Captain America 2 Review

I used to read a lot of comic books.  Maybe too many.  Eventually, with the pesky responsibilities of work and 'life', I couldn't keep up and stopped reading altogether.  Which is really a shame, since the stories and visuals in comics are way better than many things on TV or in theaters (the secret is creativity).  But with everything I read, I never cared about Captain America.  I knew very little about him, except he was maybe overly patriotic, and something about being frozen from World War II, and he had a shield.  Whatever.  He showed up everywhere but I never gave a crap about Cap (you can use that if you want).

Then in 2011, Marvel Comics released Captain America: The First Avenger, as part of their ginormous Phase One story arc of epic superheroes movies.  At the time, all I could think is whyyyyyyyy???, when there were so many other interesting characters they could have translated to movies.  But because I am a slut for superheroes, I saw it anyway, and then I suddenly decided Captain America is one of the most awesome characters eva!  See me rant about how great that movie was here.

Cap continued to be extra awesome in Avengers (and here is that rant).  And finally, after all the Shawarma dust settled, Marvel is ready to move into Phase Two of their epic superhero lineup, which includes Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Taking place after events in Avengers, we see Cap (heroically played by Chris Evans once again), working with SHIELD, and kicking ass.  Until things go horribly wrong, and then he has to kick more ass.  

Okay, in my efforts to keep my reviews spoiler free, I've overly simplified the plot.  But this movie was anything but simple!  Huge thumbs up to writers Stephen McFeely, and Christopher Markus for creating a complex storyline that actually worked!  Generally, simpler is better.  But this was a successful rare exception of combining action with a well thought out storyline.

One story element I can tell you about (sort of), is the Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan).  If you've been paying attention, writing has taught us:  With great writing, comes a great bad guy.  So without giving anything away, I will tell you, OMG this guy is soooo awesome!  He is the perfect ass-kicking counterpart to Cap, with a well developed origin.  And he seriously made me question my own sexuality because he is quite dreamy.

But successfully reminding me that I am in fact still heterosexual, we get Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson.... mmmm....), who seems to get hotter with every movie.  We also get a bonus with Sam Wilson aka Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie), who has his own share of kick ass moments.  And lest we not forget plenty of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, kicking his own share of ass.

Oh, also Robert Redford has an important role and does some stuff... meh.

Now before you think this is the most awesome epic movie ever made... there was a problem.  Most of the directing by Anthony Russo, and Joe Russo was well done and kept me engaged visually.  But... PLEEEEEASE pull your camera back and show us your fight choreography!!  This wasn't as bad as some movies in the past *COUGH*jj.abrams*COUGH*michael.bay*COUGH*, I could mostly see what was going on, but it would have been nice to not make us feel like the cameraman was trying to break them up the whole time. With two directors, I am curious if maybe one of them filmed the story elements, and the other directed action sequences.  In which case, I'm only angry at one of them.  But which one.....

And finally, bonus points for ABC's series Agents of SHIELD for successfully writing episodes around the events from Cap 2!  I was not originally a big fan of this show, and felt the stories were a bit predictable, the characters were bland, and visually it was dark and had no life.  The last few weeks have revitalized a lot of the characters, and they started to finally add more colors and light into the show.  And recently, incorporating events from Cap 2, they suddenly have my attention.

There was a lot of hype surrounding this movie, and going in, I was very apprehensive.  But yes, believe the hype.  It was VERY well done!  Now, once again, I need to re-evaluate my top list of best Marvel movies.

In the meantime, did I mention Scarlett Johansson was in this?

Deeesher

Avengers Review

Dear Joss Whedon, I hate you.  Sure our relationship has had its ups and downs, (ups being things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer the TV series, Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and most recently Cabin in the Woods.  Downs being things like Dollhouse and Alien: Resurrection ).  But this is the last straw.  You humiliated me in front of my friends by proving me wro...  not entirely correct.

We've known about The Avengers movie for a few years now, and I've said repeatedly, it can't be done!  How can anyone successfully combine several major superheroes from Marvel comics, and create a grown-up movie, with a decent plot, plenty of action, and still devote a fair amount of time to each character?

The Ultra Nerds among us have followed the setup of each hero, from their individual origin movies released in recent years.  From Captain America (with Chris Evans, and my review here), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr, in Iron Man 1 and 2, with a review for 2 here), and even The Incredible Hulk, (the 2008 Hulk starring Edward Norton, not the Ang Lee directed 2003 version.  I have decided to disavow the 2003 version for many reasons).  Each character was fully developed in their solo movie, and all was  nicely tied together through teasers featuring Nick Fury (played by the baddest M*F* to ever wear an eye patch, Samuel L. Jackson), and/or Agent Coulson (awesomely played each time by Clark Gregg)... and in the case of Iron Man, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) *insert yummy sounds here*.
 
And now, you bring them all together to battle Loki, (Tom Hiddleston), aka Thor's brother.  Loki wants to enslave mankind because... well, because he can.  And if anyone wears a helmet with horns that big, I say you can do pretty much anything you want at that point.

I have said the only way this could work, is in a TV series.  I've said the plot will suffer.  I've said one hero will be the focus, and everyone else will be secondary.  Joss, I hate you, because somehow... you made it all work.

The characters were equally balanced and nobody was a main focus.  The story was simple enough but well written enough to work.  And your directing...  I could see the action clearly, and many scenes could have been taken out of the movie and made into a beautiful painting, suitable for framing your favorite hero and sold for way too much money at any Comic-con.  I regularly found myself grinning like a nerd discovering a box of golden age comics in mint condition in a forgotten box in his attic.  Why would you do this to me???

Well, before you start thinking you're perfect, I did find a few minor flaws, (and I use the word 'flaws' very loosely here).  Banner/Hulk (this time played by Mark Ruffalo) has always been a personal favorite of mine, so the super-nerd in me wants to protect his story and keep it safely sealed in a Mylar Bag with a board behind it.  His origin story and Hulk's behavior felt a bit conveniently written as if hoping nobody would notice.  It all seemed a bit shady to me.  And Mark Ruffalo himself mostly worked well, but at times he looked more like Reed Richards with that bit of grey in his hair.  And remember how impressive Hulk looked in his own movie?  Your version felt a bit too CGI in places.

I would also have liked to have learned a bit more about Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (did I mention yummy?), since they didn't get an origin movie.  But with a running time of 142 minutes, I can understand why many details were maybe edited out.  I imagine many things will be restored in the Blu-ray release.  Might I also suggest including several slow motion scenes of Black Widow getting in and out of her outfit?

But otherwise, you did it right, and this is truly a nerd fantasy come to life...  And I hate you for proving me wro... whatever.
Sincerely,
Deeesher

Now that I have that out of the way...

Dear Scarlett Johanson, I love you...

Heavy Metals

I recently got this very cool Moviefone app for my phone. With a quick punch of a button, I can see what's playing, show times, theaters, and even running times. Sure, I do miss the manly '...Hello! And welcome to Moviefone!' voice, but if I say it myself every time I use the app, it sort of makes up for it... because I sound that happy and manly too.

I used this app when I was looking for the IMAX version of Iron Man 2. With a spring in my step, I made my way to my local IMAX theater, only to discover one important flaw with my super-cool new app... It doesn't show am or pm! Surprise! Oh sure, I could have found another theater, or came back much much later, but it's rare I get out in public, and I didn't want to find that kind of courage to leave my home again. So I had to see Iron Man 2 on a frumpy old regular tiny baby-sized movie screen! How could I really enjoy a movie of this magnitude like that! I was obviously very concerned, and it didn't help that everyone had already told me how great this movie is, (and I have found if you have such huge-o-mongous expectations for a movie, it's guaranteed to disappoint!).

Despite all those hurdles and hardships for me to overcome, I freakin' loved it! Oh let me count the ways...

The story was fun and simple enough: Tony Stark deals with being a corporate success, as well as a superhero, with tons of money, and hot chicks, all while battling politics and people that want to kill him. The way his life mirrored my own was eerie!

It also helped that it was an action movie where you could see the action*gasp*! Jon Favreau rules! He figured out that a shaky camera, and ultra-fast edits, with the camera up the actors nose, just doesn't work! I hope other directors can get the hint...*COUGH*j.j. abrams*COUGH*michael bay*COUGH*
Robert Downey Jr, continues to be a very flawed and eccentric hero who is as much fun to watch this time as he was in the first Iron Man. And of course every hero needs a good memorable bad guy. This time, we get TWO! Both different, but you love to hate them all the same. Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko (Whiplash) who has come a long way from the pervert of 9 ½ Weeks, and Sam Rockwell (who we saw most recently going insane on the Moon), as the satisfyingly annoying Justin Hammer.

Oh and did I mention hot chicks? TWO yet again! Yummy Gwenyth Paltrow, (Pepper Pots), and equally as yummy Scarlett Johansson as the ass kicking Natalie Romanoff wearing her super sexy tight catsuit, (aka Black Widow, for the nerd elite).

I really liked the first Iron Man, but was 2 better? My crack staff of research scientists crunched all the numbers, and concluded... not quite! But it was a very close race! Mostly because his origin story felt very inspiring and I loved seeing the first time he did some ass kicking.

Be sure to keep a close eye on this movie for more sneak peeks of the upcoming Avengers movie to be released in 2012. Personally, I think with so much build-up, and so many characters, this is destined to suck! Hey, is that a huge crowd of nerds gathering outside with torches and pitchforks shouting obscenities at me?

Maybe this will slow them down a bit...

Deeesher