By Brooke Kaluzienski

Photo via Marvel

The movie “Avengers: Infinity War” is the culmination of ten years of Marvel movies, starting with 2008’s “Iron Man.”

The titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) wants to save the universe by destroying half of its population, and he intends to do this by using the power of the Infinity Stones. The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and other miscellaneous heroes like Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) have to join forces to stop him.

With a movie so jam-packed with characters, naturally, some heroes received more focus than others, and some were given just a few minutes of screen time.

Altogether, the movie did a good job juggling the storylines of multiple characters, with characters like Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Doctor Strange, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). Gamora (Zoe Saldana) also had an interesting journey with the Soul Stone and her ultimate death, and more was revealed about her past with Thanos.

Stan Lee was not the only cameo in the movie, with characters from past movies showing up. One of these cameos is that of Peter Parker (Tom Holland)’s friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), who causes a distraction that allows Peter to put on his Spider-Man suit and go to save New York.

Another cameo occurs when the location of the Soul Stone is revealed. This cameo is a throwback all the way to “Captain America: The First Avenger,” with the appearance of HYDRA’s Red Skull (Ross Marquand).

Overall, “Avengers: Infinity War” combines beautiful imagery with an engaging storyline, and the end product is a wonderful movie. The tone is set from the opening screen, where the “MARVEL” panel is not backed by the usual music, but instead by a foreboding background track leading into an Asgardian distress call, followed by the deaths of Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

The movie from there continues to be grim, though it is not without humor. This was to be expected, however, as the Guardians of the Galaxy do play a key role in the film.

Many characters are engaged in surprising team-ups and interactions, even if they just engage in a few seconds of dialogue, like Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper). Another one of these entertaining interactions is between Steve Rogers and Groot (Vin Diesel) when they meet in Wakanda.

Thor, Groot, and Rocket go on an interesting journey to Nidavellir together, and the movie ends with Tony Stark and Nebula (Karen Gillan) stranded on the planet Titan together, which may lead to an unconventional and interesting friendship.

The movie comes to a close with a shocking twist when everyone turns to ash and dust, and it seems that all hope is lost for our heroes. But with the as-of-yet untitled fourth Avengers movie looming on the horizon, and the ominous “Thanos will return” appearing as the movie ends, things may not be as terrible as they seem.

The post-credits scene with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) only enforces this hope, and makes it seem possible that half the world may not be lost forever, but will instead return to live and fight another day.