8 Ways Avengers: Infinity War Proves Marvel Have Learnt From Their Mistakes

8. The Plot MacGuffin Has A Payoff

Marvel movies have pretty much been defined by MacGuffins. In fact, each of the Infinity Stones so far, in one form or another, have served as the MacGuffins of every movie they've been featured in, sparking the action to bring different heroes together and send them on an adventure.

In the run up to Infinity War, then, many fans were worried that they'd once again simply be a reason to bring The Avengers together to face Thanos without any real narrative payoff.

Fortunately, that wasn't at all the case. Instead, Infinity War finally makes those disparate MacGuffins important, with Thanos utilising their full power and paying off their inclusion in the franchise so far.

Even better, they're not just there to give the villain fancy abilities, but are actually in service of his overarching goal of extinguishing half the life in the galaxy to ensure it's not devastated in the same way as his own planet.

This is the endgame, and it gives the stones actual narrative weight rather than being flimsy excuses to have superheroes fight a giant purple alien.