Winter Soldiers and Snowstorm Patriots: Review of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"

Spoilers! Herein contains a very spoilery review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier!!

It's no secret that I positively adore the way Marvel Studios has crafted their Cinematic Universe. And the acquisition by Disney has, in my opinion, only expanded their ability to tell brilliant stories. Even the integration of Agents of SHIELD on television has been fantastic (despite a bunch of bellyaching from entitled fanboys, but I ignore that. Agents of SHIELD is awesome and anyone who says otherwise is selling something).

I managed to stay spoiler free for this movie for the most part (and here is where you should look away if you still haven't seen the movie)... ... (spoiler buffer)...

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I knew that the Winter Soldier was Steve Rogers' childhood friend, Bucky Barnes because the fans of the comics pointed that out in the lead-up to the movie. And that's about where my knowledge ended. But I was NOT prepared for the onslaught of new information this movie presented.

First off - I have to talk a little bit about some misleading information in the trailer. It's obvious from the trailer that Robert Redford is the villain of this piece (and I'm glad that he was because I'm not a fan of the guy on principle and it would have made my skin crawl to actually have to cheer for him in a Marvel film), but it was starting to look like Nick Fury was even at odds against Captain America. And I am very glad that did not turn to be the case.  But what did turn out to be the case - holy cow! Let's just start from the top -

I love that we get to see Steve more or less integrated into modern life, but still working out a few things (all this time and he still hasn't see Star Wars??) He meets a war veteran by name of Sam Wilson while he's out on a run in the park and the rest of us think "Yup - second tier Avenger, right here!" Now, Steve's still the same nice guy that we all know and love - but he's also a SHIELD... not agent, exactly. More like a highly-skilled operative. Steve learns that SHIELD has been developing an arsenal of helicarriers (that Tony Stark advised on a bit, apparently) that will enable SHIELD to take out baddies before they do anything at all - this project is known as Insight. The theory of the idea sounds okay on the surface, but in practice it doesn't sound real great to Steve. He realizes that he doesn't like being just a pawn in Nick Fury's chess game - and things really have changed from the world that Steve knew before he because a super soldier. Against this backdrop, Steve visits his old flame from the WWII pre-SHIELD, Peggy Carter, who looks to be suffering from some type of dementia or Alzheimer's (nope, you didn't hit nothing important - just my feels), and then he takes a trip to the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian, which results in even more feels. If ever there was a fish out of water, it's Steve Rogers.

Meanwhile, back at SHIELD, Nick Fury is having a hard time accessing a super-high-tech flash drive and it's bugging the crap out of him, so he asks a buddy of his, played by a very crusty Robert Redford, to delay Project Insight. Long story short - a bunch of thugs attack Fury and he dies. But not before he gives Steve the super-high-tech flash drive and tells Steve not to trust anyone at SHIELD because they've been compromised. During this, Steve encounters a mysterious assassin that all the trailers and posters have told us is the Winter Soldier.

When Steve refuses to tell SHIELD the details of Fury's death, SHIELD operatives try to capture Steve and he ends up on the run along with Natasha Romanoff. Along their merry adventures, they discover that Hydra (remember the Red Skull and the Nazis in Captain America: The First Avenger?) has been manipulating SHIELD into creating Project Insight for them and that the world is a lot more complicated than anyone initially thought. They've kept Toby Jones's (of all people) brain downloaded on ancient data tapes locked away in a basement that can only be accessed by the super-high-tech flash drive. Basically, Hydra's gone underground in their quest for world domination. And the Winter Soldier is a key component of that manipulation, assassinating people who get in the way of Hydra's plans (including, it is inferred, Howard and Maria Stark - from a headline clear in the heck from the first Iron Man movie. Never let it be said that Marvel doesn't know its own story). The way Hydra intends to continue their domination is by spying on everybody - knowing everything about their lives and using that information to predict how they will act, so they can take out anyone who might be thinking of rising against them. Which immediately reminded me of this:



(Harold Finch is one of the Avengers and no one can convince me otherwise).

Oh, and by the way, Steve finally finds out that the Winter Soldier is his old pal Bucky that he thought was dead. And Hydra's been doing some nasty experimentation on Bucky since he was captured in 1944. Bucky doesn't remember Steve - the poor guy doesn't even remember his own name!

This whole story is so heartwrenching from beginning to end. I knew Marvel was going for the emotional twists in Phase 2 and I'm really glad they are - but man, I almost can't take it! I mean, our heroes win (more or less), but SHIELD is in shambles and Nick Fury's on the run (oh, he's really not dead. Even when he "died," I kept waiting for him to come out of the shadows and have a plan. Which he did - but not necessarily the plan I wanted). The way it ended - I wonder if the characters from Agents of SHIELD are going to make a movie appearance at some point.  Because the Hydra goonies are still out there (at least one of them is - that guy who was fighting Sam Wilson at the end. Oh yeah - Sam is actually the Falcon, by virtue of these super-cool mechanical wings that he was trained to fly with in the war. Which is about the coolest damn thing ever!) and nobody trusts SHIELD and Natasha's cover is blown to pieces (wait a minute! Where the crap was Hawkeye in all of this??) - they need to rebuild SHIELD somehow. And the players are there, if they want to bring in Agents of SHIELD. Which, I think they will. And the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron will probably bring that into play.

(Calling it now - Agent May from AoS is a Hydra operative. Guess I'll see tomorrow night).

Some more about Bucky (oh my poor, poor heart - the post-credits scene in the Smithsonian...) I loved Bucky in Captain America and I was mad that he died in that movie. But, this being the comics, no one ever stays dead. Honestly, I think Bucky has the potential to be a character like Loki - someone who you should hate, but you can't for Reasons. Where the Reasons for not hating Loki is that he's a charismatic bastard, Bucky's Reasons are going to be that he's got a lot of backstory to tell and a lot of material to work with. There is a lot they could do with him, which is unusual to happen with a Marvel villain (at least, up to this point in the movies). Mostly, they've just dispatched the bad guys and gone on to the next plotline, but they've left Bucky's ending hanging, which intrigues me endlessly (maybe he'll get his own movie at some point - who knows? Hell, there have been rumors of a Loki movie, so why not?)

Loved this movie, loved how intense it was (there were points that I thought Steve was done for), loved how it's integrated elements from other Marvel movies (even that douchebag senator from Iron Man 2 was a Hydra guy! I thought we were done with his crap) - this is Marvel at it's uttermost best and I'm glad that I wasn't spoiled for the twists and turns. I love how complex this universe is getting and just how good the stories are. These may have started out as action-y popcorn flicks, but there is some meaty storytelling going on here, and as long as they keep giving me that, I will keep spending money to see these films.

The Verdict Is (FINALLY!) In

I had to see it twice, but I finally have thoughts to share on The Avengers.  Spoilers below the decidedly NOT spoilery (but very funny) video.

 

I have a fun little story to tell.  Actually no, it's not that fun. But it explains a great deal.

The one movie theater that I love going to is the Jordan Landing Cinemark.  This place is a pretty spiffy theater while still being fairly reasonbly priced - the seats are roomy, the staff are friendly and they make their snack bar hot dogs out of unicorn tears.  No, really - they are that good (it's the one time I can justify paying $4 for movie theater food).  This theater is also attracts - shall we say - more higher-class clientele.  I have never had a bad experience going to a movie at Jordan Landing.

Until last Monday night and The Avengers.

I've talked about this before - In the lead-up to this movie, I was as excited as anybody (excepting, perhaps, the people who grew up reading Marvel comics. But that’s a whole ‘nother ballpark).  I have thoroughly enjoyed the Marvel superhero movies and I’ve loved all the continuity that’s gone into these stories. But most of all, I love the characters and seeing where these superheroes come from.  It's a real treat for me, as someone who isn't steeped in Marvel Comics lore, to have a glimpse into these stories and feel like I can be welcomed into the universe and know what's going on without the burden of having to know the source material inside-and-out (which I would love to do, but there's a crapton to read through - never mind having to get it all in the right order).

Sadly, I was delayed in seeing The Avengers, but I had a good reason.  My aunt passed away last week and her funeral was on Saturday in Nevada.  I spent Friday traveling, Saturday at the funeral and with family and coming back home, Sunday passed out on the couch in a pile of travel-worn goo with no desire to go anywhere or do anything.  But I figured I could go see it Monday night after I got off work at 9:00 at night - hopefully the audience would be small and I could enjoy my experience.

Well, turns out the late Monday night showing was a horrible idea.  In short, this is what I had to endure:


- The idiot teenagers who had probably sneaked out of the house so they could canoodle with their boy- or girl-toys in the back of a darkened theater while alternately snickering “OMG his boots r sooo gay!” (meaning Captain America in the dressed-down version of his uniform). Oh, and they kept laughing even after the jokes were over and done with.  Do you know how maddening it is when you are trying to watch an incredibly intense battle sequence and you've got the cast of Degrassi behind you giggling over Odin-knows-what?

   - The married fanboys who finally convinced their extremely skeptical wives to go see it with them. The wives then start clucking to each other about some goofy housewifey thing and how ridiculous their hubbies are being but said hubbies wouldn't give them a moment's peace until they counted this as date night... ALL DURING THE FRIGGING MOVIE!! *headdesk*

   - This one doesn’t bug me as much because at least this audience member is interested in the movie. Still irritating, though. But there was also that one kid who was sugared-up on candy and Coke and keeps asking “Why’d Loki stab that one guy?” “How did [insert character] do that one thing?” “I wanna fly!” Love your enthusiasm, kid, but can you wait until you get to the parking lot?


So, when I walked out of the theater, I was not happy about the movie.  I was too distracted by my very rude and annoying fellow movie-goers and I didn't get the experience that other people got when they tweeted how wonderful this movie was.  And I was extremely annoyed by this because I honestly wanted to love this movie.  In fact, last night I came home and wrote up a whole big thing about how I was so disappointed in the movie and how could they screw it up and what is everyone else thinking and I'm so pissed about this... but then I thought that maybe a second viewing would help.  I then decided to go again after work today and see if I liked it better a second time.

(Don't worry - I did end up liking this movie.  Quite a bit, actually.  I later went back during a matinee to see it again and ended up in a much more amenable audience and figured out that was most of my problem the night before).

At first, I blamed it on the fact that I am not familiar with director Joss Whedon at all.  At the risk of having my geek-cred called into question, I have to confess that I have never been on the Whedon bandwagon.  It’s not a matter of me not liking his stuff; it’s a matter of me never actually watching anything of his.  The most I know about Whedon is that he created Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and a great swath of the sci-fi/fantasy fandom thinks he’s God (I am not being critical here, mind you. I'm just saying that I don't have enough experience with Whedon to make that assessment for myself).

One thing I learned here is that Whedon has a very distinct method of storytelling and it's something I had to be prepared for and I wasn't.  He's like Neil Gaiman in that regard - if I hadn't read at least some of Gaiman's work before seeing "The Doctor's Wife," I would not have know what was going on in that story and I probably would have been similarly disappointed.  However, once I understood how Whedon does things, I was totally on board.  One thing I had difficulty with was the humor - more specifically, the timing of the jokes.  Like Agent Coulson quipping "So that's how it works" after he shoots Loki with the Big Ass Gun after Loki's fatally stabbed Coulson.  That was just one of many mood whiplash moments that had me going "Wait - WHAT?" during my first viewing.

But the second go-round, I was expecting the humor so I was able to better pay attention to the characters and story (helped that the audience wasn't guffawing for five minutes at every little deadpan snark).  In fact, the humor actually enhanced Tony Stark's character, which I did not think was possible.  Tony is hands-down my favorite of the Avengers because he does possess a dark sense of humor and he can pull-off snark in a very natural way.  Plus, his brand of snark actually serves a purpose - I loved the scenes with him and Bruce Banner (the Hulk) looking for the Tessaract and Tony just keeps poking the proverbial bear with the stick (all the while knowing exactly what he's doing).  That's the other thing I love about Tony Stark - he's the scientific genius who can rattle off equations and technobabble, but still keep his "Mr. Cool" billionaire persona.  Also, Tony's interactions with Steve Rogers (Captain America) are pure gold.  Tony and Steve are near-perfect foils to each other - Tony's the dark, sarcastic genius of the bunch while Steve is the All-American Boy Scout who follows orders yet still commands respect, which I love (he is the legendary First Avenger, after all).  It would have been so easy to relegate Cap to be the idealistic idiot wearing spangly Spandex, he became the leader of the Avengers almost by accident and it worked so well.

Also - I have to give mad props to Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner.  I tried watching both Hulk movies prior to seeing The Avengers - yeah, I couldn't do it.  They were both kind of long and boring and I just couldn't care.  I'm going to try to Edward Norton movie again, but really, I don't think I need to.  I think I know enough of the Hulk's backstory and his personality just from watching The Avengers.  Really, this movie did for the Hulk as a member of a team what two whole movies of the Hulk as a solo-act did not do.  That either speaks volumes in favor of Ruffalo and Whedon or it speaks to the incompetence of the guys in the other movies (personally, I like to keep things positive, so I'm going with the first one).

Chris Hemsworth is an awesome Thor and Tom Hiddleston is a fantastic Loki.  I am such a fantasy geek - you tell me something's magic and I will buy it (as long as there are set rules and you stick to them).  Everything for me doesn't have to be totally grounded in hard-core, proven science (or even plausible science fiction).  My opinion from when I saw Thor has not changed - the concept of Asgard and the demigods is such a treat.  I get that Thor is a very different hero from any of the others and it takes a certain kind of writer to bring that to bear in this ensemble cast and this is another area where Whedon gets it right.  I love that Thor and Loki are given opportunities to explore their family relationship - Thor gives Loki a chance to quit his Earth-domination crap and come home.  Thor also feels a responsibility to the Earth and wants to stop Loki from causing problems.  But Loki's been slighted and he's going to cause as much havoc and mayhem and he's going to have fun doing it (Hiddleston's performance when he's yanking everyone's chain while being held prisoner on the SHIELD aircraft carrier is wonderful.  He's another one who does the deadpan snarker very well).

I want to touch briefly on Black Widow and Hawkeye - I want their origin stories.  I don't know if those movies are in the works (or maybe just one for the both of them, since it's made evident that their paths cross early-on), but that is something I dearly want.  Maybe it's a tad unnecessary at this point, but I don't care - I WANTS IT, PRECIOUSSSS!!  They are both fantastic characters - either apart or together and I want to see more of that.

(Oh, and every single time someone said “Tessaract,” I kept thinking of the Tessalecta from Doctor Who. Which is completely different).

This is getting insanely long, but here are some of my favorite moments that deserve special mention (there were so many good ones that it was hard to keep this a reasonable length):

- The Hulk beating the ever-loving snot out of Loki.  Especially after Loki started in on his "I'm a god and you will bow to me you stupid human-thing" speech.
- The old man in Germany standing up to Loki when everyone else has bowed down.
- Iron Man patching "Shoot to Thrill" by AC/DC into Black Widow's jet's PA system.
- Loki in a suit. I know he's the bad guy and all but... damn...
- Agent Coulson explaining to Thor that he got Jane Foster somewhere far away from all the bad stuff happening and Thor being appreciative about it (okay, my little sappy female heart got a little mushy there)
- Anything Agent Coulson does or says (his total fanboying over Captain America was really sweet)
- Nick Fury telling the shadowy SHIELD board of committee director-leader-people that their idea to nuke Manhattan is a "stupid-ass decision."
- And I'm sure I forgot a few, but I'm sure someone else will point them out.

Anyway, Whedon did a pretty good job with this movie (though to be perfectly honest, I would have seen this no matter who the director was - but Whedon was an excellent choice).  The cast was great and the story was put together well and I don't know what else to say about it other than I want another one.  Like, right now. Because that was way too much awesome to be confined to one movie.  There must be more. MOAR, I say!

PS - I still would recommend seeing a movie at Jordan Landing if you're ever in town.  It's not their fault a bunch of ninnies all went and saw the same movie on the same night and ruined my initial experience. But if I find out who those kids were, I would not be opposed to toilet-papering their houses.

Summer Movie Roundup - Transformers, Thor, Captain America

Since I don't have to be to work until 4:00 pm tomorrow and I really don't feel like going to bed quite yet (give me five minutes, maybe), I'm going to do something I've meant to do since the 4th of July and that is review movies I've seen this summer.  I've already reviewed Harry Potter, so I will skip that one and proceed with the others, starting with the dumbest one first -

SPOILER WARNING for "Transformers: Day of the Moon," "Captain America: The First Avenger" and "Thor"

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Punch me in the face, this movie is horrible!

The only reason I even saw Transformers was that our little two-screen movie theater back home had a matinee for the 4th of July (they almost never do that) and my only other option was "Cars 2."  Since I found the premise of a second "Cars" movie rather pointless (the first one was so good - why ruin it with a sequel?  Oh, wait... Disney... that's right...)  I supposed I didn't have to see a movie that day, but it was the principle of the thing.

Full Disclosure - I haven't seen any of the other Transformers movies, so I was at a loss at quite a few things Like, why in the world is this porn star dating this geeky kid?  (No, seriously - at the beginning, I thought that girl was a hooker he'd paid with all his millions of dollars the government gave him for saving the world in the previous movies.  Or something).  However, I have seen some Michael Bay movies (it's anyone's guess why I would do such a thing) so I more or less knew what to expect.

I wish this hadn't have been a Michael Bay thing.  Because the Transformers (forgive me - I'm not into this fandom, so I don't know the proper terms for the different factions of alien robots) have such interesting backstories!  Or, at least, I think they do.  I don't know.  Because the movie dispensed with any useful information in favor of an HOUR LONG battle sequence in the finale (did I mention it lasted an hour?  I timed it).  Also - how in the world could any human survive falling out of shattering glass buildings?  Even my disbelief can't be suspended for that much.  I could maaaaaybe buy Hooker Girl running through a warzone in ten-inch heels.  Maybe.

One more thing - Shia LaBeouf is NOT an action star.  I'm sorry, but every time I see him, I see goofy Louis Stevens from the old Disney Channel show "Even Stevens."  He and Jon Heder could probably make a pretty decent comedy movie, but I never want to see this kid in an action movie ever again.  Ever. Again. (will I get my wish? Probably not).

Captain America: The First Avenger

Ever since my high school buddies and I caught the first "Spider-Man" movie on opening weekend, I have been a sucker for comic book movies.  Even having never really been a reader of actual comic books, I love the humanizing side of these characters and I think this is something the Marvel movies have done well (yes, I know Spider-Man isn't exactly under the Marvel Studios - it's with Sony - but go with me here).  While I enjoyed Christopher Nolan's Batman movies (and I hope he does something decent with Superman because the Man of Steel deserves a good movie), the DC movies haven't been as captivating.  But with the Iron Man movies, Marvel has something really intriguing going on here, so I was excited for this.

I was also a bit nervous.  Because I didn't want Captain America to be this hokey mockery of patriotism.  I was afraid that the filmmakers would make Cap into this jokey cartoonish guy that no one took seriously.  The number one thing the filmmakers did right was setting this movie during World War II and Steve Rogers is this kid who just wants to fight for his country.  Not in this wide-eyed idealistic way - he just can't stand bullies (which, I think sums up America's involvement in World War II pretty nicely).  And while parts of the movie addressed the fact that Captain America could have been this farcical character, he eventually is allowed to become the hero that the country and the world needs at that moment.  But even while he's the hero, he's still kind of this kid from Brooklyn who hangs on to his principles and ideals.  Mad props to Chris Evans for playing a character who, while a bit naive, still had the gravitas necessary to pull off the hero schtick. I am excited to see how his character and personality fit in with the 21st century Avengers.

(Also - a big hand to the ensemble dark horse, Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Phillips.  I didn't know he was going to be in this movie, but I enjoyed his character a lot.  My personal favorite is when the Colonel and his boys are fighting it out with HYDRA and one of the HYDRA mooks says "Cut off one head, two more..." Colonel Phillips blasts the guy and says "Let's go find two more!"  Vintage TLJ and it's brilliant).

Thor

Maybe it's my Scandinavian heritage, but this was the movie I was most looking forward to seeing this summer.  For a while, I thought the studios were going to have "Thor" play second fiddle to "Captain America" - you know, release "Thor" at the beginning of the summer just as the opening act to the main event in "Captain America."  As such, I figured they would sort of cheapy-up on the God of Thunder and bank on the hype for later.

Oh, how wrong I was.

First of all, Asgard is positively gorgeous! (scenery porn, anyone?)  I love that the movie spends so much time there and explaining who the Asgardians are and how important they are to human history. Big thumbs up for the "Ancient gods are really aliens with and magic-that's-really-science" premise.  It's probably been done before, but I haven't seen it, so I think it's pretty original and I liked it.  I love the family dynamic between Odin, Thor and Loki (really, I could have just watched an entire movie with those three reading the phone book.

Also - just the right amount of sappy love story.  I think all the Marvel movies do the romance well - just enough to serve the larger story - but for some reason, the balance in "Thor" caught my attention more than in any of the others.  Probably because Jane and Thor's relationship wasn't the driving force behind the story, but it was there and I didn't feel insulted by it and I even felt a little sad at the end - I hope the Rainbow Bridge gets fixed!

Oh yeah - the Rainbow Bridge.  When you think "Rainbow Bridge," don't you think of the multi-colored tiled track in Mario Kart Racing that we all hate because there are no side walls?  But I liked the way the graphics guys designed that to be all swirly and pretty and not stupid-looking at all.  Like I said, Asgard was really cool-looking, but special mention must go to the Rainbow Bridge.

Best line of the movie: After a night of drunken merriment, Thor has to carry Dr. Selvig home.  Of his drinking buddy and their evening's activities, Thor says: "We drank, we fought, he made his ancestors proud!"

The Bottom Line: Marvel hits two out of the park. Michael Bay just leaves the park. Can't wait for "The Avengers" next year!