MY MOVIE SHELF: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 76 Days to go: 52

Movie #364:  Captain America: The Winter Soldier

There are a lot of things I love about Captain America (Chris Evans), but one of them is definitely that he always seems to be surrounded by incredible women. First there was Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who I was thrilled to see still alive in The Winter Soldier (although ancient and bedridden), but now there are all sorts of kickass chicks in the Captain’s life, the most formidable and impressive being Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), who, despite her playful teasing of his super old fogey goodness and her insistence on finding him a girlfriend, has a hell of a lot of chemistry with him. It might be a natural result of Black Widow’s seductive persona, but I ship them very very hard. Where his relationship with Peggy was very chaste and pure, I have a feeling a romance with Natasha would get very hot and steamy, and I’m into it.

Natasha isn’t just a possible love interest, though, she’s also a seasoned warrior and a strong ally. Anyone who still claims that Black Widow is a blank slate or has no agency of her own or isn’t interesting or couldn’t pull off her own movie is sexist and deluded. Black Widow is of course proficient at hand-to-hand combat, as all these action heroes are these days, but she’s also a technology whiz, a super spy, a master interrogator, and a woman with an enigmatic, shadowed past trying to make good. She also possesses a great deal of ingenuity, because where Steve Rogers is thinking of tactical means of confrontation outside the Apple Store, Natasha knows how to make them look like an innocuous couple, saving their hides and allowing them time to find out about the Hydra teams who’ve infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.

That’s right, Hydra is back. Or it never really went away. And they’re mobilizing to take over the world. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is attacked on the open street, Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) has sent his agents against Steve and Natasha, and twenty million people are about to die. Oh yeah, and apparently Steve’s old buddy Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) didn’t die in WWII after all and has been re-engineered as super assassin The Winter Soldier. It complicates things, to say the least. And the plot of The Winter Soldier is complicated as a result.

Complicated, but not unreachable. Having the Marvel universe expand around Cap has made the conflicts Cap comes up against expanded as well. And yes, I’ve seen the movie several times, but I think it explains itself well. Its twists, its double-crosses, and its revelations are all well-deployed to keep the action moving and the stakes raised.

Also — and this can not be overstated — Anthony Mackie is perfect. Whatever movie he is in, whatever role he’s playing, he is unbelievably great. In his role as Sam Wilson (The Falcon), Mackie is a great addition to the Avengers. Sam and Steve have a playful rivalry and a deep level of respect for one another, and Sam becomes the devoted and loyal friend Steve lost when he lost Bucky. And the film’s exploration of the nature of friendship and trust in and of itself is one of its stronger themes. Be it the friendships between Steve and Bucky, Steve and Natasha, or Nick and just about anyone, the movie is about loyalty and trust, and who you can count on in a pinch.

(Hint: You can always count on Captain America.)

MY MOVIE SHELF: Captain America: The First Avenger

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 77 Days to go: 52

Movie #363:  Captain America: The First Avenger

Of all the Avengers with their own individual movie franchises, Captain America (Chris Evans) is my absolute favorite, and the Captain America movies are as well. Unlike Tony Stark and Thor, Steve Rogers is an underdog, a weakling. He doesn’t win fights, he doesn’t win girls, and he’s not actual or even figurative royalty. He’s just a guy — an average, undersized guy with an oversized heart, an oversized will, and more courage than even the God of Thunder. In this way, Captain America is a uniquely American folk hero — a scrappy little underachiever who proves himself worthy of greatness and is rewarded, by way of a super secret scientific serum, with the body and strength to match his sense of duty and determination.

This is the America people like to believe in, the America of lore, and particularly the stars-and-stripes gung-ho America of the 1940s in which Captain America: The First Avenger is set. I’m certain this America only exists in stories, in nostalgic memories of people who may not have even been alive at the time, of the so-called Greatest Generation. I have no doubt of the greatness of some of the people at that time, of course, but I also know that people are people, and humans are humans, and just because stories of dissent and apathy and disillusionment aren’t told, it doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. That being said, however, the image of 1940s America is firmly entrenched in our collective minds at this point as a time of noble sacrifice and patriotic empowerment. It’s a feel-good story that endures. And it perfectly embodies the image that Captain America himself — the concept of Captain America, that is — aims to fulfill. Luckily, it all comes together perfectly in the film to create not only a rousing superhero picture, but a decidedly bolstering one.

But Captain America doesn’t serve to just reinforce the idealized Allied soldiers of WWII, it seeks to augment them. Steve Rogers is himself a super soldier, thanks to the efforts of super scientists Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), but what he received through science, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) already possessed in her DNA. Carter is herself a super soldier — not through artificial means but through sheer force of fearlessness and skill. Whether she’s cold-cocking an insubordinate soldier bent on sexual harassment or staring now a madman in a car headed straight for her, Peggy Carter is no one to be messed with. She’s every bit a match to Roger’s own vim and vigor, and more compelling than their blossoming attraction is simply how impressed they are with each other’s courage and abilities. When Peggy interrupts a sexy Natalie Dormer coming on to Steve, she wastes no time expressing her frustration with him — by shooting directly at his new shield. She knows what she wants, that one, and she doesn’t have to be coy to get it. She’s AMAZING.

Of course, a super soldier needs a super villain to contend with, and that’s where Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) AKA Red Skull comes in. Harnessing the power of the mythical yet all too real Tesseract, Red Skull has not only Captain America’s same super strength, but also super weapons to vaporize his enemies and the enemies of Hydra — a force even deadlier than Nazi Germany that costs a lot of lives — including Dr. Erskine’s — and costs Steve his best friend Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Schmidt and Hydra are formidable foes, not only for this film, but for other Marvel films as well, tying the whole universe together in a satisfyingly neat little bow — making the entire Marvel universe both easier to follow and to be invested in.

The true achievement of Captain America, however, is unlike any other superhero film to date: It makes me cry. When Steve sacrifices himself for the good of the people, as he was always destined to do, and he and Peggy share a painful goodbye disguised as a “see you later,” there are legitimate tears in my eyes. When Cap wakes up in modern New York City after seventy years asleep, I’m inconsolable. I want nothing more than a life in which Steve and Peggy get to share those 70+ years blissfully married to one another, saving the world and sexing it up. Think what a great world THAT would be.

Captain America is an origin story, a war story and a chaste romance all rolled into a comic book superhero film. And Steve Rogers is a fearless, flawless, idealized hero — the greatest of the Greatest Generation — never aging, never slowing, never backing down. I love him. And I love this film. He’s the star-spangled man with the plan!

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Avengers

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 127 Days to go: 88

Movie #313:  The Avengers

There are some people who think The Avengers is one of the greatest superhero films of all time, and others who think it gets off to a slow start with all its stage setting and then kind of throws together a battle scene at the end at least as disturbing as it is triumphant. I think both these positions are fair. I think there are criticisms to make of the film, and I think there are a lot of things to praise about it. Overall, my opinion is an overwhelmingly positive one, though, almost entirely for the way it manipulates so many moving pieces into creating one coherent story.

The scope of The Avengers — at least logistically — is huge. You’ve got three established movie universes in their own right — that of Iron Man Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who had two movies of his own at this point plus a third on deck, Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) with one movie of his own and another in the works at the time, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who also had a movie of his own and a second set for imminent release — plus secondary (and tertiary) characters like Black Widow Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johansson), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and Jarvis (Paul Bettany), who have all appeared in at least one of those aforementioned films and need to be woven into this one, as well as the addition of pop culture icon The Hulk, aka Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who hasn’t technically had his own movie yet, if you forget the multiple Hulk flops that have been made over the years, comic book staple Hawkeye, aka Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill. I mean, first and foremost, that just a ton of actors, and some seriously big name actors at that. The mere wrangling of that many people is a monstrous feat unto itself, but not only did the story have to support all the characters, it had to be substantive and/or rewarding enough that each of these actors feel like they’re making good use of their time. I’m sure a lot of people chalk up motivation to money, but there have been many times when money is not enough to keep an actor in a role he or she thinks is beneath them. The Avengers, in that respect, had a lot on its shoulders, and as far as I’m concerned it delivers beautifully.

Some may be inclined to lay credit for this accomplishment at the feet of Joss Whedon, and I support that. He’s a strong and effective storyteller and he doesn’t leave any of the main figures out of the mix. Each and every one of the Avengers has a backstory, character motivation, individual style, and contributes to the ultimate victory, such as it is (and the movie as a whole is still playful and cheeky in a way reminiscent of classic comic book humor). Iron Man is cocky and flouts the rules, Cap is an idealistic leader, Thor is an arrogant warrior, Banner is a wary academic, Natasha is an enigmatic and manipulative assassin, and Barton is detached and calculating. In addition, beyond their own individual personalities, the interrelationships of the Avengers are fascinating. I love the conflicts between Stark and Rogers, especially, how Steve has no use for Tony’s flippancy and how Tony is clearly resentful of this man his father had such high regard for. But Thor and Steve both having an inability to catch all the references is a lovely touch, and Loki’s constant disdain for Thor (paired with Thor’s conflicting loyalty to and frustration with Loki) is a great rivalry. Natasha, too, who is always confident (unless she’s rope-a-doping you to get some information) and who loves to throw a little wiseass toying Steve’s way, is honest-to-god terrified of Hulk.

Natasha is honestly probably my favorite Avenger after Cap, and I can’t believe people who think she’s a meaningless prop in this film or that she doesn’t have any agency. Natasha is truly one of the most interesting women on film, in my eyes. She’s loyal to Barton to an incredible degree, fighting to save him from Loki’s trance rather than to simply destroy him, despite her somewhat bloodthirsty approach to battles. Though she wouldn’t call her feelings for him love, she clearly cares for him. But she might not be attracted to him, per se, at least not the way she would never admit she is to Steve (I totally ship Natasha and Steve, especially after The Winter Soldier). She’s incredibly intelligent — witty and clever and calculating and savvy in all kinds of ways — and a great spy, using her mark’s weaknesses and presumptions against them. Moreover, despite her detached persona she so obviously has deep feelings for those who are important to her. I think Natasha is a deep well of personality, and every time I think of all the Marvel universe films on the docket that don’t include one devoted entirely to Black Widow, I get pretty angry.

And this is me talking — a person who, you may remember, never read comics as a kid and has atrociously limited knowledge of these characters and their histories. Yet I’m about as invested as I can possibly be. I’d call that a successful franchise, and The Avengers is the integral  linchpin, keeping it all in place. That’s definitely a success.

Batfleck

Today on the new FXX channel I came across Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, a regrettable film from 2007 and a pointless sequel to 2005’s equally regrettable (and forgettable) Fantastic Four.  But as I contemplated either finding something else to watch or taking a nap, I heard a voice that gave me pause: Captain America.

One of the titular Four, the Human Torch, was played by Chris Evans. The very same Chris Evans, in fact, who played the title role in Captain America: The First Avenger, reprised the role in Marvel’s The Avengers, and is set to appear in the sequels of each, coming up in 2014 and 2015, respectively. And that’s just what’s been locked down so far.

So if you haven’t figured out yet what this has to do with Batfleck (the hybrid name of Batman and Ben Affleck, who will play the caped crusader in an upcoming film), allow me to spell it out for you. If Chris Evans can play a role as silly and stupid as Johnny Storm (the Human Torch’s alter ego) — twice — and still be able to shake off that role to successfully bring emotional weight and depth to the charismatic, noble, trustworthy champion Steve Rogers (Captain America’s alter ego), then maybe it’s not out of the question that Affleck can discard the vestiges of his own regrettable superhero role, Daredevil, and fully embrace the complex, loyal, emotionally scarred and justice-minded (both noble and vengeful) Batman while also breathing life into the wealthy cockiness of alter ego Bruce Wayne.

Stranger things have happened.

 

/jessica