MAY 5 — Some films you can write about as soon as they open. Some you can even write about days in advance of their release.

But there are also films so entrenched in our collective minds and in popular discourse that the right thing to do is to just give time for fans to watch them first before we start blabbing our mouths off about them and spoil the experience for others.

In the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), now almost entering the end of Phase 3 with Avengers: Infinity War, a storyline so dense, so inter-related and so populated with all sorts of beloved characters, it’s pretty obvious that the most honourable way that I can approach discussing the movie is wait at least a week after everyone has rushed to see it on its opening weekend.

Whatever your feelings may be about the MCU, especially if you’re a DC fan (sorry, but there’s not enough of a film “universe” yet to call it DCU, despite its best efforts to put the cart before the horse with Justice League), there’s no denying that after 18 movies, Marvel has earned the right to make its 19th a true movie event, one that’s highly anticipated by almost every single moviegoing human being in this world, just because of how familiar everyone is with the characters and stories.

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And speaking of opening weekends, that huge dose of anticipation has resulted in making Avengers: Infinity War taking in the biggest opening weekend of any movie for all of time so far.

Its US$250 million US takings, plus US$380 from the rest of the world (with all of this achieved without it even opening in China and Russia yet) makes its US$630 million worldwide three-day box-office harvest something truly amazing, even in the realm of big budget studio tentpoles.

A box-office record is one thing though, as it could easily happen to even the most fluffy of movies like the Fast and Furious franchise or even the Jumanji reboot.

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What makes Avengers: Infinity War really stand out is in how well the movie actually turned out. Directed by the Russo brothers, fresh off their brilliant previous MCU assignments Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, the brothers easily made it three home runs in a row with Avengers: Infinity War.

With so many characters, taken from so many previous MCU movies, and not all of them possessing the same tone and spirit, it’s really quite a challenge to fit all of them nicely into one movie, no matter how big the movie is.

Just take a step back and ponder this — how does one fit in the deadly serious tone of The Winter Soldier, Civil War and Black Panther with the jokey tone of Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok comfortably together?

Iron Man may be somewhere in between, and so are the previous two Avengers movies, but just to tackle the problem of tone alone is one potentially fatal problem that could kill Infinity War and make it a bust.

When you also take into account the fact that Infinity War is all about its villain Thanos, who’s in search of the six infinity stones because he wants to eliminate half of the universe with their power, and whose exploration of why he wants to do so makes him probably an even more fascinating villain than Killmonger from Black Panther, the push and pull between comedy and seriousness here is no small matter. This is a movie with a dark and sombre subject matter (and consequences).

And yet the Russo brothers have crafted the longest movie in the MCU so far, and made it feel like an absolute breeze.

Despite the mind-boggling amount of characters and worlds/planets, the storyline still felt simple, uncomplicated and easy to follow, which means that there’s an impressive amount of discipline at work here in crafting a narrative through line.

Some may complain at how simple the story turned out to be, but one must never lose sight of the fact that this is a big budget superhero bonanza, not some Oscar-baiting small movie with low stakes because of a modest budget.

At the end of the day, this still needs to be a film that can appeal to the widest demographic possible in order to maximise profits, hence the film’s structure of having almost non-stop action set-pieces from beginning to end, but punctuated by long and tasteful enough moments in between to establish character motivation and to line out its story.

It’s these little moments that draw you emotionally into the story, whether through poignancy or humour, and give this big film its character, where even shorthand attempts at colouring a character is enough (because of all the character legwork done in the previous 18 films).

In its valiant attempt to provide something different despite wearing the familiar colours of a superhero movie (just check out that stunning downbeat ending), Avengers: Infinity War has carved a place for itself among the highlights of the superhero movie genre.

It doesn’t quite reach the heights of the Captain America movies, but it’s definitely the best Avengers movie so far. And for once, it shouldn’t be ashamed of being a comic book movie. Like Logan from last year, this is something quite special indeed.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.