To Infinity and… Below
Avengers: Infinity War was one of the most anticipated movies in America from the moment that fans knew it was going to happen. It’s supposedly “the most ambitious superhero movie of all time,” but it does not quite live up to that name.
The movie is 2.5 hours long (not including the end credit scene), and it becomes repetitive every few scenes. Thanos wants to get the Infinity Stones, the heroes try to stop him, and then the heroes fail and then regroup to try and fight Thanos together. Rinse, wash, and repeat for the entirety of the film.
Infinity War has an 85% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of a 7.5/10. Critics had their qualms about the movie, and I can’t help but to agree with them.
“The Avengers: Infinity War isn’t just a gussied-up mediocrity being widely mistaken for a good movie. It’s also, at least arguably, a dangerous movie for anyone who cares about the future of American cinema,” says critic Matthew Rozsa. It’s a harsh critique of the film, however it’s undeniably true.
The film is overambitious. Marvel tries to cram a bunch of storylines into one movie to make the most out of the characters, but they fail. I was still left wanting more out of certain scenes, especially with Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Natasha Romanov. They hardly had any screen time and their scenes barely made sense in the grand scheme of the film. Especially considering when Bruce Banner called Steve but you never see if he picks up, leaving the scene to flop. I also felt like I was missing something despite being in the theater the entire length of the movie.
Characterization of the heroes and their journeys throughout the film is completely lacking. Epic fight scenes, explosions, and cheap humor dominate the majority of the 150 minutes. The only character who receives enough characterization is the villain himself, Thanos. He has most of the screen time, from throwing his daughter off of a cliff for the soul stone, to the scene where Peter Quill tried to shoot her to keep his promise and the gun only shot bubbles. The scenes including Thanos are amazing, epic, and beautifully illustrated but it’s too stark of a difference to the other, bland scenes of the movie
As critic Tim Martain states, “Thanos is given tremendous emotional depth and development but the rest of the vast superhero pantheon appear to have been given two hours of busy work.”
He speaks the truth. It feels like the ones trying to stop him are mildly inconvenienced up until the very end, and even so the ending scene itself is the most disappointing thing I’ve seen in an action movie, it’s comparable to the entirety of the Justice League movie but at least it’s not the Fantastic Four.
These are characters that have been developed through ten years of film, and the ending scene where they begin to die one by one is the most anticlimactic thing about this movie. The heroes simply crumble to dust and ash at the feet of their allies. The characters of which had deep personal ties with their friend’s backstories and even motivations. For characters that Marvel has spent this much money on, it’s ridiculously disappointing to see their final deaths get brushed to the side in such an unconcerned manner. It’s not as hard hitting as anticipated, it’s just flat disappointing.
Marvel disappointed me with this one. For a movie so anticipated, it flopped. I have to give it a solid 5/10 for the CGI editing and the choreography of the fight scenes, but everything else was lackluster and dry. Hopefully, Avengers: Infinity War 2 will do better at resolving the issues of its former.
