Avengers: Infinity War is here and it is everything you expected it to be! To be honest, we were a little worried if the Russo Brothers could have pulled off a movie with such a huge cast, and a premise that has to be nothing less than ground-breaking. Sure, they did an amazing job directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War, but Infinity War is a different ballgame altogether. You will realise this once you have seen the movie, and wonder how they even managed to pull it off to make such a coherent movies (especially when last year's Justice League drama still hurting us).

It's not that Avengers: Infinity War is flawlesss; in fact, it has quite a lot of flaws that require a separate story for sure. But it is not easy to make a movie like Infinity War avoiding all the imperfections; no director can ever do that! One of the biggest flaws is that some of the superheroes don't get much to do (again, a story that needs separate treatment). But then there are some that makes quite a lot of impression, including a couple of newcomers. Here are what I feel were the 9 standout characters in Avengers Infinity War. Needless to say, you are entering SPOILER territory here. While we have tried to be as less spoiler-ish as we can, don't read ahead if you haven't seen the movie and don't want surprises to be ruined.

Thanos

If you have not read any of the Marvel comics, you might be confused as to what's the deal with this puple 'Bruce Willis' who pops up in a couple of Avengers movies. Well, Infinity War finally shows you that he is the REAL DEAL. Thanos is powerful, insane, menacing, smart, and yet there are other nuances that you really don't expect from a megalomaniac character like his. Actor Josh Brolin sells every emotion of his with conviction, thus watering down accusations that Marvel can't have good villains.

TonyStark/Iron  Man

Iron Man is the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; I believe that the franchise would never have existed if the first Iron Man hadn't been such a hit (just see what the failure of Tom Cruise's The Mummy did to Dark Universe). Rober Downey Jr owns the role like a boss, and in Infinity War, he continues to excel in every sense. In fact the movie sets him up like Harry Potter to Thanos' Voldemort. Not saying a word more!

Thor

The movie begins with the God of Thunder at his lowest, and ends with him being the most powerful. Chris Hemsworth is abosultely fantastic, as he sells both humour and ethos with equal conviction. He gets the most awesome hero shot and his unlikely pairing with 'Rabbit', I mean, Rocket Raccoon, deserves a spin-off!

Gamora

Saying anything about Gamora would spoil the movie for you. So let me restrict myself by saying this - she gets a better arc than what she got in both the Guardian of the Galaxy movies combined. Her scenes with both Star Lord and Thanos are poignant and touching, and Zoe Saldanha is quite incredible here.

Spider-Man

Peter Parker continues to be the naive but brave web-crawler that we saw in Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming. He may irritate Stark and Doctor Strange with his pop culure references, but one of his trivia  did save their asses in a crucial juncture. Also he has no qualms in taking on Thanos, despite getting battered by the Mad Titan on a couple of occassions. Peter parker also gets the best line in the movie.

Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Spider-Man makes one hell of a team, don't they? It was fun to see Strange spar words with an equally arrogant Stark, but the best bit was when they worked their differences aside. Strange also gets a terrific 'magic' moment in his Titan fight with Thanos. His final action may leave some viewers confused, but it might be the key to an important plot-point in Avengers 4.

Ebony Maw

Thanos's main hench-men, The Black Order, consist of four terrifying entities with different powers and strengths. While the rest passes muster, Ebony Maw, the sorcerer of the group, stands out for being a truly terrifying foe, who even Iron Man, Banner, Strange, Wong and Spider-Man together find it difficult to beat. With immense magical power and a soft but dangerous voice to boot, Ebony deserved more screentime than what he got in the movie.

Star-Lord

Even though he has developed a paunch, Chris Pratt continues to entertain us as the cocky space-pilot Peter Quill aka Star Lord. From manning up in front of Thor (at failing at that) to being a bad leader in managing his team, Pratt gets enough moments to display his comedic chops. Even in the emotional scenes with Gamora and later, Thanos, Pratt continues to put up a strong display of histrionics.

Drax

Easily the funniest character of the movie, Drax continues to be the same seriously comical character from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol II. He delivers the biggest laughs of the movie, especially in the scene where he tries to show others that he can be 'invisible'. Drax is also the reason for making Tony Stark go speechless for a moment, and that's saying something!

Have you see Infinity War? Do you agree with our list above? If you feel any other character in the movie needs to make it to the list, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 27, 2018 02:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).