Avengers Infinity War – always keep in mind that a second part is coming.

After a glorious ten year expansion of 18 box office hits, Marvel finally unveils part one it’s epic tour de force, super hero mash up, Avengers, Infinity War. It’s been a long arduous journey from the individual Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Avengers franchises, to all of them coming together under Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. And the best part is, it was well worth the wait.

Naturally, directors Joe and Anthony Russo had to contend with the immense problem of packing so many heroes and heroines into one movie, and getting each one to shine without upstaging one another. Especially certain heroes whose egos are so huge,they couldn’t fit their heads through a 747 hangar door. They handle the dilemma quite skillfully with comical banter amongst our fearless protagonists, which also provides a steady buffer against the inevitability that some of our good guys may not make it through this entire epic adventure.

Thanos (Josh Brolin) the ultimate antagonist whom we caught a brief glimpse of in a previous Marvel film, clearly lives up to his fearful handle, “The Mad Titan.” Titan because he is god-like (but not the true living God of course), and Mad because of his consummate goal to “save” the universe by simply eliminating half of it. And he can only do it with five precious stones inserted into a massive gauntlet. It will apparently take everything our gallant champions have in power and might to stop this malevolent despot before he literally re- arranges the cosmos.

By and large this will not be a proverbial cake walk seeing that some of our heroes still suffer from some personal hangups. There is still a major rift between Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and their respective team mates after Civil War; Paul Bettany’s Vision and Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch are having relationship issues; and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) suffers from a minor setback you simply cannot believe even when you see it. However, they must all put all lineal baggage aside because they have a much, much bigger fish to fry.

It’s certainly no secret that, with only a few absentees, the majority of the Marvel Universe shows up to combat the relentless Thanos. Indeed, one major gathering point is none other than the African nation Wakanda, where Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and a prestigious entourage welcome Cap, War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hulk and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow to help strategize their defense against the upcoming onslaught of Thanos’ minions.

Adding some oddball spice to this apocalyptic epic, are the seemingly, always upbeat Guardians of the Galaxy. They practically steal the comic relief with every appearance, especially when Chris Pratt’s Star Lord and Iron Man “discuss” their individual battle plans against Thanos. Their chemistry is undeniable, plus Vin Diesel’s Baby Groot actually gets to say “I am Groot” in a particularly different way.

Josh Broiln, who incidentally double times as bad guy Cable in Deadpool 2, is certainly not your usual boisterous, ultimate villain when playing Thanos. In fact, he seems quite easy to converse with about anything. That is, when he’s not brutally forcing information from you, or when he or his faithful minions are torturing and killing you.

As always (and this is becoming invariably common with other studio films besides Marvel), stay during and after the closing credits. And mo matter what happens, always remember that there’s another Avengers movie coming in May of 2019, giving all die hard Marvel fans sufficient hope for all our heroes, and heroines.