Well, ladies and gentlemen, we've finally arrived. After being teased in the mid-credits scene in "Avengers," we finally get to witness the various Marvel superheroes take on Thanos and fight a massive battle to decide the fate of the Universe. Does the film live up to all of these lofty expectations? For the most, part yes.

The film follows the events of all previous MCU films (which you may want to re-watch or "wiki" the plot synopsis for, you may get lost in this film) where the massive genocidal purple dictator (thank you comics for allowing me the ability to utter that description) known as Thanos (Josh Brolin) is attempting to acquire all six Infinity Stones (Time, Space, Reality, Soul, Power, and Mind) which would allow him the ability to "re-balance" the Universe by wiping out half of it. Only the Avengers can stop him, but that's easier said than done.

The film feels very stuffed with characters that come from all corners of the MCU, but it never feels overstuffed, to me at least. There are so many characters that some get very little time to shine, but what time they are allowed is used to deliver either a funny line, an awesome action sequence, a tear jerking personal moment or set up an important plot point that will pay off in "Avengers 4."

However, the main star of the show is Thanos. Thanos acts as the driving force throughout the film and has a surprising amount of depth behind his surface level appearance as just some big generic bad guy who wants to destroy the conquer the Universe. A lot of the film's emotional core is found in Thanos, not to mention the film's interesting character study on "villains who think they're the misunderstood heroes of the story." Thanos truly believes that his actions will save the Universe from itself and he is willing to go through great personal suffering in order to accomplish what he thinks will save the Universe (through the lens of his own warped logic of course).

We also see some level of personal depth with his relationship with his "adopted" daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana). She has always resented him for invading her home, kidnapping her and executing half of her race to "bring balance" to the planet. However, Thanos has always had genuine affection for his "daughter," genuinely believing that taking her from her home and making her stronger through forced augmentation was his expression to love for her. There's a reason he's called "The Mad Titan."

The film is a roller coaster of fast paced action scenes and colorful and imaginative imagery (with the Guardians around that shouldn't be a stretch). With so much going on, the film does feel rapidly paced at times, but you tend to ignore it after a while due to the amount of fun you're having. The film, however, does tend to get a bit repetitive when it comes to gathering the Infinity Stones (Thanos goes after a stone, the battle goes poorly, and he threatens to kill an Avenger which forces them to give the stone up) this kind of scene plays out for almost every stone.

Despite this, I had a lot of fun in "Avengers: Infinity War." The films massive size and epic scope made it feel like everything the MCU has been building up to, at this point, was right there on the screen. While the film was very lighthearted and fun, it does get very emotional and dramatically heavy at times (especially the ending). The film also leaves off on a massive cliffhanger for the second part of the story to play out in "Avengers 4." "Avengers: Infinity War" was a fun and engaging, if slightly flawed, story that has me excited to see the conclusion of Thanos' story.

Score: 9 out of 10

Avengers Assemble!