Originally published April 23, 2019

Avengers: Infinity War is the most comic book-style movie I have ever seen. It’s structured like a six issue summer event comic. It also pulls directly from certain storylines to an extent hitherto undreamt of in the MCU. There are scenes that are nearly pulled directly from Infinity Gauntlet, panel by panel. If you replaced the Hulk with Silver Surfer, the shot in the Sanctum Sanctorum right before the title card would be a direct adaptation. There’s a whole new level of dedication at play is what I’m saying.

Unfortunately, it’s very, very hard to actually review Avengers: Infinity War, because it’s half a story. The film ends before the story does, leaving the resolution to happen in the sequel. I can’t really talk about any greater thematic concerns or major character arcs because they aren’t finished yet. I won’t be able to tell you what they all were or how well they worked until I’ve seen Avengers: Endgame. So I’ll try my best to weigh the elements I can, and we’ll meet back here in a few days to talk about Endgame.

The Story of a Universe

This movie is DENSE. There are so many characters, so many locations, so much plot, etc. And yet, it mostly works, far better than it has any right to. The pacing is very aggressive, but the directors have mixed up the tone and location of the various scenes well enough that it doesn’t become overwhelming.

If you set aside all the preconceptions, all the speculation, all the hype, Avengers: Infinity War is an incredibly emotionally moving film. In comparison, everything before this was prelude. This is the movie where the Avengers lose. This the movie where the stakes get universal in scale, but still have actual weight. It’s a fantastic movie in many respects, but there are several minor flaws and one major one that hold it back from true greatness.

The Cast

I’m not going to talk about all the performances in Avengers: Infinity War. There’s too many to discuss even the important ones individually. Plus, let’s be honest, if you’re reading this you probably know the score on all the heroes and the actors who play them.

Instead, I’m going to talk about one particular performance: Josh Brolin as Thanos. It’s a lot more understated than I would have expected, but in many ways that works to the film’s benefit. Thanos might be a madman, but he’s not raving. His genocidal lunacy is quiet. He appears even-tempered on the surface. It’s a solid performance that is more than sufficient to anchor the film.

Worlds Collide

Here’s something that really works in this film, regardless of future narrative choices: the character interactions. They are absolutely perfect, for the most part.

RDJ and Benedict Cumberbatch have a delightful repartee. I know I made fun of Doctor Strange for being an Iron Man clone, but that pays dividends here, as the two men are sizing each other up and realize they’re annoyed by what they see.

Peter Quill developing an immediate inferiority complex upon seeing Thor is so on-brand it hurts. Rocket developing an immediate bromance with Thor the second he realizes he’s looking for weapons is even more on-brand than that.

Wanda and Vision’s relationship has developed off-screen between movies. Even so, both actors sell the affection the two share easily. At the end, when Wanda must destroy the Mind Stone and therefore destroy Vision, the parting words and Wanda’s anguish are earned. I’m incredibly excited to explore this dynamic further now that the unlikely pair are getting their own show.

Tony Stark and company encountering the remaining Guardians is absolute gold. “Yeah, that’s on Earth, dipshit,” is still one of the funniest lines in any of these movies, and also indicative of the general education levels in Missouri.

Production Design

The design aspects of the film are top notch for the most part, although with a couple of exceptions. I love the costuming and character design for almost everybody. I also really like the new Cap design, but I’ll be honest, even I’m not sure if that’s because it’s actually good or if it’s because Chris Evans can work that beard. Cuz, I mean…damn. He can WORK that beard.

The exceptions are Iron Man and Spider-Man. I don’t love the armor designs for either character. I prefer the Iron Man suit to look like a suit of actual armor, not a shiny body suit, whereas I prefer my Spider-Man suit to just be less shiny in general.

The music is good, but super forgettable absent the bit they stole from Black Panther.

The fight and action choreography is exquisite, which is a good thing when about 60% of the run-time is fights. Every character’s abilities get used in creative ways to craft inventive and kinetic fight choreography. The scene in New York involving two members of Thanos’s Black Order against Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Wong is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to creative combat applications of superpowers. You’ve got web-shooters, portals, telekinesis, a Cloak of Levitation, and repulsors all involved in a game of keep away for the Time Stone.

Fan Service

There are a handful of other standout scenes that will get to any Marvel fan.

The introduction of the Guardians is pitch-perfect. James Gunn definitely consulted on it. The combo of a song from 1976 and a healthy helping of inter-personal bickering emulates the Guardians’ own movies exactly.

The entire sequence of Scarlet Witch protecting a wounded Vision from Thanos’s until Cap and his team arrive to save the day is just incredible. There’s a tangible desperation in Wanda’s moves, a creeping despair as her opponents continue to hound her despite her great power. That makes Cap’s appearance, set to the Avengers Suite, all the more cathartic.

Thor’s arrival in Wakanda is triumphant and iconic. The tension prior to his arrival is immaculately built, which makes it all the more exciting when he shows up and turns the tide of battle.

The final scenes of the movie are flawless. The Snap itself is executed with precision, paced perfectly for maximum emotional devastation as each hero falls. No matter what happens elsewhere in the film or what happens in Endgame, this scene will still be exceptional.

A Few Issues

I had a handful of minor problems with the film. Several characters get shortchanged. Cap and Black Widow are the most obvious ones. Thanos’s lackeys are pretty bland, to that extent that I doubt anybody will remember them a week after they see the film. Red Skull makes a reappearance without adequate narrative justification for it.

I only had one major problems with the film. Gamora was horrifically mishandled in this film. If you want to read more on this, scroll down, as I’m giving it a separate section.

Themes of Avengers: Infinity War

If I had to pick and overarching theme for the film, I’d say it’s the danger of division. Most of the problems in the film occur because the heroes are divided and not coordinating effectively. The heroes on Titan fail because Star-lord goes off-book. In a broader sense, everybody fails because the heroes are never all together to make a stand. I have a sneaking suspicion that the gist of what Endgame is about is making things right and assembling the Avengers into a united front.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film. It’s a fun ride, and it represents a type of serialized storytelling we don’t normally see in film. However, precisely because of the serialized nature of the narrative, how good this film ends up being is partially contingent on what happens in Endgame.

I’m still going to try and rank it, however. Precisely because it’s incomplete, and for the reason elaborated upon below, I can’t put it in the upper echelon. But on purely technical level it’s spectacular. So I’m going to put it here.

Now for that extra something.

The Problem of Gamora

Content Warning: I’m going to be discussing a particular trope known as “fridging.” There are debates as to the exact meaning of the term, but for this argument we’re going to focus on the subsection of examples wherein violence, often fatal, is applied against a (generally female) character in order to further the arc of a different (generally male) character. If you want to know more, google it. I know TV Tropes has a dedicated page. This is going to touch on particularized patterns of violence and abuse. No judgement at all if you’re not down to discuss that.

Gamora, played by Zoe Saldana, is the main heroine of the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Her primary arc in those films revolves around the concept of family, as she learns to build a new home while coming to terms with her past. Her new family is obviously the Guardians, but her past is defined by her sister, Nebula, and their adoptive father, Thanos, who just so happens to be the main villain of this new film. Through both GotG films, Gamora begins to rebuild her relationship with a Nebula while trying to make amends for the sins she committed while serving Thanos.

And thus we come to our problem: Infinity War.

Women in Refrigerators

Midway through the film, Thanos takes Gamora to a barren planet to obtain the Soul Stone. When he gets there, he discovers that the only way to obtain the stone is to sacrifice the thing he loves most. In a “shocking” turn of events, the thing Thanos loves most is Gamora. So he kills her.

The scene isn’t particularly quick or easy. Gamora fights as Thanos drags her to the edge of a cliff for the sacrifice. We see her struggle, we see her fall, and we see her lifeless body at the bottom of the cliff. It’s hard to watch.

It should be noted that this is not the only indignity Gamora suffers in the film. When the Guardians first confront Thanos, Gamora appears to get the drop on him and fatally wound him. She watches as he slowly bleeds out, sobbing. It’s then revealed that the whole scenario was a charade created by Thanos. When Thanos captures her, she’s forced to beg Star-Lord to kill her before Thanos can take what she knows. This is, of course, futile, because the film cannot allow Thanos to be denied. Both times, not only is Gamora denied agency, but Thanos intentionally inflict emotional distress upon her for no obvious reason.

Strong Women Made Weak

In truth, Gamora is stripped of essentially all agency throughout the film. Even when she attempts to make decisions or take action, she’s thwarted by Thanos. Specifically by Thanos. All the other heroes ultimately fail, but they both win the occasional small victory, and are thwarted by actions taken by characters other than just Thanos. Gamora is fairly unique in that her attempts at agency are foiled by only her adoptive father, who has previously been specifically stated to have abused both her and her sister..

Look, I’m not new to comics. In fact, I’m quite well-acquainted with Gamora in comics. I know her history with the Soul Stone and death and resurrection. I am well aware that there is every likelihood that Gamora is back by the end of the next Avengers film. The fact that she dies is not the issue. It’s how she dies, and what the purpose of that death is, that’s the problem.

This tragic scene isn’t about Gamora. It’s about Thanos. And not only is it about Thanos, it’s not even a purely negative depiction of him. Remember, the whole reason this scene occurs is because Thanos needs to sacrifice what he loves most. Multiple scenes have demonstrated his brutality thus far, so there’s nothing new in that aspect of the scene. The arbiter of the sincerity of the gesture is the Soul Stone itself, the literal embodiment of the universal concept of the soul, meaning that this only works if, within the context of this fictional universe, Thanos really does love Gamora.

Women In Service of Men

To put it plainly, the film chooses to have an established, beloved character be violently murdered by her long-time abuser, and the primary takeaway is meant to be that the murderer loved his victim. It’s supposed to deepen HIS character.

But that’s not all. There’s a moment in the final battle where the heroes realize Thanos has killed Gamora. Nebula is the one who figures it out. Nebula, Gamora’s sister, who is the reason that Thanos had both the knowledge and the leverage to force Gamora to reveal the location of the Soul Stone. Now, is it Nebula that gets a big character moment out of this revelation? No, it’s Star-Lord. Gamora’s death is not only used to advance the characters of the men around her, it’s done to the exclusion of women who would realistically be impacted by it.

Folks, this treatment of Gamora (and Nebula as well) is messed up. It’s one of the most offensive cases of fridging I can recall ever seeing, because it’s the only one I remember where the character having their arc moved forward is the same as the character perpetrating the violence.

Now, I will not be shocked if most viewers do not pick up on this reading. This is a fast-paced film. There’s not much room for an audience to sit and digest what they’ve seen. And people likely won’t focus on this scene in particular because later events in the film are more tragic in scope, of not necessarily in depth. But the problematic nature of the scene doesn’t disappear just because some people are busy focusing on other parts of the movie. This is part of a large and continuing problem throughout genre fiction, but especially in comics.

An Ongoing Problem

Again, this isn’t a fringe case. Comics and related media have a long history with this type of violence, hence why there’s a specific term for it. In general, comics and related media have had issues with representation, especially when it comes to women of color.

You’ll note that the MCU (a decade old and 21 films deep) got its first female-led film just last month. Even when you look outside of the lead roles, Zoe Saldana was the first and only prominent actress of color involved with the MCU until Guardians of the Galaxy 2. So we’re talking about a history of stories with both a surplus of negative treatment AND a lack of positive treatment. If you’ll remember, I’ve talked about the recurrent representation issue before, here and here, as it pertains to Asian representation. It’s so much bigger than that, however. This is bad as a single data point, but it’s part of a long-term trend. Female suffering has been normalized in the MCU in a way that male suffering has not.

The Trend

Gamora and Nebula are taken after their families are killed and are then forced through a whole spectrum of abuse, sometimes being forced to be complicit in Thanos’ abuse of each other. Mantis is kidnapped and raised alone by an omnicidal lunatic. Black Widow is trained from childhood to be a killer and constantly angsts over it. Wanda Maximiff loses her entire family and is then forced to kill the man she loves. Janet van Dyne is lost in the Quantum Realm for decades.

Even Captain Marvel, as much as I may love it, has this problem to an extent. Carol Danvers gets kidnapped, has her memory wiped, and is forced into a genocidal war. She ultimately triumphs, but it’s indicative of that pattern where awful things are forced on the women of the franchise.

There are definitely bad things that happen to some of the men, but there’s a clear dividing line as far as the frequency and severity of it.

The Troubling Possivilities of Endgame

And this is coupled with the fact that the end of the film, the so-called “snap,” takes a much larger toll on the more diverse denizens of the MCU, leaving Avengers: Endgame with an overwhelmingly white (and male) cast to pull from.

To be clear, I really enjoyed Infinity War. I am glad that it embraces so much about the source material. But as glad as I might be that the films are embracing elements from the comic books, I really wish this trope wasn’t one of them. The specific invocation of this trope really soured me on the movie, even though the film does a lot of other stuff I like. I’m just not interested in stories that sprinkle in horrific violence against the few female characters permitted to exist. I’m even less interested in stories that do that to demonstrate the complexity of the perpetrator’s character.

My greatest fear for Endgame is that characters like Captain Marvel, James Rhodes, and Nebula are going to be glossed over in favor of the old guard. I just really, really hope that the more diverse new guard is going to get some love loving forward, and that the creative types will learn to think about the subtext if their scripts a little bit more carefully.

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