Avengers: Infinity War has proven to be the movie event of the year so far, and people are reeling after seeing such a huge movie with such a controversial ending. Having already surpassed $1 billion at the box office (before being released in China mind you), this is easily the biggest Marvel movie so far, and I feel that people will be talking about it until Avengers 4 comes out. However, no movie is perfect, and I do have a lot of critiques that I personally think could have made this monumental film even better.
Loose Ends
One of my biggest problems with the movie is the fact that we don’t know where a lot of characters are. Obviously the most prominent case of this is the absence of Ant-Man and Hawkeye, who were both confirmed for the film, yet left out due do what we can assume to be an attempt to save them for the next Avengers film. They addressed that both of the family men have been put under house arrest since the events of Captain America: Civil War, but my question is, are you really going to be afraid of your parole officer when there’s a giant, evil alien trying to wipe out half of the entire universe? I just found it as a sloppy excuse to not use two fan favorite characters, and this isn’t the only one. At the very start of the movie, the Asgardian ship from Thor: Ragnarok was completely destroyed, and we tragically lost both Heimdall and Loki. But what about Valkyrie, Korg and Miek? It was alluded to that some Asgardians escaped Thanos’ attack on the ship, but are we just supposed to not notice that three of our favorite characters from a previous film aren’t even mentioned? Perhaps I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but for my money, I thought that these situations could have been explained a lot better.
Continuity
It’s no secret now that at the end of the movie, half of the universe fades from existence. Now, I didn’t expect any of the characters from The Defenders of Agents of SHIELD to show up, but this really paints them into a corner. How on Earth can these TV shows, that are for sure connected the MCU, just ignore the fact that a bunch of people turned to dust and they did nothing to help stop it? Better yet, how can they ignore the fact that there’s a 50% chance one of them would disappear? This doesn’t diminish from Infinity War at all, but it takes away just how real the stakes of losing to Thanos are. If the Avengers manage to reverse the timeline or bring everyone back to life in the next film, and none of their TV shows acknowledge that people they know turned to dust, then does the ending of this movie even really matter?
Character Misuse
Infinity War was undoubtedly the biggest team-up movie of all time, but with so many characters in one movie, it was bound to make some kind of mistake. My main issues were with Star-Lord and Thor. The Russo brothers are excellent directors, don’t get me wrong, but they know how to use Captain America. They’re not James Gunn or Taika Waititi, and I feel that they didn’t truly understand how Star-Lord and Thor should act. The misuse of Peter Quill could be chalked up to a plot device, having to have a fall guy to stop the team from getting the Infinity Gauntlet off of Thanos. So of course Quill would have to lose his marbles and ruin the whole plan, even though that’s not something he would have done in one of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. However, the Russos trying to use the comedic Thor that Waititi created in Ragnarok just seemed ingenuine. Perhaps this is just my opinion, but I thought that Thor calling Rocket a rabbit and most of his other jokes just fell flat, and then at the end of the movie he kind of reverts back to the traditional Thor that we all know. However, I can guarantee that the Russo brothers are both way smarter than me, and there could be some aspect of these characters that I failed to see. But as a common movie goer, I just didn’t understand half of the actions that these two particular characters partook in, and that’s not something the directors should want when creating a movie.
A Gratious Cameo
One of my favorite parts of the movie was the surprise appearance of everyone’s favorite Nazi lunatic, Red Skull. I hated the fact that Lady Death wouldn’t be included in the MCU’s version of the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, but having Red Skull somewhat take her place was a truly brilliant idea. I had hoped that he might pop up due to his importance in the original story, but I had no idea that the directors would actually do it, especially since the secret was so well kept. This tied up a huge loose end for the connected universe, however it is regretful that we will probably never see the character again. What’s even more regretful is the fact that Hugo Weaving refused to return to the role, so the studio had to recast the character in order to use him. I will say that Ross Marquand (who you may know as Aaron from The Walking Dead) made an excellent Red Skull, and I had no idea that it wasn’t Hugo Weaving until the end credits. They absolutely had to recast the role in order to use the character, and I think that everyone was satisfied with Marquand’s rendition of the character.
Thanos
Having such a large cast of brilliant actors and characters that have had their own solo movies means that any one of them could have easily been the star of this movie, yet none of them were. This movie was about Thanos from the beginning to the end, and I thought that was the best way to execute the film. Of course Doctor Strange and Iron Man, as well as many other characters, still played big parts in the movie, but having a story that revolves around Thanos really explains why he wants to erase half of the universe. Not to mention he’s officially the most relatable villain in the MCU, because I fully understand why he feels that he has to shave down the population. And unlike any other villain in the history of villains, Thanos’ henchmen aren’t replaceable. The first thing he wanted to know when he saw Doctor Strange was if Ebony Maw was dead, showing that he actually cares about his followers as much as they care about him. I just felt that Thanos wasn’t truly the Mad Titan from the comic books, he was a more justified rendition of the character, and I think that this bettered the movie overall.
Conclusion
While I hate that the ending of the movie is so transparent in the terms of all of the heroes we lost coming back to life eventually, I do like how refreshing it is. This is the first superhero movie where the good guys didn’t win. Sure, they ran Thanos off wounded and powerless, but does that really matter now that he succeeded in his one goal? I went into this movie thinking that it would be the regular heroes fight villain, villain beats them at first, but then they rally back to save the day. I was pleasantly surprised that this was the one Marvel movie different from all the others. And even though I know he’s coming back, I will admit that I cried violently having to see Peter Parker die. Everyone loves Spider-Man, fans have been waiting so long for him to come home to Marvel, and then we have to see him die in the arms of the only father figure he has left. That one performance (which was improvised mind you, so props to Tom Holland) made this entire movie, and made all the other deaths seem petty. Although I did thoroughly dismantle the film to look at the parts I didn’t like, I do think this is one of the best Marvel movies so far, and I wouldn’t mind watching it 100 more times.
