As a Mass Communications student, censorship is a HUGE deal to me. In my field I hear all the time how many media creators have gotten themselves in trouble for producing risque content. But as creators it's our jobs to push the boundaries so long as it serves some kind of greater good. How does this tie into Avengers: Infinity War? Let me explain. *WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
Going into the film I was expecting to be seeing your standard Marvel film. You know, good vs. evil, fun characters, a big battle scene, and so on. And technically we got all of that and more. However, as the movie theater lights came back on I felt very....anxious. I mean, not only did my favorite characters die, but they died by the hands of a villain who seemed very real with very realistic motivations; motivations that we've seen before in our own history...
Population control is not a foreign concept to us. We've all seen the exponential population charts and we all know about the one-child laws in China. It is a real fear for some people and a pretty rational one at that. All over social media I saw posts saying how people love their Marvel superheroes but this time around, they really liked Thanos. And don't get me wrong, as far as Marvel villains go, Thanos was pretty great, but definitely one that should be talked about.
As far as censorship goes, I'm not saying that we just shouldn't talk about it. People love the story and it's one of Marvel's better films. However, as I was sitting in the theater at the end of the film the first question I asked my brother was: What was this rated?
While I understand there a strict regulations regarding the rating of films, I was surprised and somewhat scared to hear that it was rated PG-13.
While I don't doubt that some teenagers are mature enough to handle heavy topics like this, it does concern me that there are probably others who cannot. It's not a secret how impressionable children are and it concerns me a bit that when they go into the film expecting to see a movie about their "friendly neighborhood Spiderman," they instead see mass genocide as the end-all be-all of the film. The heroes didn't win. Thanos did. And in the end we saw him peacefully watching the sun set as a result of his actions. He got what he wanted and it seemed pretty good; it's just the way he achieved it is horrifying.
Artistically, the ending was a very unique choice made by the writers and I quite liked it. It veered off your typical story of "the hero always wins." However, you also have to keep the audience in mind. When you think about PG-13 as a rating, it means kids who are in the 7th grade can be watching this movie and learning about motivations for genocide which is something that they probably aren't old enough to fully grasp yet.
While there is a 4th Avengers movie coming out next year that will likely be providing resolution to this film, it's hard to ignore the fact that this was still technically a film on its own and might be too mature for some of its younger viewers.
