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.
