Now we have reached 10, not in years but in number of films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Most have been hits with some better than others. Let's hope you have been paying attention to most if not all of the installments to date. You most definitely need to see Thor: Ragnarok before see Avengers: Infinity War because the latter jumps right in where the former left off.
Asgard has been destroyed and the survivors left on a colony ship. Avengers: Infinity War starts with the all but annihilation of the Asgardians on the ship. Thor has been beaten and the villain was have seen on all of those post-credit scenes, Thanos, has our favourite God of Thunder by the head. Loki, his half-brother deals for his life by giving Thanos the Tesseract, one of the six Infinity Stones of the title. These stones were created at the start of the universe and all have various powers. We have encountered some of them in previous films: the Tesseract in the first Avengers movie, the stone of time in Doctor Strange and one in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film. Thanos is hell-bent on collecting all six into a special gauntlet that will give him ultimate power in the universe. His plan? To decrease the surplus population. Unlike Ebenezer Scrooge, Thanos does not see the poor house as an option, favouring death for half the people in the universe.
As motivations go, it's poor. His motivation seems to have been lifted straight from the script of Star Trek's The Conscience of the King.
Avengers: IF has got to be the largest assembly of A-list actors in a film, ever. Managing that many egos and storylines cannot have been easy however the Russo brothers, Anthony and Joe. Having helmed two previous Marvel films, including 2016's Captain America: Civil War we know that they can do these multi-faceted, multi-character, multi-located films and still weave a cohesive narrative.
This is a film for fans. It is will be largely incomprehensible to anyone not immersed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There is no character development. There is only the story and the ending. The ending. Never has a Marvel superhero film ended so. Without spoilers, the film opens with a burst of action and slowly tapers to a heart-rending conclusion. As a cliff-hanger it is subdued. Do stay for the after credit scenes because they set up the second part of the Infinity War which hits our screens in twelve months.
Once you see this film you will realise that it's all Loki's fault.