Firstly, let me just admit that I haven't been devotedly watching every film in this series with a tie-in to this latest Avengers' outing. Looking at my reviews at this site, the last one directly related to this one that I saw was this film's immediate predecessor, "Avengers: Age of Ultron". From the moment this latest film begins, with superheroes dead or dying on what looks like the aftermath of some epic battle, it gives the impression of having immediately followed on from some previous Marvel film...which I haven't seen...which may or may not be the case. I.e. perhaps there was a film which showed the epic battle of which the opening scene is the aftermath? If so, then, obviously, it might pay to watch every single tie-in film to this one to be in the loop*, so to speak.

Secondly, apart from possibly not being a true stand-alone film, the ending also makes clear that there will have to be another Marvel film which will directly follow-on from the ending of this one. There are some obvious story elements in this latest Marvel film which makes clear that I have missed certain developments from previous Marvel films that I have missed (i.e. chosen to ignore...it looks like the only other Marvel film that I saw before Infnitity War was "Deadpool" and I do plan on watching the sequel to that sometime soon). Characters from other franchises also appear...e.g. the Guardians of the galaxy...another Marvel franchise that I have not seen (and the level of comedy that those characters reveal in this film doesn't make me feel like I've missed out on anything by not seeing that other franchise). Other characters, well...I have no idea who these people are...

All that being said, I have to say that none of this is an excuse as to how low the bar has been set for this film, as far as the writing, characterisation and entertainment factor goes. This tends to be a problem with most films in this universe...eventually I just get bored of seeing the sequels...which happened after the first Thor film for me and maybe the third Iron Man film, if I made it that far...or the Spider-Man reboots...perhaps even the latter film(s) of the Tobey Maguire incarnation of the character.

Anyway, the plot of Infinity War concerns a supervillain called "Thanos", who seeks to gain great power by collecting "Infinity Stones" (most of the names of these stones sound pretty unimpressive...I feel that marketing could have really put more work into coming up with cool sounding stones), which give him various mystical abilities which he uses for warlike purposes. He's already made a start on the collection of Infinity Stones (gotta catch 'em all!). Seeing Thanos in action against superheroes, he really does make them seem like boys fighting against men...who are warriors. An interesting aspect to Thanos' character is his psychology...he wants to collect all the Infinity Stones so that he can bring about much faster his plan to randomly kill fifty per cent of all life in the universe. He espouses reasons such as societies eventually collapsing and dying because there are too many people and not enough resources to sustain them. On that level, he does come across as rational...but is he? In other words, is he just so crazy he has to be stopped? Why fight it? Of course, such plans are anathema to superheroes and they try their best to stop Thanos.

So, the reason that I score this film poorly...it just doesn't try very hard to be entertaining, apart from in the action department. It relies on fans being so obsessed with the characters in this universe that they will lap up every attempted joke the writers have to offer. And the writers lack the wit of a Joss Whedon. For instance, one scene has Thor made to look an idiot (the bit where he tries to harness the power of a star) and another character (Hagrid?) labouring that obvious point as a result. Generally, most of the jokes fail. The odd joke works, but they aren't particularly high calibre. If you absolutely LOVE this universe, the writers are relying on you to be so invested and so well predisposed to these characters that they will have to do very little quality work for you to lap it up. In my review here of "Age of Ultron", I think I pondered whether I would continue seeing more films in this series. Based on this film, I think that it might be unlikely.

Contrast that criticism with films that are based on stories unknown to the public and/or with a cast of unknown leads...they can sometimes create a great emotional investment in the characters and story or amuse you with their wit and comedy. With Infinity War, it's all shorthand...the invested viewer has to fill in the gaps which the scriptwriters don't provide themselves, as far as characterisation and humour goes.

Some reviews that I've come across mention that favourite superheroes die in this film. Seeing what Thanos does immediately preceding such events makes me wonder how permanent such an outcome is.

* Having to watch EVERY film with a tie-in to Avengers' films just seems like too high a price to pay. It's not worth it, just for the latest Avengers film to make sense. Being entertained is more important to me, and eventually the sequels bore or the spin-offs underwhelm.

Random observations:

* I saw this film in 2D. It's my strong suspicion that forking out more to watch it in 3D would be a waste of money...nothing really struck me as being particularly geared towards a 3D experience and often Hollywood makes rather pointless 3D movies anyway...just a vacuous way to extract more money from the cinemagoer.

* The closing credits mentions "Arrested Development character"...I wonder what that refers to.

* Near the start of the closing credits the name "Okabayashi" appears...not sure if I noted that accurately...but I did wonder if it was related to a a word I came across which related to the Star Trek universe: "Kobayashi" (I had to search a list of Star Trek video games to remind myself of that name!).

* Like a James Bond film, the closing credits have the phrase "Thanos will return"!

* What's that black thing in Captain America's ear? Which film did I miss to see the explanation of that?