Brief Synopsis: An alliance of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Wakanda try to prevent Thanos, a Titanian Eternal, from collecting all six Infinity Stones from specially marked boxes of breakfast cereal. The superheroes all rush to the supermarket — both on Planet Earth and Outer Space — to clean out the cereal aisle before Thanos can arrive. But every time Thanos beats them to it, and there’s nothing left except a wasteland of empty cardboard boxes and the cereal dust remaining at the bottom of the bag. This makes Iron Man very sad.
With how many stars are packed into the cast of Avengers: Infinity War, it’s what I imagine a typical guest list to the Academy Awards looks like in any given year (minus Meryl Streep). Frankly, it’s both impressive and a little scary how Disney/Marvel managed to gather so many of Hollywood’s icons into one spectacular showstopper (I suppose that 400 million dollar budget had to come from somewhere). Though it does highlight the fact that — with the exception of a few characters — the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done an outstanding job of casting its movies. Many of these actors/actresses have cemented their careers in these roles, and one of the biggest strengths of Avengers: Infinity War is the joy in seeing these different characters interact with each other for the first time. This even allows for the film to pull off some of the more touching scenes we’ve seen in the MCU — Rocket Raccoon and Thor talking about what they’ve lost, for example. The embarrassment of riches at the film’s disposal could have been a giant disaster in terms of cheating important characters out of screen time, but the screenplay and the film editing do a terrific job of highlighting a shining moment for almost every superhero. It’s a little imposing to look at the credits and realize just how many characters made appearances in the film, but what’s more impressive to me is I can read the character’s listing and think of a favorite moment (or moments) that stand out to me in the MCU.
(Alphabetical order)
Dave Bautisa - Drax
Paul Bettany - Vision
Chadwick Boseman - Black Panther / T’Challa
Josh Brolin - Thanos
Don Cheadle - War Machine / Rhodes
Kerry Condon - F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Bradley Cooper - Rocket Raccoon
Benedict Cumberbatch - Dr. Strange
Peter Dinklage - Eitri
Robert Downey Jr. - Iron Man / Tony Stark
Winston Duke - M’Baku
Idris Elba - Heimdall
Chris Evans - Captain America / Steve Rogers
Karen Gillan - Nebula
Danai Gurira - Okoye
Chris Hemsworth - Thor
Tom Hiddleston - Loki
Tom Holland - Spider-Man / Peter Parker
Samuel L. Jackson - Nick Fury
Scarlett Johansson - Black Widow
Pom Klementieff - Mantis
Anthony Mackie - Falcon / Sam Wilson
Elizabeth Olsen - Scarlet Witch / Wanda Maximoff
Gwyneth Paltrow - Pepper Potts
Chris Pratt - Starlord / Peter Quill
Mark Ruffalo - The Incredible Hulk / Bruce Banner
Zoe Saldana - Gamora
Cobie Smulders - Maria Hill
Sebastian Stan - Winter Soldier / Bucky Barnes
Benicio del Toro - The Collector
Vin Diesel - Groot
Letita Wright - Shuri
Benedict Wong - Wong