Avengers: Infinity War (2018) has become every fan of Marvel’s new favorite movie to laugh and simultaneously cry too. Since the last release of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Marvel has slowly been building to this film through countless films focused on singular heroes to set the stage for Infinity War, making this film long in the making.

The plot of Infinity War includes Thanos, the evil threat of the universe and the step-father of Gamora pursuing the six infinity stones (time, mind, soul, reality, power, and space) which would allow him to become unstoppable and control all aspects of life as we know it. That’s not good! Thanos’s mission: to eradicate half of the universe’s population so overpopulation becomes a thing of the past.

Since this is primarily a galactic issue, it originally falls into the hands of the Guardians of the Galaxy to fix, especially since Thanos and Gamora have a relationship. However, when some of these infinity stones are located on Earth, Thanos enters the radar of the Avengers, leading to the largest crossover in Marvel cinematic history. It’s become common knowledge to anyone who has a cell phone and friends, that not every hero in Infinity War survives. Marvel decimated the idea that people watching movies shouldn’t have to worry when everything goes to crap because it’s always okay in the end.

This time, it is not.

To anyone who hasn’t seen Infinity War, I personally would tell you not to worry who lives or dies. Instead, ask yourself how will Marvel bring them back? I have no doubt in my mind each and every hero will be resurrected in some weird way so it will be like Infinity War never happened, but how? And almost as importantly, when?

Infinity War 2 (2019) is obviously not being released for another year (minuscule compared to the three-year wait for Infinity War) and while it’s possible our deceased heroes could be brought back then, I fear it may be a long wait. But with the promise of new Marvel films on the horizon, who’s to say?

This grand movie was a whopping two-and-a-half hour long, but I could have sat there and watched for hours longer. I laughed out loud at jokes between Star-Lord and Iron Man, smiled at Spider Man’s light-hearted attempts at comedic relief, felt for Thor’s loss at the destruction of Asgard, and cried (literally) as I watched beloved favorites fall to Thanos, one by one.

There are so many heroes, that they cannot all be fighting the same battle at the same time, resulting in constant cuts from one galaxy to another to keep up with the various story threads.

Marvel has been stepping up film after film with new technology, and increasing frequency of comedic humor, which sets Marvel apart from DC which, for some reason, clings to depressing, melodramatic gray-scale scenes. I thought I would be prepared for how amazing this movie would be after seeing Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Black Panther (2018) but it is safe to say Avengers: Infinity War easily trumps all.

It was my absolute pleasure and privilege to watch this, but at the same time, I feel so taken advantage of by Marvel. In a way, I feel like I paid someone to beat me up. But instead of being left with a busted lip, I’m stuck with a broken heart and a one-year wait for the sequel.

To summarize, if I could give Infinity War six stars out of five. I would. The captivating way Marvel switches point of view at the most agonizing moments, Marvel’s signature light-hearted jokes in dark situations, wicked character development and crushing deaths all make Avengers: Infinity War the must-see movie of 2018.