No one is more aware of a movie’s shortcomings than its own fans. Marvel fans, in particular, are known to pay close attention to every piece of content thrown at them, making it so that very little gets past them. It takes one look at social media to tell you they’re not willing to forget, either, as even now, five years after its premiere, viewers maintain a gripe with one of the biggest superhero blockbusters ever.
We’re talking about Avengers: Infinity War, of course, which made sure to establish a quick-fire way to have Thanos defeated, only to spend the entirety of its length ignoring it. For those who don’t remember, toward the start of the film, viewers get to witness Doctor Strange use his magic portals to cut through flesh, something that would have been useful to acquire the Infinity Gauntlet. Instead, though, the superheroes are left to attempt to get it off of Thanos the old-fashioned way. Another very obvious solution would’ve been to simply behead the antagonist, as some fans have pointed out during this rehash.
It goes without saying that these solutions would have made for a much less compelling story, but if we’re not going the easy route, why make it an option in the first place? Some argue that Doctor Strange only seeing one future in which the Avengers win is enough to justify why he didn’t use his portals to kill Thanos, but not everyone is so easily convinced.
Infinity War is far from the only MCU film with hard-to-explain flaws, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness being one of the finest examples. Hopeful Marvel can learn from its past mistakes one day.