5 things standing between Avengers: Infinity War and total failure

Still from Avengers: Infinity War trailer (2018). Image via Marvel/Disney

The plot must hinge on more than just winning or losing

If we as an audience are reasonably sure that the bad guy isn’t going to have his way, the plot needs to become relevant to us because it’s relevant to the world. Like all media, comics have always reflected the social and political anxieties of the times they were created in. Tying the thematic arcs of the MCU movies into the existing problems we face in the world is an important way to make an otherwise formulaic plot mean something.

The last two Captain America movies handled this well. Both movies are very concerned with the idea of oversight: The Winter Soldier was in many ways a discussion of privacy and a critique of computerized warfare. Civil War drew parallels between the Avengers and the US’s interference in the affairs of other nations.

It’s weaving relevant themes into the action and the fun, which makes superhero movies really mean something. And in a movie whose very concept suggests too many plotlines and characters, that’s going to be especially important in Infinity War.

There’s one line from the trailer which gives me hope, and it’s spoken by Thanos himself:

"In time, you will know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail all the same."

This sentiment feels very relevant to the current times, where every new social or political battle feels like (and may very well be) the difference between the world ending. If Infinity War can successfully weave a thematic narrative that says something important about where we are now as a society, it will make the story mean something even if the plot is an overcomplicated tangle.