Avengers: Infinity War is now opening in theaters, and Marvel fan mania is at an all-time high. A lot of fans are going into the film without doing their usual due diligence of reading through reviews, or putting stock in scores from aggregate sites. (If you need a safe spoiler-free review, watch ours here.)
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However, despite the announcement that Avengers: Infinity War is kicking off with a favorable score on Rotten Tomatoes of 88% after 180 reviews, “favorable” doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as “perfect.” Like all films, Infinity War has its fair share of detractors, and in this case, there is some amount of intrigue behind the question of why a handful of critics think the film is a failure.
Read below for the harsh critical consensus on Avengers: Infinity War‘s alleged flaws.
NY Times
“Considered on its own, as a single, nearly 2-hour-40-minute movie, “Avengers: Infinity War” makes very little sense, apart from the near convergence of its title and its running time… But of course this film, the 19th installment in a series, was never meant to be viewed or judged in isolation. In that respect it shouldn’t really be thought of as a movie at all, at least in the ways people with jobs like mine are accustomed to using the word. Which poses a few difficulties, for me and also, I would argue, for you.”
LA Times
“My initial fear was that “Avengers: Infinity War” would be a hopeless, planet-hopping traffic jam of a movie, a black hole of enervating cinematic chaos. The reality may be even more depressing: It works just fine, and that’s all it was ever meant to do. Few of the characters leave us wanting more because there doesn’t, at this late phase, appear to be anything more.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“At one point in the Avengers: Infinity War, we are informed that some of the characters have entered “Knowhere.” I can relate. The more you know in this 156-minute plate of plot spaghetti, the less you feel like you’re getting somewhere.”
Time
“Avengers: Infinity War knows what a big deal it is. Just about all the Avengers together, in one two-hour-and-forty-minute movie, battling the most power-mad villain there ever was: Wow! Better not blow this one. And so the movie treats audience expectations like a set of ice-cube trays to be filled, and in the end, you have to admit it’s very thorough. That’s not the nicest thing you can say about it; it’s the most damning.”
Digital Spy
“It’s epic, sure, but if anything it’s too epic. The characters are too many, the action too massive, the stakes too high, the players too powerful. And at times, it’s like watching dominoes fall down – you can sit and watch, and enjoy the spectacle and the technical proficiency, but you know exactly where they’re going to land in the end. Never boring, visually impressive, but ultimately rather depressing and unsatisfying, Infinity War will leave you wanting more. But not necessarily in the best way.”
Slate
“The Marvel movies have spent the better part of a decade building Thanos up to be the ultimate big bad. But as Infinity War flits from one group of heroes to the next, ping-ponging around the galaxy in a strained quest to give its more than three-dozen regulars something of import to do, you may start to wonder if the movie’s mauve madman has a point about overpopulation. Sitting through its 2 hours and 30 minutes is like gorging on tapas: You wind up both overstuffed and unsatisfied.”
Film Pulse
“From the ensemble to the action, the “more is more” strategy makes for a collection of moments that often entertain yet fail to completely coalesce into a cohesive 150-minute epic. However seemingly crazy the ending is, I was still left cold overall.”
The Consensus
So, is there any real consensus here? After looking through all of the twenty-two rotten reviews currently on Rotten Tomatoes, there definitely seems to be.
The most clear criticism echoed in all of the reviews posted above, is this: Avengers: Infinity War comes to us looking like a buffet banquet, but is only as filling as a some cocktail party appetizers. Unpacking that metaphor further: the harshest critics seem to all think that the film may fulfill its obligation to bring all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters together, but in doing so, loses any kind of heart, substance, or (in the recurring bad pun) soul.
There’s a fair point in those criticisms – even if Marvel fans may not want to hear them right now, while they’re still so excited to see this film. Despite Marvel’s claim that Avengers 3 & 4 are both standalone films, Infinity War is definitely the first half of a two-part story. The nature of that setup, plus the overabundance of characters, makes it hard for any particular characters or character arcs to get much depth; add to that the fact that the film focuses quite a lot of attention on its villain, Thanos, and there’s even less time to indulge in the MCU heroes that got us here.
Does that mean Avengers: Infinity War should be written off as a failure? Hell no. There are just as many (spoiler-free) positive reviews of the film, which praise the thrilling “event” of seeing all of these characters come together – even while acknowledging the drawbacks of doing so. For those heavily invested in these films over the last ten years, Infinity War provides so much depth for viewers to unpack, even if those moments are understated and rapidly paced throughout the film. So while there is always room for a range of critical response to any film, in our humble opinion, some critics may be missing the larger point of what this film means.
****
How do feel about these Avengers: Infinity War reviews? Are you reading them, or are you going in as uninformed as possible? When you have seen the film, how did your experience compare to this negative reviews? Let us know in the comments!
Avengers: Infinity War releases on April 27th. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.
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