Captain America: The Winter Soldier · 4:18pm Apr 13th, 2014
First off, let me preface this by saying that I'm a giant Captain America fan. I love the hell out of Captain America, so maybe it will be no surprise when I tell you…
That new movies is so fucking awesome!
I can't even deal with it. I want to go back and watch it again right now. I'm going to unabashedly gush right now. See me gushing? I am. I loved every second of it.
This is not to say that it's a perfect movie. It's certainly not. I can think of several instances that made me roll my eyes a bit. But the truth is that I just didn't care. I was loving the overall plot and characters so much that nitpicky stuff just rolled right off my back. They had me at Batroc. When your film has Batroc in it, it's a win just on that alone. But they went well beyond that in awesomeness. My only real complaint isn't even really with this film, but with their Cap in general. His shield is a miracle. A one-of-a-kind item that has the wondrous ability to absorb nearly all force directed at it. However, in these movies, it's pretty much just a shield. That really depowers Cap a lot, but it's not a huge deal. It would just help in certain situations if they'd gone with that bit of canon. Well, they sort of did. Cap did take a hit from Thor in The Avengers, but they could be making a lot more use of his shield's abilities if they remembered that.
I loved the first Captain America movie, and sequels are always dicey. The trailers for this film were good, but I wondered if they would be able to live up to the first one. They didn't just live up to it. They blew it completely out of the water. I'd watch that movie over and over.
I just hope that it really is as good as I feel that it is. One of my greatest movie shames is walking out of Independence Day loving the hell out of it. Then I went back about two weeks later and saw it again. Let's just say I wasn't as charmed the second time around. At all. Sometimes action can do that to you, so I hope this isn't one of those cases.
I haven't seen it yet, but I sincerely believe that Marvel is stepping up their game for most of their live action films. Not always, so there's no telling here, but on the whole they're getting so much better. I'm pleased. I've also been enjoying Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. overall.
That said, DC seems to be doing the same with their cartoons. Not all of them, the animated movies have been a bit less awe-inspiring here and there, but still mostly good. They've been killing it when it comes to the series format though. I recently watched all of Young Justice (I think, the first season if it had any others) and it was really good. Even the various bits of romance weren't a detractor. One of my biggest laughs was towards the end, because of one of the big reveals involving Megan's attraction to Connor (they were already a couple, this was in regards to why she was attracted to him. I had some serious guffaws when it happened. It was priceless.)
It takes a little while to really get in the swing of it, and it could have used certain small elements that Teen Titans and the Justice League touched on better, but I was strongly engaged with each episode. I multi-task like crazy, and I had trouble doing that while watching it. That's saying something.
2006371 The problem with Marvel is that they didn't take this stuff seriously from the beginning. The movies put out by Marvel Studios are largely good to great. Iron Man, Captain America, and The Avengers.
The movies put out by other studios? Not so much.
Spider-Man franchise - Sony Pictures/MGM
X-Men - 20th Century Fox
The Fantastic Four - Constantin Studios (Distribution by Fox)
Daredevil - Regency Enterprises (Distribution by Fox)
Marvel learned their lesson here and made their own movie studio to avoid the terrible decisions several of these above films made. Of this list, only two of the movies are really good: X-Men 2 and Spider-Man 2, with the first Spider-Man film being okay, but not great.
Marvel decided to just make their own movies later, which has worked out well, but they sort of took it on the chin with stuff like The Fantastic Four and Daredevil.
2006456
Yeah. Being able to have stronger creative control is a key factor. I'm glad they made the decision that they did, by no longer licensing their properties out.
Of course, I'll admit that while I'm a big fan of Marvel and what they're doing, I am a huge animation fan, so I really wish they'd also make some new cartoons. If they have, I'm not aware of them. I think superheroes are really at their best in that context, even with all the CGI and special effects available in this day and age.
2006497 I would love to see some animated Marvel movies with the budgets of these live action one. That would be truly spectacular. I mean, I think of how awesome The Incredibles was. I'd cut off my right arm for some Marvel or DC movies with that kind of attention.
Worst Marvel film so far. Truly awful plot that the writers actually should be ashamed of. I could make a better plot using D&D random encounter tables. I was pissed that I paid to see it.
I loved the movie too! Best part was when they didn't undue the brainwashing with the power of friendship. Something like, you can't just make it okay. It needs to be healed.
The action was good, but I wasn't overly blown away by it - I felt the editing was too choppy. Which means that the exciting parts weren't in the gimmicks, they were in the characters themselves, dealing with the central issues of the film. (That would be the stuff in the trailer, which surprisingly they handled well, without giving away any central plot points.)
I felt the same way about the editing. The action was very choppy. It put me off in the beginning sequence on the boat, but I got used to it and the rest of the film made up for it.
2006604 Oh, Inquistor… Will nothing ever please you?
DID YOU SEE WHEN MOTHERFUCKING FALCON CAME OUT?!
I LEGIT JUMPED OUT OF MY SEAT AND SHOUTED IN JOY!
I'm not allowed to go to that movie theater anymore.
2006651 I actually didn't have a whole lot of hope for Falcon from the trailers, but he was soooooo badass in that film!
2006657
Now all I want to see it Hawkeye riding Falcon's back and shooting arrows from there.
Come on, Avengers 2, make it happen!
2006664 My biggest complaint with Falcon is barely a complaint at all, but would it kill them to add a little bit of color? I mean, he doesn't need to be in a full-on red and white uniform or anything, but some accent colors to kind of tie the original costume in a little bit would be nice. I hate looking at the X-Men in all black and things like that. I get that it's more realistic, but it gets to be so boring to look at.
2006672
Eh, wasn't too big of a deal with me. Makes sense since if he did wear any red while using the suit during the war, people would be shooting him out of the sky in an instant. Think of it like Iron Man's Mark I armor.
Ooh, maybe Tony can give Falcon's wings an upgrade as well. So boss!
2006677 Yeah, I get it. It's more realistic, but it makes for a monotone viewing. I was super happy that Cap was back in his old, badass outfit at the end. It did wonders for me to see that color. I think given the high-tech weaponry in the films we are watching, Falcon's gear color isn't going to be the primary factor in whether they can spot him or not.
But like I said, that's a very, very minor concern for me. He was supreme in all other regards.
2006677 I was kind of hoping for a Stark cameo at some point, but you can't have everything I suppose. I just always wonder what the other super-heroes are up to while these titanic battles are going on over a major metropolitan area...
2006702
Thor: Bahamas vacation and being stunned at how sophisticated alcohol consumption has come when he tries his first margarita.
Hulk: Joins Thor in the Bahamas, gets a really nasty sunburn after losing his sunscreen, turns into Red Hulk.
Stark: Also in the Bahamas, was the one who stole Banner's sunscreen so he could Hulk out just to test the Hulkbuster armor.
Hawkeye: Joins Thor at the bar.
Idunno, I just think this type of short movie would be comical and awesome to watch.
2006643 Iron Man was fantastic, IM2 almost as much (3 was a very squiffy, but we assume the rule of sequels applies and it was fairly rushed even by their own schedule). Thor was good, Dark World was utter dross. Cap 1 was okay, Cap 2 was worse than Dark world. Hulk was good, Avengers Assemble was amazing, X-Men: First Class equally so.
And that's just Marvel.
2007169 I never ended up seeing the second Iron Man. I didn't care for what they were doing with Whiplash, and producer-driven decisions like an all AC/DC soundtrack turned me off to it. It goes without saying that the first Iron Man is the gold standard.
I liked the original Thor, but I didn't see the second one. The first one would be a win for the Destroyer Armor alone.
I love the first Captain America movie, but it's not quite Iron Man. I think the Hulk film is entertaining, but flawed. It certainly suffers from the Hulk not being Hulk-y enough. He still just barely Hulk-y enough for me in The Avengers.
When you say Avengers Assemble, do you mean the animated series, are were you referring to the… Oh, I see. It was released in the UK under that name. Weird. It's just The Avengers here.
Oh, and yes. I did like X-Men: First Class, though only just. It's has it's own problems, and they are called Havok.
2007431 For those old enough in the UK...
The name was essentially already taken.
2007169
How could you hate Cap 2?
Meh. To each their own, I guess.