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skull_bearerWell, that was fun. That was, in fact, a LOT of fun.
It was daft and funny and sweet, which is kinda weird because of all the Avengers, Capt was the one I had the most bias against. This boiled down to two points:
a) his costume is absurd (tiiiiny little wings!)
and b) his backstory is so obviously nerd wish fulfillment that it jolts me right out of the story whatever medium it's in.
"As you are inside, so will you be outside'. Seriously, is there anyone here who doesn't wish that to be the case? I can take mutation, I can take Norse gods, I can take radioactive spiders. I can't take blatent wish fulfillment (also the thing standing in my way of ever believing in god, btw). it's the dream of every nerdy kid 'One day I'll be outside as I am inside and then you'll be sorry.' Capt works because he doesn't do the 'you'll be sorry part'. He is, as MovieBob put it, in the running for being the best human being possible. And that's nice. I miss nice protagonists, and I think Marvel as getting that and making more of there characters just decent people (see also: Thor). It might be wish fulfillment, but I think over the horizon I see the dawn of a new day away from the Watchman inspired night (not bashing on Watchmen, it was great, what it did to comics was not).
dear captain America, Awww, you were sweet, I wanted to ruffle your hair and pinch your arse and pecs. I was watching it with MassEffect!Mirek and making comparisons, although Mirek has better health and never grew past 5'6'. Very sweet, very cute. Not really obviously patriotic (no, 'for America!' shite), sense of humour ('I've punched out Hitler more than 200 times' lol), just great fun all around. To be honest, if you were on your own, you migth be a bit boring.
Fortunately you weren't.
Herr Elrond Smith, Queen of the Desert, (no, I didn't come up with that and no, I am not going to stop using it) Let me tell you a story. One day, long ago, there was the Master of All Evil. This man was all the horrors we knew were hiding under our bed. He was everything dark and vile. He had Evil Eyebrows. This man... was Vincent Price.
But one day, Vincent Price became old, and his mantle passed to a new Master (getting a Star Wars theme here) someone who had been building up his reputation with one horror after another and who had truely Evil Eyebrows, and when the title passed to him all knew it to be right and true. That man... was Christopher Lee.
But then time passed again and Christopher Lee became old, and all knew it was time to pass the mantle onto a new Master of All Evil, a man who had terrified many despite his young age, sometimes by wearing a dress, and who not only had Evil Eyebrows, but the Widows Peak of Doom. That man... IS Hugo Weaving.
Not much else to say here, he was great, and hilarious, and devoured the scenery like there was a sale on. He looks awesome in a trenchcoat and does EVIL HUGO WEAVING like only Hugo Weaving can do. Unfortunately he looks like an extra from The Mask, and the skull face strips him of both his Evil Eyebrows and his Widows Peak of Doom, which diminishes the effects. He was great, his minons were great, the Nazi!Camp was bleeding over into everything, it rocked all around from the Reich and back.
AND THEY HAD A MAUS! THERE ARE NO CAPSLOCKS LARGE ENOUGH FOR DER MAUS! MY TANK IS FIGHT!
All the stupid nazi superweapons? Yeah, they're in this film. it doesn't matter how retarded they were.
Oh and Herr Elrond? Totally not dead. When he got vapourised I went OMG HE'S IN ASGARD! HE GOT BEAMED UP TO ASGARD! There is nothign worse in my opinion than a super!Nazi in Asdgard. BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. Only now I think abotu it he's probably in the realm of the Frost Giants WHICH WILL BE EVEN WORSE. If nothing could get me excited for the Avengers, this would.
Anyway, I really liked the whole nazi side because they weren't actually nzis but a rogue organisation which was thrown out of the Nazi party for being TOO EVIL. Did wonder at them using American soldiers for test subjects considering they could, y'know...
AND THEN CAPTAIN AMERICA LIBERATED AUSCHWITZ AND ADOPTED KID!MAGNETO. THE END.
The dirty dozen team were great, and I would have loved to see more of them (I would so totally watch a film about them). Extra huge points for having the 'bunch of guys escape in a tank they barely know how to drive' trope. I love that trope. All of them were fun, the Random French Dude was hilarious, most of his unsubtitled lines consist of describing what he's goign to do to the Germans in graphic detail. The Random English Dude was awesome and awesome and awesome. The Random Asian Dude was great, and it's nice to see Hollywood realising that Asian people played a part int he war than didn't consist of being entirely Japanese. I could watch these guys all day.
Which is one of the few problems I had with the movie: Sausage fest. The only main female character was the agent, and while I love her character she was painted very broadly as LOVE INTEREST and all her other traits had to sort of squeeze out behind that, and didn't do so well as a result. The other female characters were The Most Awesome Old Lady With a Machine Gun, who had practically no lines and died (great death scene though) and a random hot chick with a weird face whose only role is to kiss Capt and make Agent jealous.
Which was actually handled not too bad as both characters realise there 's a war on and don't spend very long being pissed. Capt tries to explain, Agent calms down, they get on well again. Over in five minutes. So that was good, but I would have prefered more female presence here kthnx. Thor was much better in that respect. This film only just scrapes the Bechdel test, when Agent gives the password to Awesome Old Lady (not sure if that counts).
Random best Friend who Either Dies or Turns Evil died. But may be back in a sequel as evil. This film does try and subvery expectations, I was thinking he'd turn evil, but yeah, okay. Wasn't that invested really. Snap with Mentor who either dies or turns evil.
A lot of this film did feel like what a twelve year old comic book fan would do if they were asked to make a Capt America movie, and I don't think that's a bad thing (since the plot's decent and the cinematography's pretty good). There was moments, like the fight on the factory girders, where I could almost see the capt and red skull figurines and the kid's voice going "Pow, boom, kablooie, curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!' It gave the whole thing a sense of fun and it helps everythign was well shot and CGI-ed. The flying scenes felt like a Flight Simulator in the best ways.
WW2 was... not WW2, seriously, the Nazis would bomb Russia way before they'd bomb America (and when was this film set? Confused is I). But then, I was expecting nazi!Camp, so whatever dude.
It really didn't feel two hours long, it felt short. They got a lot in this movie and it was a breakneck ride. He's in the Army! He's Capt America! he's fighting Nazis! He's fighting Hydra! He's fighting Red Skull, Queen of the Desert! He's encased in ice! He's woken up! Movie over! Avengers Trailer! breakneck doesn't begin to cover it, I swear I was out of breath by the end.
Anyway, it was fun in the same way Thor was, only more so. If you feel like a fun comic book movie and liked Thor, go and see it, I had a lot of fun (mind you I'd gone with like ten of my friends, but hey).
It was daft and funny and sweet, which is kinda weird because of all the Avengers, Capt was the one I had the most bias against. This boiled down to two points:
a) his costume is absurd (tiiiiny little wings!)
and b) his backstory is so obviously nerd wish fulfillment that it jolts me right out of the story whatever medium it's in.
"As you are inside, so will you be outside'. Seriously, is there anyone here who doesn't wish that to be the case? I can take mutation, I can take Norse gods, I can take radioactive spiders. I can't take blatent wish fulfillment (also the thing standing in my way of ever believing in god, btw). it's the dream of every nerdy kid 'One day I'll be outside as I am inside and then you'll be sorry.' Capt works because he doesn't do the 'you'll be sorry part'. He is, as MovieBob put it, in the running for being the best human being possible. And that's nice. I miss nice protagonists, and I think Marvel as getting that and making more of there characters just decent people (see also: Thor). It might be wish fulfillment, but I think over the horizon I see the dawn of a new day away from the Watchman inspired night (not bashing on Watchmen, it was great, what it did to comics was not).
dear captain America, Awww, you were sweet, I wanted to ruffle your hair and pinch your arse and pecs. I was watching it with MassEffect!Mirek and making comparisons, although Mirek has better health and never grew past 5'6'. Very sweet, very cute. Not really obviously patriotic (no, 'for America!' shite), sense of humour ('I've punched out Hitler more than 200 times' lol), just great fun all around. To be honest, if you were on your own, you migth be a bit boring.
Fortunately you weren't.
Herr Elrond Smith, Queen of the Desert, (no, I didn't come up with that and no, I am not going to stop using it) Let me tell you a story. One day, long ago, there was the Master of All Evil. This man was all the horrors we knew were hiding under our bed. He was everything dark and vile. He had Evil Eyebrows. This man... was Vincent Price.
But one day, Vincent Price became old, and his mantle passed to a new Master (getting a Star Wars theme here) someone who had been building up his reputation with one horror after another and who had truely Evil Eyebrows, and when the title passed to him all knew it to be right and true. That man... was Christopher Lee.
But then time passed again and Christopher Lee became old, and all knew it was time to pass the mantle onto a new Master of All Evil, a man who had terrified many despite his young age, sometimes by wearing a dress, and who not only had Evil Eyebrows, but the Widows Peak of Doom. That man... IS Hugo Weaving.
Not much else to say here, he was great, and hilarious, and devoured the scenery like there was a sale on. He looks awesome in a trenchcoat and does EVIL HUGO WEAVING like only Hugo Weaving can do. Unfortunately he looks like an extra from The Mask, and the skull face strips him of both his Evil Eyebrows and his Widows Peak of Doom, which diminishes the effects. He was great, his minons were great, the Nazi!Camp was bleeding over into everything, it rocked all around from the Reich and back.
AND THEY HAD A MAUS! THERE ARE NO CAPSLOCKS LARGE ENOUGH FOR DER MAUS! MY TANK IS FIGHT!
All the stupid nazi superweapons? Yeah, they're in this film. it doesn't matter how retarded they were.
Oh and Herr Elrond? Totally not dead. When he got vapourised I went OMG HE'S IN ASGARD! HE GOT BEAMED UP TO ASGARD! There is nothign worse in my opinion than a super!Nazi in Asdgard. BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. Only now I think abotu it he's probably in the realm of the Frost Giants WHICH WILL BE EVEN WORSE. If nothing could get me excited for the Avengers, this would.
Anyway, I really liked the whole nazi side because they weren't actually nzis but a rogue organisation which was thrown out of the Nazi party for being TOO EVIL. Did wonder at them using American soldiers for test subjects considering they could, y'know...
AND THEN CAPTAIN AMERICA LIBERATED AUSCHWITZ AND ADOPTED KID!MAGNETO. THE END.
The dirty dozen team were great, and I would have loved to see more of them (I would so totally watch a film about them). Extra huge points for having the 'bunch of guys escape in a tank they barely know how to drive' trope. I love that trope. All of them were fun, the Random French Dude was hilarious, most of his unsubtitled lines consist of describing what he's goign to do to the Germans in graphic detail. The Random English Dude was awesome and awesome and awesome. The Random Asian Dude was great, and it's nice to see Hollywood realising that Asian people played a part int he war than didn't consist of being entirely Japanese. I could watch these guys all day.
Which is one of the few problems I had with the movie: Sausage fest. The only main female character was the agent, and while I love her character she was painted very broadly as LOVE INTEREST and all her other traits had to sort of squeeze out behind that, and didn't do so well as a result. The other female characters were The Most Awesome Old Lady With a Machine Gun, who had practically no lines and died (great death scene though) and a random hot chick with a weird face whose only role is to kiss Capt and make Agent jealous.
Which was actually handled not too bad as both characters realise there 's a war on and don't spend very long being pissed. Capt tries to explain, Agent calms down, they get on well again. Over in five minutes. So that was good, but I would have prefered more female presence here kthnx. Thor was much better in that respect. This film only just scrapes the Bechdel test, when Agent gives the password to Awesome Old Lady (not sure if that counts).
Random best Friend who Either Dies or Turns Evil died. But may be back in a sequel as evil. This film does try and subvery expectations, I was thinking he'd turn evil, but yeah, okay. Wasn't that invested really. Snap with Mentor who either dies or turns evil.
A lot of this film did feel like what a twelve year old comic book fan would do if they were asked to make a Capt America movie, and I don't think that's a bad thing (since the plot's decent and the cinematography's pretty good). There was moments, like the fight on the factory girders, where I could almost see the capt and red skull figurines and the kid's voice going "Pow, boom, kablooie, curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!' It gave the whole thing a sense of fun and it helps everythign was well shot and CGI-ed. The flying scenes felt like a Flight Simulator in the best ways.
WW2 was... not WW2, seriously, the Nazis would bomb Russia way before they'd bomb America (and when was this film set? Confused is I). But then, I was expecting nazi!Camp, so whatever dude.
It really didn't feel two hours long, it felt short. They got a lot in this movie and it was a breakneck ride. He's in the Army! He's Capt America! he's fighting Nazis! He's fighting Hydra! He's fighting Red Skull, Queen of the Desert! He's encased in ice! He's woken up! Movie over! Avengers Trailer! breakneck doesn't begin to cover it, I swear I was out of breath by the end.
Anyway, it was fun in the same way Thor was, only more so. If you feel like a fun comic book movie and liked Thor, go and see it, I had a lot of fun (mind you I'd gone with like ten of my friends, but hey).