Avengers: Infinity War – The Blu-ray Release

We check out the new blu-ray release of Avengers: Infinity War. Disney is doing a bang up job of bringing back physical media special features.

One of the most widely anticipated blu-rays of the year landed in my hot little hands last week — Avengers: Infinity War. It comes out Tuesday, August 14^th on blu-ray and 4K (the blu-ray, or multi-screen edition, also comes with a digital copy of the film).

You can read my full review of the movie here, but the quick version is that I was surprised by how good Infinity War was. I was worried that bringing all those characters together would be too much, perhaps creating a bloated mess. I was also apprehensive about the big purple guy himself, Thanos. But the movie works well and Josh Brolin downplays the usual villainous mustache twirling, creating a character that’s laden with sadness in more ways than one. Infinity War has easily been the best blockbuster of the year so far.

With the amazing Star Wars: The Last Jedi blu-ray release and now Infinity Wars, which has over two hours of special features, I am once again psyched that Disney seems to be bringing back the heyday of DVD/blu-ray releases. These discs have tons of special features, from commentaries to featurettes, (and even a feature length doc in the case of Last Jedi). For those of us who don’t want to see the end of physical media, this is great news. They are starting to make some of these releases as good as a boutique release, a Criterion or Shout Factory for blockbusters.

First off, I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but there’s an audio commentary on the film, something that has been increasingly rare on mainstream, non-boutique releases. This one features directors Anthony and Joe Russo, as well as Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. I can’t wait to dig into this.

There are also a series of featurettes:

Strange Alchemy – characters from across the MCU meet for the first time – and discover why some were teamed up together.

The Mad Titan – Explore the MCU’s biggest, baddest villain, his trail of influence through the stories, and the existential threat he represents.

Beyond the Battle: Titan – Dive into the climactic struggle on Thanos’ ruined world, including the epic stunts and VFX, to uncover the source of its power.

Beyond the Battle: Wakanda – Go behind the scenes to find out how the filmmakers pulled off the most massive and challenging battle Marvel had ever attempted.

Deleted and Extended Scenes

Gag Reel – Watch your favorite Super Heroes make super gaffes in this lighthearted collection of on-set antics.

The deleted scenes are cool, especially a funny one with Jon Favreau’s high-strung character, Happy. The featurettes themselves are interesting, though occasionally feel like an EPK. I’m hoping you get some of this in the commentary, but I would be very interested to learn more about the filmmaking. I learned a lot about how movies work from commentaries back in the day, but fare like The Avengers are a whole new ballgame. We get a sense of that through the better featurettes, which look at things like stunts and VFX, behind the scenes with the mo-cap suits and green screens. The explanation of how Wakanda was created for the battle is fascinating. I could have watched a whole documentary on this stuff.

As I said, Avengers: Infinity War is a blu-ray release that’s worth taking home, both in terms of the movie itself (which looked great — much better than the 3D version I saw in the theatre) and because they’ve taken the time to give buyers and fans great content alongside the film.

Tags: avengers infinity war, blu-ray release, disney, mainstream boutique dvd blu-rays, marvel, movies, special features on blu-rays

About the Author

Craig Silliphant is a D-level celebrity with delusions of grandeur. A writer, critic, creative director, editor, broadcaster, and occasional filmmaker, his thoughts have appeared on radio, television, in print, and on the web. He is a juror on the Polaris Music Prize and the Juno Awards. He loves Saskatoon. He has horrible night terrors and apocalyptic dreams.