OK, so I got off my arse and went to
Captain America (FUCK YEAH!)
What I LIKED about Captain America...1.
Joe Johnston has always been a good, but not great, director. Most anything he is involved in is at least OK (except that ill-advised Wolfman remake that should never have happened in the first place). This film is perhaps the most mature film he has made since the forgotten and overlooked
October Sky.
2. Not to spoil anything, but there were plenty of
Rocketeer-esque moments throughout, and that was a GREAT thing.
3. There were some genuinely funny moments in this, which surprised me. So many intentional jokes in movies made today are either there for pure shock value or fall flat because of bad writing or whoever delivered the line wrong.
4. If I was not made aware of the weird "scrawny" effect, I would not have noticed, and the only time I noticed was when scrawny Chris Evans and the camera were both still. I was surprised at how good it worked, people who complained about this were wrong about it being terribly distracting IMO.
5. Everybody talks about that exchange "You don't give up don't you?" and "No." But for me, the real interesting exchange was "You fight in the name of a nation. I have seen the future where there are no nations." and something like "I will not let that future happen." or something like that. I don't think that was a terribly serious line but it amused me.
What I DISLIKED about Captain America...1. I feel like everything wrong in this movie was due to the Marvel Illuminati getting their hands on the script and forcing it through
The Avengers shredder, which included:
a. The romance with Peggy Carter REALLY felt like it was tacked on, they either should have developed that storyline far more in the second act of the movie or dropped it. I do not think she was bad in terms of acting, but the script and dialogue felt very out of place.
b. The shades of political correctness that never quite faded. This was not as bad as some WW2-related films have been (practically all of them since
Schnidler's List it seems) since they was some feeling of an AMERICA FUCK YEAH VICTORY in the end unlike all the others, but the subtext of "bullying" just annoyed me, coupled with doing everything possible to play down the American side of Captain America as "The First Avenger" so as not to offend the box office receipts of some snooty moviegoers in Europe or Asia. Yeah, yeah, I know nobody likes America is some parts of the world, but trying to have it both ways like this is so stupid.
c. On that note, the laser weapons. Again, being PC/sanitizing for the pussies out there, GOD FORBID we show IRL weapons with *gasp!* people shooting each other dead with REAL guns that have bullets in a somewhat realistic setting!!! OH THE HUMANITY!!! BOO FUCKING HOO! So what if you risk an R rating by showing that? There was no sex so it would have been fine considering what passes for PG-13 today.
d. GODDAMN LENS FLARE!! And J.J. Abrams was not even involved. Lens flare needs to go away for a while so it can have the chance to appreciated by me without having to frequently squint or turn away quickly from the screen and being very annoyed.
2. In the end, the film should have either played up the goofy stuff way more or gone Christopher Nolan
and stayed that way the whole time from the Paramount logo sequence through the end credits, the balancing act should have not been an issue because the imbalance disallowed a great movie from being possible here.
despite my bitching, this was pretty good, but I feel like way more good could have been accomplished here
in the meantime, I will re-watch
The Rocketeer for the 1,548th time, God bless you Timothy Dalton
- TEH Fabulous Hal E. Burton 9000
P.S. For those wanting to discuss a matter with yours truly not pertaining to the general topic at hand, PM me. Please and thank you.