Infinity War reviews SPOILERS

Downey and Cumberbatch are great playing off each other as quippy egotists, Hemsworth and Evans are just a blast to watch as original Avengers, and the Guardians especially are essential to the core narrative. The Russos do a monumental job of juggling everything, but at two hours and 40 minutes, there’s just a lot to process. (Also, if you’ve never seen a Marvel film, maybe don't start with this one.)

In recent years, even with the addition of a trippy delight such as "Doctor Strange" or an upbeat romp such as "Thor: Ragnarok," there has been no mistaking the grave, purposeful darkening of the story's trajectory.

Meanwhile, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), his animosity toward Captain America (Chris Evans) temporarily shelved, instead matches insults and intellects with Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), all while trying to keep his eager young protégé, Spider-Man (Tom Holland), out of trouble.

Perhaps in part because of those aforementioned stones and their ability to bend time, space and reality, the master sorcerer Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) plays a significant role, augmented by his interactions with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland).

“We're in the endgame now,” Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange intones in the final stretch of the indisputably epic Avengers: Infinity War — and, more than in any other comics-derived superhero concoction one could mention, there's a whiff of something resembling tragedy in a franchise that, for millions of fans, seems to play a role similar to what mythology did for the Greeks....Back in Hollywood's big studio heyday, the grandest company of them all, MGM, boasted of having “more stars than there are in heaven.” Marvel could arguably make that boast today, and it's crammed almost all of them into this one densely packed superhero orgy, the first half of which is basically dedicated to finding a semi-coherent way of shuffling them into the same dramatic deck. How are ultra-egotists like Dr. Strange, Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Chris Evans' Steve Rogers, Tom Holland's Spider-Man and even Chadwick Boseman's more even-keeled Black Panther going to like having to share the heroic spotlight with one another, while also allowing some derring-do and dazzling deeds to be performed by at least another dozen characters of some unusual talents?