Why Avengers: Infinity War is Everything Star Wars: The Last Jedi Wanted to Be

James Turner looks at the similarities and differences between the two biggest blockbusters of the last twelve months…This piece makes references to the plot of Avengers: Infinity War, but there are no substantial spoilers.For those who didn’t read my review of The Last Jedi, let’s just say I was less than impressed by it. If you want to know my full thoughts, you can click here, but for the sake of this article I’ll give you a quick rundown of the main reasons why I thought it was a pile of white hot trash.Firstly, it incorporated a sense of humour that hadn’t been present in the preceding eight films, which felt jarring taken in the context that this was indeed a Star Wars sequel. On top of this, it employed this humour during some of the film’s most serious moments, undercutting the dramatic effect.Secondly, in keeping with the theme of undercutting, much of the climax was undercut not by humour, but by lazy, include-a-twist-for-the-sake-of-it writing. Case in point: the final showdown between Luke and Kylo Ren, which sees Luke deceive Ren by appearing as a projection only to die anyway, begs the question of why he bothered to turn up as a projection in the first place.Finally, Leia Mary-Poppinsing her way through space to save her ass after being blow out into space. Can I get a Deus Ex Machina?!Some have criticised The Last Jedi for other reasons, most of which I also agree with. It’s a chaotic film, with many different story arcs, some of which are totally pointless, and others which do nothing to progress character development. It also presents a rather shallow view of what it is to be good and to be a hero.A good number of these criticisms could also be levelled at Infinity War. It’s certainly a chaotic film – more chaotic than The Last Jedi, in fact – and amongst this chaos, there is little to no character development for anyone except for Thanos. It also skirts around the issue of what it means to be good. Thanos’ motivation for universal annihilation essentially revolves around his skewed morality, but the film doesn’t delve into this in enough detail to make any truly worthwhile point. And although I didn’t notice any major moments of Deus ex Machina, the film was certainly chock-a-block with jokes, some of which came right after deadly serious moments.Yet despite these similarities, I loved Infinity War. Had I been reviewing it, I’d probably have given it a four- and five-star Flickering Myth Rating, whereas The Last Jedi received a pair of measly two stars. Why? Did I really hate flying Leia that much? Was I secretly mad that they didn’t just make Empire again? Am I just a Marvel fanboy who can’t admit his favourite franchise put out a sporadic clusterfuck of a movie? Well, dear reader, I guess you’ll have to decide for yourself. Part One: Humour and ConsistencyDisney-Marvel has own, albeit predictable sense of humour. Scenes are set in motion, the tension rises, and then is cut short by a quippy one liner that’s just enough out of place to rouse at least a small giggle.Though predictable, the variation in characters, delivery, and even the occasional brilliant comedic flare by a particular director *cough, Taika Waititi, cough*, makes the jokes generally palatable and never completely maddening. What adds to this acceptability is that fact that the Marvel universe has been set up to work with this kind of humour – since the first Guardians of the Galaxy at least. Thus, even when the one-hundredth on the nose one liner is spoken, it doesn’t feel out of place in the universe, even if it isn’t that funny.The Last Jedi contains this exact kind of humour. However, none of the preceding Star Wars movies did. But wait, surely that’s better, right? After all, it pushes the franchise in a new direction. Wrong.Firstly, the humour is derivative – it’s literally lifted straight out of the Marvel handbook. But secondly, and more importantly, The Last Jedi contains many characters that have been in at least one of the previous films. And with the exception of Poe, none of them have ever shown a hint of being the type of person to drop a one liner or be the object of some ludicrous slapstick humour (I’m looking at you, Finn, with your leaky suit). So to have them suddenly change from being a serious character to one that constantly spouts punchlines feels jarring and out of place in the Star Wars universe.Don’t get me wrong, Star Wars has always contained humour. But there is something very different about the kind of try-hard nature of the jokes in The Last Jedi as compared to the subtler humour of the original trilogy, and even the two other recent instalments. And no, I’m not counting the prequels. They suck.Case in point: remember that bit from A New Hope when Han blasts the microphone and says, “Boring conversation anyway”. His line is a throwaway, meant to add a smidge of humour to a situation that is still tense and dramatic. Now imagine if that had been shot in the Marvel style. Han would have shot the mic, turned to Chewie, shrugged, and gone, “What? It was a boring conversation anyway.” And you know what, that’d have been fine. Sure, it would have killed the momentum, but it would have been a nice bit of character development. The problem is, you can’t do five films that feel like A New Hope and then switch it up ten movie-hours in. It’s just totally inconsistent.To both films’ credit, the humour starts to fizzle out as the tension really ramps up. Or at least I it does. Vast swathes of The Last Jedi are smudged together into one homogenous blob of disappointment in my mind.Anyway, the humour is only one piece of this puzzle, so let’s move on. Part Deux: Character Development and ChaosOutside of Kylo Ren and Thanos, neither The Last Jedi nor Infinity War do much to develop their characters. Now let me get my simple defence of Infinity War out of the way first: It’s the 19th bloody film. You already know who everyone is, you’ve seen them develop for hours by this point, and now it’s time to have an all-out mega-chaotic slugfest. No. Development. Needed.The Last Jedi, on the other hand, is the second film.Hold your horses there, James, you just said it was part of a much wider series, and that it should respect the tone of that series. How can it be part of a wider series AND only be the second film? Why thank you, other me. Well you see, the film is part of a wider series and therefore it should respect the tone of that wider series. However, most of its key characters are only seeing their second film. Therefore, it might be a good idea to develop them a little bit more.But they did try and develop them by making them funnier, and you just said that it was bad because it wasn’t consistent with the character. Hypocrite!That’s because simply changing how a character behaves isn’t character development; its character change. If we were given a reason as to why so many characters suddenly decided they wanted to channel their inner Star Lords, then all would be well. But we weren’t. So all isn’t well. Part C: Imaginative ResistanceThere a phenomenon discussed in the philosophy of art called imaginative resistance. Put simply, imaginative resistance occurs when you find it hard or impossible to engage in a certain imaginative activity. It’s quite a rare occurrence, especially for those interested in science fiction, but I found myself faced by resistance multiple times during The Last Jedi, but never once during Infinity War.Now before you jump to any conclusions, I’m not talking about any of the physical impossibilities that happen in The Last Jedi (or any Star Wars movie for that matter). I’m more than content imagining a world in which running out of fuel in space slows you down, or a world where laser beams arc through a vacuum, or even a world where elderly women can use magical powers to save themselves from catastrophic explosions – that belongs firmly in the bad writing camp, not the imaginative resistance one. Instead, what I have trouble with is imagining that Rose saving Finn in the film’s climax was a good thing.Without getting too bogged down in philosophical mumbo-jumbo, just about all imaginative resistance stems from morality, or more specifically a disconnect between audience’s sense of morality and the moral doctrine endorsed by a narrative. For example, we’re perfectly happy to imagine a murderer who kills people for no apparent reason. However, we are not happy to imagine that the same murderer is also a good person without changing the story from, “He murders for no good reason,” to, “He murders to punish the wicked,” or any other similar justifying point.Fortunately, we rarely encounter this kind of resistance while watching films, at least not blockbuster films, as the morality of those films is so deeply entrenched in classic, mythology inspired moral codes that we can’t help but agree with it. Blockbuster heroes often reflect the archetypal hero, or at least antihero, and while they have their flaws, they strive to improve themselves and, when push comes to shove, they are always willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of humanity.Without spoiling anything, Infinity War is full of moments where the heroism of its characters is on full display. They face insurmountable odds, but instead of giving up, they face them head on. At no point are we ever told to root for someone who does not hold these values.Moreover, although Thanos’ actions are justified by his own moral compass, they are not by ours, and he is still very much painted as the bad guy. We are never told to agree with what he does. Instead, we are given an explanation as to why he wants to wipe out half of the universe that we understand as being rational from his point of view.The same cannot be said for The Last Jedi. While there are definite moments of heroism, there are a couple of scenes at least where imaginative resistance is felt. The most obvious of which is the aforementioned climactic scene involving Rose and Finn.The scene sees Finn flying towards a Death-Star-Laser-Battering-Ram-Thingamabob, determined to destroy it before it can break down the walls of the rebel base, and willing to sacrifice his own life in the process. The tension builds as he draws closer, but just before he reaches the turret, Rose flies in and knocks his speeded off course and into the dirt, saving him but allowing for the destruction of the rebel’s stronghold, and presumably the deaths of many rebel soldiers.In and of itself, this scene is fine. However, the lines that follow generate massive imaginative resistance. I can’t remember them exactly, but a cheeky Google search tells me the last part of the line is, “Don’t kill the ones we hate; it’s better to save the ones we love.” Regardless of the truth of this claim, it is clear that the movie wants us to think that Rose is the hero in this situation. But she’s not; she very clearly did something immoral and selfish. And don’t just take my word for it: the YouTube upload of that clip has over four times as many dislikes as it has likes, and nearly all the top-rated comments are all to do with how much people hate Rose as a character. Sure, there are other reasons why people dislike the character, some of which are totally unjustified, but her actions in this instance are not those of a good person. Furthermore, the movie’s attempt to frame her as one is not bought by the audience either.In essence, both Infinity War and The Last Jedi try to do the same thing: tell a story about heroes. But of the two, it is only Infinity War that consistently promotes true heroism through heroic acts. And while The Last Jedi does contain heroic moments, it also tries to sell us selfishness in the guise of heroism.As a final point for those who have already seen Infinity War, what did you think of that scene with Star Lord? You know, the one where he acted selfishly. He was being a colossal dick, right? But did the movie try to tell us otherwise? No, it didn’t. Now try and imagine how you’d have felt if it did… Final Part: Game Changers“This is not going to go the way you think.” This line, spoken by Luke Skywalker, was paraphrased frequently in the lead up to the release of The Last Jedi, much to the delight of the Star Wars fans who felt dejected after the near remake that was The Force Awakens. I was certainly ready for something new. Something game changing. Likewise, I felt very much the same for Infinity War. The Mad Titan was coming, and there was not a chance that some of my favourite superheroes were going to come out of the film alive.If it isn’t already abundantly clear, Infinity War didn’t disappoint in this regard. Though some have criticised the film for its relation to the potential contents of future films – i.e. some people believe that the next Avengers film will undo the ending to Infinity War – I personally feel that the onus is on those future films to not undermine the plot, not on Infinity War to make itself non-underminable.Of course, The Last Jedi did disappoint. Though the film certainly wasn’t what I was expecting (I was expecting to enjoy it) the implication that it would be a game changer turned out to be a giant red herring.Granted, a number of characters died, but none of them played an important role in this arc of the story. Luke wasn’t present during The Force Awakens and didn’t fulfil his duty as mentor in The Last Jedi. The only real impact he had on the film was pissing off Ren for a bit at the very end. His death lacked substance, as he had been functionally dead since the credits rolled in Return of the Jedi.As for Snoke? Well, apart from his death being utterly stupid (how did he not realise that the force was being used right next to him when he managed to connect the same two force users from across the galaxy moments earlier!!!) his impact on the films is also minimal. Ren already had a mentor in the form of his idealization of Darth Vader, and had already been taught about the force by Luke; Snoke was all but unnecessary.Even when taken as a whole, The Last Jedi does very little to shake up or even progress the story. The rebels get fewer in number, a couple of impactless named characters die, and… err… that’s about it I think. ConclusionTo sum up, both Infinity War and The Last Jedi tried to do similar things. They both wanted to tell a story about heroes that broke the mould that the previous films in their respective franchises set. Infinity War did this wonderfully, shifting the focus to the antagonist and even killing of some key players, all while maintaining a clear sense of heroic morality. The Last Jedi, on the other hand, simply changed aspects of the universe without explanation, ignored necessary character development, and sincerely tried to push a warped sense of morality. Worst of all, it’s impact on the greater narrative of the saga was minimal – hardly making it the game changer set out to be.But what do you think? Did you love The Last Jedi and hate Infinity War? Did you like both, or even neither? Or do you just want to hurl abuse at me for still whinging about The Last Jedi five months after it’s release? Whatever you think, drop a comment here or on Facebook and I’ll do my best to reply.Thanks for reading.James Turner is a writer and musician based in Sheffield. You can follow him on Twitter @JTAuthor

Why Avengers: Infinity War is Everything Star Wars: The Last Jedi Wanted to Be

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