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'Avengers: Infinity War' Wasn't Actually All That Good. Here's Why

In the wake of 'Endgame' being released, it's time to think critically about its predecessor

By M.J. DosseyPublished 5 years ago 9 min read
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This article will contain heavy spoilers for the film Avengers: Infinity War. If you haven't seen the film, I would suggest clicking away from this article now.

Avengers: Infinity War is not a great film.

There. I said it.

It isn't a great (or really even good) film. Not by Marvel standards, not by action movie standards, not by any standards. It's chock-full of flaws, inconsistent and flat characterization, and leaps of logic that blew my mind as I sat in the theater and watched for the first time. All in all, it has its moments, but it just doesn't cut it. It just doesn't live up to Marvel's more recent work and, dare I say, is an insult to the MCU as a whole.

However, none of this even starts to cover the biggest issue at the heart of the movie, an issue that in all likelihood wasn't intentional. The film is stuffed with implicit prejudice, especially racism and misogyny, that left me and many others deeply uncomfortable as we watched.

Let me make this clear right off the bat. This piece is not meant to shame those who liked the film and it is certainly not meant to demean the work and effort that was put into it by the actors and crew. I recognize and admire the work behind Avengers: Infinity War and I would never intend to offend those who worked on it or those who liked it. I am simply offering a perspective on the film that I haven't seen talked about very much.

Now, let's get started.

Marvel, I don't feel so good.

The most glaring flaw of Avengers: Infinity War is also one of the most difficult to see. However, implicit racism and misogyny are present in the film to such great extents that I was almost squirming in my seat from sheer discomfort with what was put onscreen.

Racism in film isn't always explicit. In fact, nowadays, it is far harder to see than it was in the days of "The Jazz Singer" and D.W. Griffith. It isn't just slurs and blackface. Racism comes in the form of black lives being devalued to pawns in a completely unnecessary war. Racism comes in the form of a woman of color's sacrifice for the sake of "man-pain" and plot points that shouldn't make sense at all. Racism comes in the form of up-close-and-personal onscreen murder of refugees in some of the most graphic and despicable ways ever seen in a Marvel film. Racism isn't just slurs and lynchings—it exists beyond the individual and thrives in the institutional.

As a quick recap, in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos needs all of the "infinity stones" (stones with supernatural powers that hold together the universe) in order to succeed in his plan of killing off half of the life in the universe. However, the Avengers already have their hands on one of these stones: the mind stone, which is implanted in the head of Vision, an android who seems more human than robot. In order to prevent Thanos from succeeding in his plan, the most logical route of action would be to destroy the mind stone.

Here's where one major instance of implicit racism comes in. Vision states multiple times that he is willing, albeit hesitant, to give his life for the sake of half of the universe. He recognizes that the cost of his life doesn't hold a candle to what the cost of trying to save him could be. If his death means that the universe is able to remain as it is without mass deaths and ruin, then he is willing to make that sacrifice.

However... Captain America commits one of the biggest leaps of logic I have ever seen put to screen with the line, "We don't trade lives."

Hmmm. Okay. Sounds like a nice enough philosophy on its own, right?

The Avengers head down to Wakanda, a never-colonized African nation with awe-inspiring technology, in order to try and surgically remove the mind stone from Vision so that it can be destroyed without harming him. Thanos's army invades Wakanda as this is happening, and in a race against time, Wakandan soldiers attack the enemy forces to try and hold them back. While Wakanda does have a powerful military, hundreds of Wakandans are killed in this effort to save one man.

"We don't trade lives," huh? It certainly looks like a lot of black lives were "traded" for the life of this one guy (who is played by a white actor and who does appear white in some scenes despite technically being a race-less android) who stated that he was willing to sacrifice himself to save half the universe.

So... What the hell was Marvel thinking here?

Why is Gamora?

While the subtle racism of Vision's subplot is glaring, it certainly isn't the extent of how insensitive bits of "Avengers: Infinity War" are. Another major problem can be summed up with one of the more famous lines in the film: "Why is Gamora?"

While Gamora is technically an alien, she is portrayed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by a woman of color, Zoe Saldana. In-universe, Gamora is the adopted daughter of Thanos, despite only being so because Thanos ripped her from her family at a very young age. Gamora is implied to be a victim of emotional and mental abuse from Thanos and she has no desire to see him or associate with him as an adult.

When Gamora is kidnapped by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, the abuse continues. He tortures Gamora's sister in front of her in order to get information out of her about the location of the soul stone, another of the infinity stones. When Gamora tells him, he takes her to the location of the stone, where the audience is informed that in order to get the soul stone, one must sacrifice somebody that they love. So, as a natural turn of events, Thanos murders Gamora and gets the soul stone.

Wait... What?

The nature of Gamora's brutal murder is a topic of contention among many feminist critics of the film. Thanos is, above all else, Gamora's abuser. He shows no indication of loving her as anything more than a pet or plaything throughout the film and the fact that his ploy to get the soul stone by killing her even works is appalling.

Men in media are allowed to abuse, manipulate, and even murder women and still allegedly "love" them. This is evidenced in films such as Blade Runner as well as the Twilight and Fifty Shades franchises. Men with power and control over women are allowed to exert this in sometimes gruesome and terrifying ways and it is still "romantic," they are still allowed to "love" the women they abuse despite their treatment of them. This is not lost on Gamora and Thanos's father-daughter relationship.

Abuse in fiction is often handled with respect and dignity. Many films focus on characters courageously escaping their abusive situations, a famous example being Steven Spielberg's 1985 period drama The Color Purple. It is possible to handle an abuse narrative with tact and love. However, Avengers: Infinity War fails to recognize the gravity of what it does with Thanos and Gamora's relationship. Rather than being a well-placed and interesting twist in the film's plot, the murder is shocking for all of the wrong reasons and upsetting for even more.

An abuser murdering his victim should not be a sign of love. Period.

Refugees to the Slaughter

Marvel, while generally being an all-ages film franchise, tends to lean toward the more violent end of the PG-13 spectrum. Many characters die or are brutally injured onscreen in Marvel's films and it isn't supremely shocking when a side character or villain will pass away. Even major characters such as Phil Coulson and major villains such as Erik Killmonger have died onscreen in the past, albeit often without much graphic gore. Death is no stranger to Marvel.

However, the very first scene of Avengers: Infinity War is a far more gruesome depiction of death than the series has shown in the past. The film begins with a scene directly following the ending of Thor: Ragnarok, in which the citizens of the planet Asgard are forced to leave and become refugees after their planet is destroyed. Ever well-meaning, Thor packs everybody he can into a spaceship en route to Earth. The group of Asgardian refugees is a diverse group indeed, with people from all races and walks of life visible onscreen, hope and fear co-mingled in their eyes as they leave the only home they have ever known.

The beginning of Avengers: Infinity War features these refugees massacred and mangled on the floor, bodies stacked upon bodies, with Idris Elba's character Heimdall being murdered onscreen within minutes of the film playing. While the death is indeed framed as tragic, the implications are upsetting to say the least.

In an era where refugees and immigrants are vilified by the same governments that colonized the countries from which they flee, onscreen murder of refugees is, if nothing else, in poor taste. In real life, refugees are both massacred through violence and through poverty. To begin a "family-friendly" film with a graphic shot of murdered refugees calls to mind the pain that real life refugees, most often people of color, experience daily. Even if it is not intentionally malicious, murdering a black refugee onscreen in a gruesome and graphic manner is incredibly foul, even if it is a measure to cement the villain as being truly evil. No white character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe suffers a death as senseless and cruel as Heimdall's; their deaths are always heroic, always for a larger purpose, almost always clean.

Where do we go from here?

Avengers: Infinity War has many more problems than those mentioned above, especially regarding the writing and organization of the plot and characters, but it is important to think critically about the media we consume and how it may reinforce negative stereotypes and ways of thinking about marginalized groups.

This article is not meant to demean the film or anybody who did work on it. It is also not meant to convince you to dislike this film. Rather, this article is intended as an informative work and as a different perspective on the film.

You can still love a certain piece of media while being critical of its more problematic elements. I hope that in the future, people will begin to engage more critically with the media they consume. I hope that people will begin to listen to marginalized groups when they talk about their issues with the popular media that demonizes and harms them. The sociopolitical landscape we live in right now can be confusing, but in the end, we can always be better and we can always engage critically with what we consume.

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About the Creator

M.J. Dossey

they/them || lesbian || filmmaker and critic || cares too much

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