The culmination of ten years worth of content is worth the wait. "Avengers: Infinity War" plays like a space opera that would be awfully confusing for anyone who has not put the time into every single movie prior. The movie delivers what it promises: an all-out effort from heroes that have been built up over the course of eighteen previous films.

The film assumes that these characters need no introduction, and instead allows us to get to know our main baddy. The "Mad Titan" Thanos (Josh Brolin), a genocide-hungry warlord, is on a quest to obtain the six all-powerful Infinity Stones that can bend reality to his will. Though few of our heroes know his name and even fewer have ever seen him, this is a threat that concerns every living being in the universe.

Up until now, he has been the mastermind in the shadows, but Thanos explodes onto the screen within the first five minutes of "Infinity War," and proves just how powerful and merciless he is. Thanos is played as the protagonist of the story, garnering much of the screen time and ensuring that the audience understands his background and motivations. Both "Infinity War" and "Black Panther" prove that an excellent villain is one who is entirely convinced that they are the hero, and firm in their supposedly just ideology.

Co-writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus insist that you have a good memory (or access to the internet) to know what role every stone has played up to this point and to appreciate every throwback to previous films. Keen eyes will recognize various gadgets or abilities that heroes have utilized in their individual stories, such as Black Panther's suit redistributing damage into offensive shockwaves.

There are also callbacks to running jokes from "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and previous "Guardians" films. These small details do not receive much attention but ensure that fans will receive pay-off for their own attentiveness.

Unfortunately, we don't have time to focus on every single one of these twenty-plus major heroes, so some inevitably receive the side-character treatment. In this way, the movie's greatest accomplishment is it's one major flaw; it's hard to pack all of these noteworthy characters together. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo do a stellar job by splitting up the characters into groups you wouldn't expect and allow them their time to interact before sending them down separate paths (Thor's brief encounter with the whole Guardians team is a humorous standout), yet the combinations are not perfect. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Peter Parker (Tom Holland) all get plenty of time to shine, as do others. This forces some major players (most notably, Cap and Black Panther) to play second-fiddle.

At the end of the day, the action is top-notch; there are so many clever ways we get to see these heroes interact socially and in combat. It's a satisfying experience with a heart-pounding ending.

I've already stated that the movie delivers what it promised. As such, not everyone is making it out of this one alive.