So I just saw Captain America 2.
Caution, here be spoilers. Which brings me to my first point.
I just want to renew my annoyance here that Bucky being the Winter Soldier got spoiled for me. Knowing that ahead of time pretty much killed the intrigue for me stone dead for the entire film any time the Winter Soldier showed up. To re-iterate my previous points, just bandying that about not only assumes that I'd read the relevant comics, but also that the films were faithful to said comics, despite the frequent creative license that is taken in such situations. I mean, I'm just one guy, but hey, maybe some lurkers got it spoiled for them too. Plus this film was still in theatres, it's not like you told me the end of Citizen Kane here. I'd like to request that we keep discussions of any of the films, at least those that are still showing in any of the countries we live in, in spoilers, if everyone's good with that?
Anyway, the film itself was great, and it revealed a facet of my own personality which is that I will not give a shit about nitpicky details if a film is good enough to make me not give a shit.
The action was great. The tone was light. There was the same big, dumb, soppy heart beating at the centre of this as there was at the centre of Cap's first film, and Avengers Assemble (which for those unaware, I consider to be the greatest superhero film ever made). I had a blast watching this movie, and the action had me on the edge of my seat - the only exception being the car chase because The Raid 2 has the greatest car chase in it I have ever seen and I saw that last weekend. Scarlett Johansson remembered to act this time, and somehow looks hotter in street clothes than in the Black Widow outfit. Falcon was bad. Ass.
The film is not without its faults, but I've got to express - I don't give a shit about these faults. I enjoyed everything too much for this to matter more than my having a blast watching it.
1. I know Hydra have penetrated a lot of organisations here, but why is it that not a single other law enforcement agency picked up on the hilarious amount of murders and millions in property damage being committed in the street here?
2. Where is literally everyone else from the Avengers at this point? Off the grid, I know, I know, but seriously now. Pretty sure Iron Man could've lent a hand here.
3. More importantly, where was Hawkeye? This was probably the only thing that bugged me out of any of these issues. The others I guess coulda been like 'yeah sure Cap's got this, PEACE OUT' but Clint is a SHIELD agent. Where the fuck was he, and Coulson for that matter?
4. Black Widow sure did a lot of 'she's probably dead, oh no she isn't' in this one. Why did that lapel bullshit kill everyone but her, with no explanation except a bit of coughing?
I had more, but I've already forgotten them. Again, I just had too much fun watching these films.
It's actually made me angrier at DC for wanting to go super dark with all their films. I mean I understand wanting to be distinct, but how about you just try to make a good film instead? And I can understand darkness with Batman, but with Supes? Brother is the big blue boy scout. That's kinda his thing. That's the whole point.
You know what's pretty remarkable? That these Marvel films since, and let's be conservative here and say Iron Man, have all been part of one larger universe, one continuity, and so far, while there have been weaker ones (hello, Thor), none of these movies have sucked. They've all been at least good, some of them great, some of them AMAZING. These films are a towering cultural achievement of our time. And while it will suck when we can finally say it's over, I can't wait for the day when a giant, all-singing, all-dancing box set of this entire universe is compiled and I can buy it and put it on my wall and bang someone while I look at it or something.
