Extra Credit: Five Big-Ensemble Movies to Stream After ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
In the weekly column Extra Credit, Charles Bramesco recommends supplemental viewing for moviegoers whose interests have been piqued by a given week’s big new release.
Today sees the release of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel’s biggest production to date. The film features all your favorite heroes, including [deep breath] Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Dr. Strange, War Machine, Black Panther, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, the Winter Soldier, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Or maybe you’re more into the criminal element, in which case you’ll be relieved to hear that the script ties together Loki and Thanos, not to mention the latter’s minion squad known as the Black Order. (Carrie Coon alert!) But of course the real fans want the deep cuts, so rest assured that the film also includes – and mild spoiler alert – appearances from Heimdall, Eitri the Dwarf King, Wong, Pepper Potts, the Collector, Okoye, Shuri, M’Baku, Thaddeus Ross, and Maria Hill. I have now killed an entire paragraph listing the cast of this motion picture.
The point being that, good lord almighty, there are a lot of people jam-packed into this thing. Marvel’s cinematic clown car is far from the first film to divvy up its run time among a cavalcade of stars, however. This week, let’s take a look at some selections that have successfully managed a large ensemble cast, but be forewarned — all of the movies listed below contain fewer explosions per capita than Infinity War. Excelsior!