Avengers: Infinity War achieved an incredible task by uniting more superhero characters than any movie before it. It’s a gargantuan accomplishment that deserves the praise it has been getting. But, some fans have criticized just how many characters had to be used to tell this story. More importantly, it’s how those characters were used that has led to a few issues.
Let’s take a look at these complaints and try to see things from their perspective.
Disjointed by Default
With such a massive story to tell, Avengers: Infinity War was destined to fall victim to some sense of fractured storytelling. That’s not an inherently negative construct. Segmented storylines are extremely common in modern movies, especially with large tentpole features. It’s worth debating whether or not the film’s pacing between these multiple ongoing sequences is successful, but that’s not what this particular observation is about. The pertinent question is: does the presence of so many characters lead to too many concurrently running plot threads?
Yes, but that’s by design and also unified in a simple but effective way. Even with the varied goals each plotline is trying to achieve, the audience understands that everything is in service of one larger goal: stop Thanos from getting the Infinity Stones. That helps the audience stay centered when the film jumps back and forth to so many different characters with a variety of individual motivations. While some of the singular plots can get jumbled up or lose some of their solo power, their faults are mostly nullified thanks to our understanding of the film’s overarching mission.
For example, Thor‘s plot about having to forge a new weapon that can kill Thanos is one of the weaker threads of the film. While Thor’s personal motivation is set up very well in the opening scene, the forward momentum of his storyline isn’t nearly as propulsive as what else is going on. But, we don’t really pay attention to that when we’re in the moment because it’s easy to grasp the importance of Thor’s plot in regards to the bigger picture. In this instance, the large cast isn’t really an issue.
Balancing Character
This is the most difficult undertaking when you have an enormous ensemble. Trying to pay off a myriad of character beats with a vast number of characters is no easy feat. In fact, it’s clearly impossible and Avengers: Infinity War knows this. There are plenty of characters that are given very tiny moments that aren’t really positioned to be traditional arcs.
Two such characters are Black Panther and Bucky Barnes. They both make appearances in the film and serve a purpose from an action standpoint, but there is little to no attempt to give them any kind of development from who we know they are. If this means you were looking forward to seeing certain characters be utilized in significant ways, it’s likely you’ll be disappointed that they’ve been relegated to action figure status.
However, that’s a necessity with a film like Avengers: Infinity War. The only way to spend time giving every character their moment in the sun would be to elongate the film’s running time by a substantial margin. At some point, certain characters are going to have to be less multifaceted than others in order to service the story. Or, in the case of Hawkeye and Ant-Man, they will have to be removed entirely from the film in order to make room for pacing. If you think sacrificing deeper character explorations and growth so that the plot can progress in a quicker fashion is a negative way to approach storytelling, then the extensive cast is a problem in this area.
The Appeal of Excess
At the end of the day, a big part Avengers: Infinity War‘s attraction is the abundance of characters. Back in 2012, fans were flabbergasted to believe that The Avengers could somehow bring together a team of superheroes. That allure has only been broadened as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has continued to grow. It stands to reason that an Avengers film has to up the ante on how many characters it’s going to bring together.
Is that an inherent problem? It depends on what you want out of Avengers: Infinity War. If all you want is to see these seemingly disparate characters join together under one motivating plot, then you’re going to ignore any potential shakiness that comes from that structure. Granted, Avengers: Infinity War does its absolute best when it comes to balancing everything that’s going on, but the nature of its structure means it’s going to fall victim to some sense of bloat or unevenness.
Regardless, it’s safe to say that Avengers: Infinity War has a ton of characters. Does it have too many? That’s up to you and what you want out of this expansive cast of superpowered people. Personally, I’d have been fine if the entire movie was a date flick with Scarlet Witch and the Vision.
