Avengers: Infinity War was a very well-received movie, with a box office of over two billion, and the largest worldwide film opening since 2002. It was a remarkable film, featuring a large variety of characters, with each of their respective universes being established over many years of cinematic development; a sympathetic antagonist, and a rather striking end, to boot. Honestly, there’s so much of this movie that is done right that it’s genuinely awe-inspiring to see so much love put into a project. That said, the ‘rule’ is that for every positive, there is a negative waiting to jump out at you. In spite of how great this movie was, there are some things that don’t sit right with me; things that I wouldn’t feel right, leaving unaddressed. Let’s talk about that.

Spoilers (duh)

I suppose I should start with the most irritating of issues to present themselves at the forefront of my mind: Why don’t the heroes heroes ever bother to actually use the very same infinity stones to combat Thanos? There are many moments that come to mind in which someone is not only in possession of a stone, but also capable of using it and simply chooses not to. Examples of this being Loki’s possession of the space stone, having pocketed shortly during, or after the ending of Thor, Ragnarok. When Thanos arrives on Thor’s ship with the intent of appropriating it, we see Loki in possession of it, being strong-armed into surrendering it shortly before Thanos’s encounter with the Hulk. Loki is a god who is well-versed in the art of magic; he also has experience with the usage of these stones, having been able to harness the power of the mind stone in previous movies. So why doesn’t he just use the space stone to simply relocate Thanos and his party to somewhere where they couldn’t just end our heroes? If not that, couldn’t he have just teleported himself and Thor to Earth, evading Thanos’ grasp, then simply inform their allies of the impending danger? Each of the stone gives incredible power over a certain domain that the other stones do not. Even if combatting Thanos was impossible at this point, there is no reason that he should have been able to actually pose a threat. Anyone with any kind of problem solving skills should have simply gotten by, by repeatedly teleporting the threat through space, as far away as possible until they had a solution.

Another example of heroic foolishness would be Doctor Strange’s neglect to use the time stone, when it became apparent that there was no one who had a chance of defeating Thanos. He saw the 14,000,605 futures available and realized that there was only a single one in which they won against the genocidal gentleman. He could have simply used the time stone to reverse time to a point where they could sufficiently plan against Thanos’ machinations before he walked in and introduced them all to the bone zone. Any moment, up until the point that he actually gave Thanos the stone, was one in which he could have simply undone all of the danger. I understand the importance of facilitating a plot, but when the plot of the movie centers around universe-bending stones of infinite power, and the majority of them seem to start in the possession of our heroes, that’s what we call a plot hole.

Next on the chopping block would have to be the sheer wrongness of Thanos’s plan in the first place. I’m not even speaking of the moral implications of mass genocide. There is simply no way that Thanos could know for sure that every planet will eventually suffer from overpopulation, and by proxy, war. There are too many cultures to consider, for one. Secondly, he has no idea how resources are distributed amongst the millions if not billions of other planets scattered across the multiverse. He’s basically committing genocide on a hunch.

Even worse, actually, is the fact that he put together a device that amalgamates all of the infinite powers of these stones, and decides to use them to make half of the universe’s inhabitants cease to exist. If he had that kind of power, why didn’t he simply make it so that there would be an infinite supply of resources to use across the cosmos, so that people would never be so desperate as to kill each other in the first place? Heck, he could have simply removed the concept of war from the minds of the universe’s inhabitants. Now, Thanos’s comic-adaptations portray him as a genocidal maniac who thrives on the suffering of others. However, the MCU’s depiction of Thanos portrays him as a fairly reasonable guy. Even assuming that such a solution never came to his mind, I find it hard to believe that — once again — all of the Earth’s greatest minds did not manage to think of such alternatives. We see in the movie that Thanos carries a great deal of guilt on his shoulders. He also did not seem entirely against conversation if he thought it would help him achieve his goal. Had anyone thought to simply suggest such an easy fix, he likely would have done that in a heartbeat, and once more the problem would have been solved. I don’t like that such easy solutions were glossed over in favor of genocide, or that our heroes didn’t think for one second to try diplomacy when it was clear they were going to get their butts handed to them.

Despite these plot holes — and I can think of no better name for them — Avengers: Infinity War is a great movie. There are times when I struggle to take the danger seriously, since our characters have access to such easy fixes to the most prevalent issue. However there was clearly a lot of love put into the movie. I would most definitely recommend it for all of the ‘squares’ who’ve yet to see it.