Critics and fans (running with the idea there’s a difference) can have a somewhat strained relationship, to put it lightly. It’s become part of the ritual whenever a film with any kind of hype comes out that some camp of fans will take it upon themselves to very vocally disagree with how critics have misread the movie and should be fired from their jobs. Sometimes this unrest spawns from deep divisions within the fandom itself, as we saw with The Last Jedi and Batman v Superman, where voicing a hot-take for or against guaranteed some level of vitriolic pushback from embittered fans with a vendetta. Other times, like this, there’s a more clear-cut divide as reviewers and the general audience come away from the work with distinctly different experiences.
- This Page: Infinity War Is More Than a Movie - Especially For Fans
Infinity War Is A Huge Film From The Biggest Franchise Ever
The MCU is the biggest film franchise of all-time, and we’re not just talking how much money its made (but it’s conquering there too). In terms of installments and recurring characters and settings and world-building, Marvel’s now 19-consecutive-film run is unrivaled, and by quite some margin. That’s taking in seven disparate series and the big phase-ending crossovers, of which Infinity War is the penultimate. And as the penultimate crossing-over of the all the heroes from across this ever-expanding universe, Avengers 3 has a lot to juggle. Like, a lot to juggle, bringing dozens of arcs and bits and pieces of foreshadowing to a head in a stand-off between good and evil that somehow outdoes everything that’s come before and gives everyone on-screen a moment to shine.
Avengers: Infinity War is the epitome of a franchise film. It’s the grandest realization of episodic storytelling and franchise studio production we’ve seen from Hollywood and that makes it a difficult thing to discuss critically. This creates an inherent division in critical consensus because if a critic doesn’t like the MCU generally, they probably didn’t like this and if they do then they did, and in either case constructing a review is difficult because so much of Infinity War comes from other films. Reviewing a movie means reviewing the work as it is but talking about Avengers 3 as stand-alone undersells the fundamental ideas behind its creation and talking about it as this grand sequel detracts from contextualizing it as its own movie.
And Avengers: Infinity War is filled with references and in-jokes and little bits of fan-service, so much so that seeing it in a packed theatre is a legitimately thrilling experience in and of itself. It’s a movie meant to be seen with a crowd at any possible opportunity. This is a film made to play to a certain demographic, designed to be thrilling, funny and dramatic in all the ways MCU die-hards have told the studio they enjoyed from previous features.
But when you divorce that humor and indoor baseball from a full screening and keen personal interest in the subject matter, the whole thing can seem totally impenetrable. Just like tuning in during a big season finale, if you’re not already into it and involved, nothing makes sense and there’s very little primer to catch you up. And while it’s important to acknowledge how much people who are into Marvel’s output will like it, that only goes so far for something that may otherwise go completely over your head if you’re new.
The Press Know The Ending Is Temporary
The entire purpose of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is to emulate the transitory feeling of the comics. Everything is intertwined and happening consecutively for years. On the one hand, this has made for exciting storytelling as the franchise has evolved and widened, but on the other, the amount of actual drama is weakened because those who follow intently know nothing is ever the end. The contracts for any main cast members can contain half-a-dozen or more films and Marvel like to make a song-and-dance about announcing entire phases of movies whenever they can, all of which is great for building excitement but can drastically lower the potential for drama for anyone that allows behind the scenes information to penetrate the drama on screen. People who follow film news for a living know full well whose contract is ending and whose isn’t, as well as what sequels are coming and what is most likely to be announced, robbing any phase-ender of its potential shock value.
Marvel’s own machine for generating excitement is what undercuts its biggest releases. Avengers: Infinity War touts itself as the culmination of ten years of build-up. And it is, for the most part, but it’s hard to feel like the ending is a genuine one when there’s already two movies following Avengers 4 featuring characters who died in Infinity War. What’s more, only a few contracts are ending. Granted they’re the biggest ones like Downey, Evans, and Hemsworth, but they are very much in the minority now. There’s other, newer heroes who’ve deals stretching beyond Phase 3, and when the cliffhanger ending kills off mostly these fresher faces including Marvel’s biggest asset after Tony Stark, Black Panther it reduces the believability that any of this will ultimately matter.
All of which affects reviewing the film because despite what the directors say, a cliffhanger doesn’t have any tension if you already know the characters are coming back in a sequel, and a cliffhanger without tension isn’t really a cliffhanger. It’s hard to reward the movie as the result of a decade of franchising when it’s not the end of the franchise, bringing into question what, if anything, is actually being accomplished. For fans, there’s the whole idea of the original six Avengers moving away from the series and getting some sort of closure on something they’ve grown up with. Younger audience members aren’t aware there’s a new Spider-Man coming next year or a new Guardians of the Galaxy the year after that to them, the Avengers got beat and that’s it. But to critics and members of the press, Infinity War is just another chapter in a long book that’s only getting longer.
And, really, when one considers the fan and critic divide, that’s where the difference lies. Audiences are often happy with temporary entertainment, while part of the job of a critic is to treat a film like there’s more to it and to question its foundations. Avengers: Infinity War is a great achievement that has made history several times over and opening weekend has only just happened. But it’s part of an often soulless and corporate studio-system that’s working hard to provide an ending without providing an ending. Critics might seem a little jaded, but when Spider-Man’s brought back to life for another awkward teen comedy after fading into non-existence on some distant planet, it’s not hard to imagine a few more joining them.
Next: Infinity War Is A Cool Event But The Weakest Avengers Film
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