WARNING: This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War.

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Avengers: Infinity War, the massive Marvel extravaganza that’s been years in the making, may be toppling box office records and delighting the shared universe’s hardcore fans, but it’s one of Marvel’s weaker efforts, and it’s pretty easily the weakest of the Avengers films.

There’s a secret that any longtime comic book fan will tell you: “event comics” - the stories where dozens of costumed heroes unite to thwart some sort of ostensibly unstoppable villain bent on universal destruction - are almost always lousy. For every classic, like Crisis On Infinite Earths or Secret Wars, there are dozens that end up as companywide disappointments because they’re overstuffed indulgences with nothing to say. It seemed inevitable we’d get to the cinematic version of that underwhelming spectacle, and it has arrived in the guise of Thanos’ gigantic purple jawline.

Comic fans’ imaginations went into overdrive when Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury showed up after the credits to tell Tony Stark about the Avengers Initiative in 2008’s Iron Man. That film - and that scene - is still one of the high water marks of the superhero film genre, as it showcased a fully realized comic book world with a wink and nod sense of humor and a mesmerizing lead performance from a perfectly cast Robert Downey, Jr. It became the template for Captain America: The First Avenger, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor, which all set the stage for the first Avengers film to varying degrees.

  • This Page: What The First Two Avengers Films Got Right

What The First Two Avengers Films Got Right

It’s easy to forget now, but there was a widespread, genuine concern that Avengers was a fool’s errand, that there was simply no way to successfully interweave the worlds and narratives of so many different films and characters. Of course, writer/director Joss Whedon emphatically proved those naysayers wrong, delivering one of the most viscerally satisfying popcorn movies of all time. The Avengers even somehow managed to smuggle in some lovely characters moments - Bruce Banner’s secret to controlling the Hulk, how Tony’s uneasy relationship with Steve Rogers was so deeply shaped by his complicated relationship with his father, the shawarma - and enjoyed a record-breaking box office run that shocked many by besting Christopher Nolan’s final Batman epic, The Dark Knight Rises. Yet rather than sitting back and treating Avengers as a crowning achievement, Marvel decided escalation would now be the name of the game, making bigger, more ambitious crossover films going forward.

Marvel’s “Phase Two” was a little more uneven quality wise - though it still featured two unqualified gems in Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier - with the inescapable feeling that a shift had taken place, that the primary driver for a lot of Marvel movies’ existence was to promote future Marvel movies. This actually ended up being something of a sticking point for Whedon during production of his Avengers sequel, the lumpier, weirder Age of Ultron. Whedon infamously expressed frustration with the necessity of balancing so many different franchise balls in the air, having to service both the previous and future MCU films to a certain degree. That burgeoning shared universe obligation didn’t prevent Avengers: Age of Ultron from, in many ways, becoming a more fascinating film than the first one; it showcased Hawkeye’s surprisingly wholesome family life, a bewitching version of the stalwart Marvel android Vision, and a deeply messed up, controversial romance between Bruce Banner and Black Widow.

Age of Ultron also featured a deliciously disturbing bad guy turn from James Spader as the unhinged titular robot, a hubristic mistake of Tony Stark’s own making that he spends the rest of the movie trying to atone for. Say what you will about Age of Ultron, but it’s definitely the only $250 million Hollywood blockbuster where the climax is two artificial lifeforms discussing the tragic beauty of humanity’s mortality. Whedon’s frustration and exhaustion led him to leave the MCU behind after Age of Ultron - though he still gets a little wistful over the fact he never got to play with Star-Lord and friends.

Marvel’s “Phase Three” showcased some genuinely dazzling films like the cultural and box office juggernaut that is Black Panther, as well as Thor: Ragnarok, which achieved the seeming impossible by making a Thor film deliriously fun. And yet Infinity War - the culmination of both “Phase Three” and the greater Thanos threat seeded all the way back in the mid-credits scene of the first Avengers - could not possibly have less in common with those films; it also happens to lack the straightforward pleasures of the original Avengers and the eccentric verve of Age of Ultron.

Avengers: Infinity War Is Too Big And Non-Committal

Avengers: Infinity War is a film made small by its gigantic scope; virtually every line of dialogue is either dutiful exposition or sub-Whedon snark, the latter pinch-hitting for any actual character work or - Odin forbid - a moment where the plot downshifts in deference to moments of actual humanity. It feels like directors Joe and Anthony Russo - helmers of the glorious Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the slightly less glorious Captain America: Civil War - let the film get away from them as it descends into an escalating series of fight vignettes that don’t have much to say other than “we have to stop Thanos.” The fact that Thanos’ motivations are kind of ridiculous doesn’t help matters, even if Josh Brolin does serviceable work making the Mad Titan a bit more than the cavalcade of empty mustache twirlers that have hampered a perplexing number of MCU films.

The film’s “shock” ending is only a shock if you’ve never read a comic or don’t understand how franchise moviemaking works. Thanos’ victory in assembling the Infinity Stones - which sees half the universe’s population turn to ash, including more than a few notable Avengers - will somehow be undone in next year’s Avengers 4. There’s a decent chance Earth’s Mightiest Heroes could suffer some honest to goodness casualties in that film, but if you’re crying tears for the dearly departed Black Panther or Spider-Man, the writers of The Death of Superman have a Kryptonian bridge to sell you. It’s hard to mourn for the fallen when some fashion of a reset button is on the horizon.

Read More: Avengers: Infinity War Tries To Raise The MCU’s Stakes (But Fails)

One of the easiest contrarian criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that the constant crossovers and cliffhanger after-credit sequences have made it so most entries are episodic to the point they can’t stand on their own as actual films in the conventional sense of the term. That’s mostly been wrong; while there are almost always tangential crossovers, virtually every Marvel movie tells some form of a complete, cohesive story that manages to say something interesting about the heroes and their worlds. Infinity War is the first MCU film where viewers need at least some prior understanding of the previous movies to make heads or tails of what’s happening, and where the ending is a straight up cliffhanger that will likely be directly picked up in the next entry, and then almost certainly walked back.

Avengers: Infinity War Poses Major Questions About Where Marvel Is Heading

Those aren’t even necessarily terrible things from a certain perspective. Infinity War’s unprecedented status as the culmination of an 18-film pre-game has resulted in near-hysterical excitement from the devoted and enough interest from the general public to ensure the biggest opening weekend of all time; its darker than expected cliffhanger ending means Avengers 4 can probably bank on an even bigger opening weekend next year. It’s also probably the superhero film that feels the most like an actual comic book issue, which is innovative if nothing else.

But there’s the very real threat of Marvel losing something here. The fact that Infinity War is both literally half of a plot and unconcerned with some of the basic tenets of filmic storytelling suggests they could be flirting with the kind of fast food cheeseburger version of a movie their more cynical detractors so often accuse them of. Marvel’s braintrust has done a brilliant job of avoiding churning out that sort of soulless product up to this point, but with the cinematic universe’s future in its least defined form in years - with several of its most beloved stars likely moving on soon - the studio needs to remember the sort of films and filmmakers that made it so beloved.

Avengers: Infinity War, with its breathless, “more is more” approach, is not one of those films, but it doesn’t have to be a harbinger of things to come. Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, and Spider-Man: Homecoming all proved the studio is willing to change up its formula enough to keep things fresh and interesting with its solo films. The real question is likely whether or not Marvel can commit to subverting expectations for its gigantic crossover films, which were once home of engaging, even slightly strange storytelling. If not, the Avengers movies are going to end up becoming bland signposts that dilute the superior solo films, which would be a much more devastating blow than anything Thanos could deliver.

Next: Avengers: Infinity War Skips A Lot of Important Stuff

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