I apologize in advance for how disjointed (and probably very error filled) this post is. Didnt feel like taking the time to clean it up at all, this is just my initial thoughts as they came to me.
While there were plenty of things I didnt like about Civil War, at least that film had an emotional conflict at its core that was quite powerful. I had a feeling that Infinity War would fall flat in this area given that its primarily built around spectacle without any character development or conflict tied into it. Nonstop action films may work for some people, but without a reason to care about whats happening I cant get emotionally involved. Its not enough to rely on past movies to provide assumed empathy.
Too much telling instead of showing. Very little character work, and what there is either very superficial or poorly handled (either bad writing or awkward tonal shifts). I was very surprised that outside of Thor, Thanos, Gamora and maybe Stark none of the characters had much of a role in the film. I was especially disappointed Cap did basically nothing for the entire movie. None of the deaths felt real or meaningful. And in regards to the ending, I understand the need to pull off that amount of carnage in a way that still jives with the PG-13 rating, but there had to be a more impactful way to pull it off without resorting to ash; it just made the deaths (which we know the majority of will be reversed) even less impactful. Lots of cartoony CGI, and while Thanos had some good moments, none of it was Apes/Avatar level, and almost all of his fight scenes were near Steppenwolf quality. It was only the close-up where you could see the detail that it sometimes looked good. The Black Order henchmen were basically forgettable, and what a waste of Carrie Coon. Red Skull served no purpose; not only was it stupid to bring the character back with Hugo Weaving (and with a cheap imitator at that), but his being in that role was pointless; it couldve been anybody else and it wouldnt have effected anything.
A lot of the plot problems the characters had to solve felt a lot like Man of Steels third act. A lot of busy work that ultimately had no emotional ties to any of the characters. Fit tab a through slot b under a ticking clock.
It was incredibly stupid that so many characters willingly gave up infinity stones to Thanos to save a single person when they were risking the lives of TRILLIONS of people. And Starlord causing Thanos to escape when he was otherwise contain and immobile (and Spidey ALMOST had the gauntlet) is basically a crime against humanity.
Not only did the characters power levels fluctuate based on the needs of the script at any given moment, but the way Thanos went about his plan was severely lacking in imagination. Hes trying to save the universe by killing half the population. But having the infinity gauntlet gives him limitless possibilities. He could do practically anything with it: create more food/resources, make it so the extra people never existed, go back in time and change things to a more extreme so that problem didnt happen. All kinds of things; instead, he mostly just punches everybody to get what he wants.
Same goes for how the heroes fought. Why didnt Strange just portal the villains away immediately, instead of waiting until they were beaten?
Also, was very disappointed by how much the GotG/Ragnarok approach to humor infected this film. Yes, levity is perfectly understandable and necessary in apocalyptic situations like this, but it can handled better and with more taste. This juvenile, frat boy humor is beyond old at this point.
Not really sure about a score, but probably somewhere between 6.5 & 7. Its mid to lower tier MCU for me, and a big step down compared to Ragnarok & Black Panther. I even prefer Homecoming & CW, films that Im pretty lukewarm on. Overall, Im not very excited for Avengers 4. Of course Ill see it, just to see how they wrap it up, but Im much more excited for Captain Marvel, Spidey 2 & Black Widow (if thats actually happening). I think at this point Im tired of the Russos/two Ms take on the MCU; Im only really interested in new voices and what unique spins they may bring to the universe.