What I'm Watching: Captain America - The Winter Soldier

Welcome back, Triskelions!

And boy, is that ever an appropriate nickname for all my fans.  All two of you!

ANYways, yeah!  I saw Captain America 2 tonight, if that isn't super clear by now.  This should be NO surprise to anyone.  I love superhero movies more than I love horror movies, I just chose to make a site about those other ones.

But I still talk about the former, so here we go, watch out and don't trip over the spoilers!

The plot finds Cap still trying to adjust to this new time, and honestly?  He's doing a pretty good job of it.  They don't hammer the man out of time stuff at all.  Most of that comes from his moral compass and how he feels America should be, and that is the absolutely correct way to go with that.  Don't spend half the movie making jokes about what the internets is and such, but show him as the great man, the great patriot, he is, and disappointed in what the country he loves became while he wasn't looking.

I really, really liked Cap 2.  Anyone who's talked to me enough knows that I still say the original Cap flick is my favourite of the Marvel movies most days, and that holds true today.  Which isn't a bad thing for Cap 2, that's a high bar to leap over.

I can't say I outright LOVED Cap 2, though.  It is hard to put my finger on precisely what, if anything is wrong with it.  It's a perfectly solid movie, it's very much more comicbook action, but I think, much like Iron Man 3, after the spectacle of Avengers, it has a lot to live up to.

And Cap 2 has even more to pull off, since while it IS pretty good, it's still not up to the gigantic superheroic spectacle of the other films.  I almost don't want to say it's more grounded, more real world, because we still have a dude that was frozen in ice for 70 years, gigantic flying fortresses, and the like, but you get my meaning, I hope!

I really love this being more of a political thriller, because that makes this really its own thing.  The fact that this ISN'T a big superhero spectacular movie is in its favour, truth be told.  That's the brilliance of the comics, and it helps to have each movie with its own flavour to have each one stand out amongst the crowd.  And going the political route definitely helps Cap stand out from an INCREASINGLY crowded crop of superhero movies, as well as being a perfect fit for Captain America.  Duh.  The comics did it for decades, so of course the movies should follow suit.

I especially like that the world wasn't *really* at stake this time out.  Sure, it was in its way, with our freedoms being in grave danger, and a large number of the population being firmly in the villains' crosshairs, but the stakes here are WAY different than an alien invasion trying to destroy everything.  There was very little 'destroy the world' type stuff, and that is SO refreshing in a blockbuster movie.  This is more about the fight for the soul of the country and the world, than anything else.

The biggest problem for me, is that Emily VanCamp was *criminally* underused in this movie.  I really hope this is more setup for future films, because it feels almost like a waste here, and I can only imagine there's deleted scenes.  Still, Emily is such a good actress, that even with what little she had, she still brought SUCH weight to the role, that it felt more than what was there.  Again, I hope I'm making sense here. ;)

They managed to do a very solid adaptation of the Winter Soldier ideas from the comics, and almost everything worked in the remade context of the MCU, which is always good.  The thing I missed the most though, is that they have firmly established that Black Widow was born in 1984 and doesn't have a lengthy history of being a Russian spy, part of which would have involved spending time with the Winter Soldier.  I liked the movies neither confirming nor denying Natasha's age, and losing out on such tidbits of her past just feels like a missed opportunity to me.  I would've loved to have seen some flashbacks with the pair of them.

Speaking of Black Widow, man.  While there's a strong argument to be made for Avengers being her story, Nat was given SO much to do in this movie.  I can't even call her 'the breakout star' of this movie, since Scarlett has done such a great job already in the MCU, but this movie really let us spend time with the Black Widow, REALLY get to know her beyond kicking ass, and it was great to have.

A lot of the characters were well served, from Fury, to Nat, to Falcon and Maria Hill.  Even Peggy Carter got some great moments.  Even some of the lesser characters and cameos got some great moments.  And oh MAN was it *awesome* to see Jenny Agutter in action!  Sorry, the Logan's Run fan in me is showing.

Falcon was an absolute treat, by the way.  Anthony Mackie's joy at playing this part is evident in every moment he's on screen.  He was introduced perfectly at the start of the film, and ever so slowly brought into the circle of chaos around Cap.  It was also a great contrast with Cap's own circumstances, and also great to show how some things never change in wartime.  The pair may be separated by half a century, but they bond over shared circumstances in completely different wars.  It worked SO well, and the friendly banter between them was exactly what I'd expected from the comics coming to the screen.

As you can see, I have a LOT of positive things to say about the movie, and not a lot of negatives.  It really is a matter of just not being as explodey as other movies, but it's also not trying to be.  And at the same time, I love that about this movie!  I'd still give it a giant yay, and of course if you're a fan of the Marvel movies, you are going to see this.

So yeah, that's my chaotic mishmash of a review. ;)  I think this will be more important in what it causes other movies, and Agents of SHIELD to do, in light of its events, than anything within itself.  This was a similar issue I had with Cap 1, in that it felt a lot like putting the pieces into place, and not quite complete in its own right.

Now that I know what to expect from the movie, what its tone is, what it's striving for, I'm sure it will grow and grow on me with later viewings.

Gaaah, and I didn't even mention how cool Batroc was!  As a huge Batroc fan (I know it's weird, shut up!) it was such a blast to see him, even briefly, on screen.  And the fights in general were great!  The action was really well choreographed, and gah, I could go on about every little detail as it comes to me, but I'm gonna jump out now.

What I'm Watching: September, 2011

Helloooo horrorheads!  It's been an...interesting day.  Had some weird issues that threatened to interfere with Trisk, but everything worked out instamagically and seems to be ok.  Fingers crossed.  Nothing *major* but it could've been.

But enough of that boring stuff, I've got a huge pile of stuff to talk about since I've been lazy about it all, so let's get to it.

First off, I posted to my LiveJournal my reviews for Captain America and Cowboys & Aliens.  Check those out too!

I caught on the Scifi Channel a pretty cheesy movie called Ghost Voyage.  I sat down to watch it because the plot sounded moderately interesting, had an ok cast, and reminded me a LOT of a play I was in back in high school.  I don't know if I'm just good at these things, the plot was obvious, or being in that play helped telegraph the ending a mile away, but the Big Twist was pretty damned obvious.  But there's only so many outcomes you can get from a plot that has seven or so people waking up on a ship with no clue how they got there.  This was...ok.  Based on what you typically find on Scifi, it was watchable.  It was entertaining enough.  Antonio Sabato Jr...when did he become such a terrible actor?  Or was he just off his game here?  If this comes up on a channel surf, there are worse things you can watch for sure, but it's not an immediate running away either.  This definitely qualifies is the random crap I watched award for the month.

On a more deliberate note, I bought the DVD for the movie so many people are buzzing about, Troll Hunter.  Or Trollhunter.  I'm not sure which way that should go.  But whichever it is, this is one of my fave 'found footage' movies.  It's not quite as solid as Paranormal Activity, but it's probably a lot more fun.  The movie is about a group of college students who stumble upon the actual existence of trolls in Norway when they find the eponymous Trollhunter, and follow him around to get the real story.  it's very well done, very well thought out, and uses a ton of troll lore to weave a nice modern tale that really works.  The effects are good, although the trolls look a bit silly at times.  But that's by design and how they wanted them to look, like they're straight out of old images we're familiar with, or at least I am, and natives are I'm sure.  The familiarity works, but the look feels wonky at the same time.  But it's pretty much their intention, so that's ok.  My biggest complaint is the same with many found footage movies.  The movie just STOPS.  There's no real resolution.  The video tape runs out, the batteries go dead, the people with the camera die...they all kinda end that way, don't they?  That's where PA succeeds, it actually feels like a whole story.  But still, the journey of Troll Hunter is good, and the joy of spending so much time seeing unfamiliar and beautiful lands of Norway was a treat in and of itself.  I do note that I watched the English dubbed version, and that took a little away from the movie for me, things were just a little off.  I have my reasons, and now that I'm familiar with the movie, I am definitely giving it another look with Norwegian and subtitles, because the movie was decent enough to warrant that.

Next up is a new movie from a master of the classics, John Carpenter.  He has so many cult hits under his belt, but a few clunkers as well.  So, where does The Ward fall in?  I lean more towards cult, but not so much a hit, or a classic.  But it's not a clunker at all.  It tells the story of a young woman committed to an asylum after burning down a farm, in the 1960s.  Once there, she discovers things are most strange indeed, and when people start to go missing, she's torn between figuring things out and escaping before she's next.  The resolution to the mystery is pretty damned satisfying, in my opinion.  It's an underused idea, well executed, and holds up to a repeat viewing or two.  Again, the cast is pretty good, and keeps you intrigued.  There's a few flaws, some logic trip ups, and some poor acting in some cases, but for the most part, I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this one.  It flitted in and out of theatres, and went almost completely unnoticed by everyone.  But it is definitely worth seeing.  My biggest complaint is, once again!  The ending.  Those things trip up SO many filmmakers, and they pushed things just that one tiny scene too far, which is a shame.  Still, 99% of a good movie is better than most.

Much in the vein of Kick-Ass and Defendor comes Super!  Another movie where a regular guy decides to take matters into his own hands, dress up in bright colours, and get his face punched in before he fights crime successfully.  And this one is just WEIRD.  It gets uncomfortable at times, and not quite in good ways.  I coulda done without the tentacle porn on the tv, and the uncomfortable seduction and forcing of herself onto the hero by Ellen Page's character.  But there's still some good bits here, and it's fun most of the time.  I still prefer the other two movies more than this one, and Rainn Wilson is a lot of fun as Frank, and Kevin Bacon is AWESOME as the villain of the piece, but give me Defendor any day.  That one wins the gold, Kick-Ass takes the silver, and Super wins the bronze, which is still something to be proud of.  This movie might grow on me over time.

And in the theatres, I caught up with Guillermo Del Toro's latest, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, the story (And remake of an old tv movie) about a girl who moves into a big, spooky house with her father, and discover the existence of tiny little terrors that don't like the light, and want the girl.  It was nice to see Katie Holmes showing up in a movie again, as the girl's 'stepmother' figure, and making her sympathetic.  This movie was pretty decent, but not great.  There are larger gaps in logic than in even other movies I've already talked about in this post, and the girl's acting isn't great.  It has some freaky moments, but never quite gets *scary*.  Part of that is because they show the creatures a little bit TOO much.  We get too many looks at them, too close, and too often.  And since they're tiny little gremlins, they're almost silly to look at too closely.  And it doesn't help that Del Toro likes a lot of whimsy in his creepy horror, and it's a little too harmful to the atmosphere here.  I'd almost say the recent Doctor Who I watched captured the feeling this movie wanted better, that feeling of being trapped in a large house with creepy creatures chasing endlessly after you...yeah, Who wins this round.  But this still was not a BAD movie.  I enjoyed it.  It just never quite lived up to its own hype, or what it even thought it wanted to be.  But Del Toro still knows his stuff, and this is a very well made movie, even if the tone was a bit disjointed.  I'd still say catch it on DVD, if not the theatre.

And since this is getting long, I am going to save my television thoughts for a later post, and lump those in with stuff about the new season about to kick off next week.  Lots of genre stuff this year!

J