AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR - The Stones on This Guy

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Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Writers: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
Cast: Josh Brolin, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Tom Hiddleston, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Idris Elba, Danai Gurira, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio Del Toro, Chris Pratt, Carrie Coon
Runtime: 149 mins.
2018

Infinity War stands as the new opening weekend box office growth record holder with around $250 million, an unprecedented cultural moment that demonstrates without doubt that Disney and Marvel are still the masters of pop mythology. The MCU remains the only shared universe with any real dignity, and not for lack of competitors. Despite the common recurring criticisms and the ceaseless cries that superheroes are on the way out, the MCU has stayed in the general public's good graces.

To their credit, Kevin Feige and company have not settled into complacency. Each subsequent Marvel movie has gotten marginally broader in its scope, and quite a bit stranger in its content. The cross-film universe has bent and warped to include deposed gods, talking raccoons, and interdimensional sorcerers in its ranks. The MCU has embraced growth of imagination, with each new entry expanding the realm of what weirdness is possible. In keeping with this trend, Infinity War does indeed represent something new for these movies. Not only does it attempt to bring dozens of characters together into an enormous tapestry, but it makes a point of hitting harder than any of its predecessors.

Yes, this is the much ballyhooed entry in the MCU which is supposed to have Real Consequences. The tone is dark, dire, and relentless. From the get go, Infinity War is committed to plowing through its story with an unbearable sense of fatalism. This pacing, Josh Brolin's coolly menacing performance, and the immediately-spiking MCU death count all combine to make Infinity War the first MCU movie that has a real air of suspense about it. These movies have always been first and foremost breezy affairs, but there is a whiff of mythic consequence to the way Thanos tears through our favorite heroes' lives. I can't help but be impressed with the amount of body horror and aching despair the Russo Brothers packed into this ostensibly four-quadrant crowd-pleaser.

And yet, when one takes true artistic risks, one will inevitably alienate portions of one's audience, and it's pretty clear that nobody was alienated by Infinity War, which has received near universal praise. How is it that such a brash blockbuster could still appeal to so many?

My answer is that Infinity War is a sham of a movie. This becomes clear (SPOILERS AHEAD) the moment Thanos's climactic holocaust dissolves Black Panther. And then Spider-Man. Any traumatic crisis featured in this film will be neatly resolved by the end of next summer. Our favorites will all return for endless franchise entries.

To call a thing a sham is a strong choice, so I must be clear about what that implies. Infinity War is an impressive, well-constructed piece of entertainment full of likable characters and decent suspense, one that I very much enjoyed. But it is not at all climactic, consequential, or a movie in any real way. Movies are stories in which, over the course of various plot machinations and character interactions, some change occurs. Infinity War can barely be considered a movie because it is the purest example so far of MCU's staunch resistance to meaningful narrative change.

When you focus in on any of the characters in this film, the sham becomes apparent. How many characters from the movie can you name who go through a meaningful change by the end of the film, one that is dramatized rather than implied? Captain America shows up to utter a few bored truisms, the Hulk is mostly a mouthpiece for exposition, Iron Man shucks more of the same guilt-ridden dutifulness, Thor has a few nice character moments that still seem underwhelming in comparison to the tragedy he just faced. Black Panther, Black Widow, War Machine, Spider-Man, they are all present to throw punches and not a whole lot else. Boseman specifically seems to have already tired with his contractual obligations.

The common counterargument is that it's not fair to hold these characters to cinematic standards for development within a single movie because a shared universe is fundamentally different, and requires critics to take into account arcs across other movies in the franchise. I disagree with this argument as a matter of principle, but even if it were to be entertained, the stagnant character development within Infinity War becomes downright regressive when linked up to the rest of the franchise. What little character development has previously been accomplished is consistently undone in the name of feverish status quo resets. Here is a short list of inexcusable anti-story decisions:

Civil War was supposed to be this decisive conflict with consequences that would spread throughout the films to follow, but all told the film left us with only two significant traumas: War Machine was paralyzed and Captain America and Iron Man had fallen out. Here we are in Infinity War; War Machine's robot legs are apparently just as good as regular legs and don't limit his mobility whatsoever. Meanwhile, the only consequence of the falling out is that Hulk has to make the call to Cap instead of Tony.

The entire point of Peter's shoddy arc in Spider-Man: Homecoming is that he turns down the Avenger title in the end. Yet he is perfunctorily knighted as an Avenger in this movie with no further commentary.

Bruce breaks off his love affair with Natasha by flying to another planet without saying goodbye. When they meet again they both say hi to each other and it's fine.

Thor: Ragnarok was a rare example of an MCU movie with a strong story sense, yet everything that movie accomplished narratively and thematically is undone in spectacularly disrespectful fashion by the opening minute of Infinity War. As much as that shocking choice set the tone for Infinity War, it retroactively makes so much of Ragnarok pointless. This is even metonymically symbolised by Thor casually getting a replacement eye as if that distinctive, cool, and meaningful character trauma had never happened.

You may then argue that they are setting up for payoff in the next one. Please recognize that you are falling victim to the party line if you believe this; folks have made the same exact excuse for most of the other eighteen films in this franchise. Marvel has no intention on making good with its payoffs; they know that they can maximize their evergreen fields of profit if they treat their heroes more as action figures than characters. In this universe, stories never conclude, only contracts do.

So the sham of Infinity War is that it is more of a movie-shaped artifact than a movie proper. That being said, although it is a pretty rubbish movie, it is a rather effective piece of entertainment. It leverages built up goodwill to maximum effect, giving its audience no end of dopamine-releasing cameos and cool moments: it is the cotton candy of pop genocide. Although I believe this franchise's core to be hollow, I would never begrudge anyone their enjoyment of any piece of art--so long as we also understand the infinite game that is being played with our wallets.

2.5 / 5  BLOBS