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.

I love all of these films this category for different reasons — Black Panther is the most socially relevant, Looper has an extremely clever plot arc, The Martian is visually impressive, and A Quiet Place is probably the most suspenseful of the nominees. But Avengers: Infinity War is just a wicked amount of fun. I waited 19 films to see all of our favorite superheroes unite (sorry Ant-Man and Hawkeye) and my patience was rewarded with Rocket Raccoon trying to buy Bucky’s arm in the middle of a war zone in Wakanda. It’s the best thing I’ve seen since Legolas single-handedly took down an Oliphaunt.

The balancing act in Avengers: Infinity War is a thing of beauty; for the most part, everyone gets their moment of epic glory or witticism. The Russo Brothers had an insane amount of screen time to spread around, but they somehow managed not to cheat the audience out of seeing their favorite stars (again, sorry Ant-Man and Hawkeye). We even get some extra cameos thrown in as a bonus — Pepper, the Collector, M’Baku, Ned, Wong, and even Stan Lee. What’s clever about the narrative is that it focuses on the supervillain rather than the Avengers. From a structural standpoint, it forces the superheroes to be the supporting cast rather than having one of them (say Iron Man or Captain America) stand out above the rest, which is important in a ensemble this large. Thanos’ character arc is also more interesting because he’s an unknown player in the MCU universe —with an entity this powerful with a goal this nefarious, it was necessary to dig a little bit into the mindset of someone who puts the “nap” in “snap.” (As in a permanent nap because at the end Thanos, he…well, forget it.)

Which kind of leads me to why Avengers: Infinity War is a step above many of the other films in the MCU. It crumples up the definition of sacrifice in previous Marvel films and tosses it in the space compacter. The reoccurring pattern in Marvel films is to sacrifice oneself for the sake of the world. Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Thor, and the Guardians of the Galaxy all had their moments of heroic sacrifice, but the main theme in Avengers: Infinity War is sacrificing someone else for the sake of the world. Thanos does it (yes, I know that’s highly debatable — if he truly loved Gamora then he wouldn’t have killed her). Star-Lord does it, though it fails since his gun turns to bubbles (which is actually the reason I’m willing to let his very human mistake slide at the end when he punches Thanos — the guy was in the mindset of killing his girlfriend for the sake of the universe. He was going through some things.) And let’s not forget Scarlet Witch kills Vision in a super heartbreaking moment (then shock twist — Thanos reverses time!) But for how funny and clever Avengers: Infinity War is, when it needs to pull something hard and heavy, it’s not afraid to push the envelope. It forces the characters into impossible decisions and rewards the audience with one of the most emotional films of 2018. Avengers: Infinity War isn’t the Marvel film I’m going to want to watch over and over again simply because it’s so depressing by the end, but it takes giant risks with the MCU that shook the fan base to its core, and for that, I respect the hell out of it.