the battle's dynamics, scope, digital constructs, and making the film's final moments.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 10:13 total runtime): Happy Knows Best, Hunt for the Mind Stone, The Guardians Get Their Groove Back, and A Father's Choice.
• Gag Reel (1080p, 2:05).
• Audio Commentary: Directors Joe and Anthony Russo and Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely dive deeply into the film's story, the technical details of the shoot, interweaving plot elements from previous films, audience draw to the film, the balance between action and emotional content, editing, and much more. The track is very organic and never feels as if it's jumping from one subject to another. This is an enjoyable, free flowing discussion of the film that offers quality insight that fans should appreciate.

Avengers: Infinity War Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Infinity War is a dazzling film of great emotional draw, strongly defined characters despite a sprawling roster, digital delights, and storytelling that wraps together many previous plot lines from older Marvel films while boldly headed into an unknown future for the entire universe. This is not only perhaps the best Marvel movie of them all, it's also one of the year's most agreeable movies. Disney's Blu-ray release of Avengers: Infinity War features reference video, passable audio at high listening levels, and a nice collection of bonus content. Highly recommended, but Disney does need to do something about these soundtracks.