(no subject)
Jul. 24th, 2011 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nilchanceWeekend notes: the heatwave has made yet another New and Interesting Symptom crop up, officially turning me into a walking episode of House. Good thing I have an appointment with my awesome arthritis doctor in a few weeks.
Also, we had dinner at a hibachi grill with the most annoying people ever, where the parents whined at their kids for whining, one dude bitched about getting too much food, and kids ran around the open fucking flame and the chefs using knives. Yep. We left our server a huge tip and I added a note to thank her for great service. I don't miss customer service at all.
Sorry, Chris Evans. You are beautiful and your eyelashes are sick and I want to smish you. I wish this had been a better movie. I miss Jake Jensen, basically.
I don't know if my lack of excitement in the movie (I ended up counting the minutes when the dude in the row in front of us checked his texts on his stupid cell phone) is a result of my cynicism about America. I don't know if it's my feelings on the false nostalgia around the 40s and 50s, which were mostly great for white Christian straight men because nobody talked about their privilege. I don't know if it's just my thoughts on Boy Scouts and why I love Batman more than Superman. I don't know why I'm qualifying my reactions like this, but I feel bad because I've seen so many squee posts and I just... didn't get that.
There were great individual scenes in the 40s portion of the film: the bootcamp, the transformation, the rescue of the troops in the Hydra base, the train battle, the scene with Steve grieving for hislost love friend Bucky (the moment when Bucky picks up the shield! the moment when Bucky uses a sniper rifle! where is the fic where Losers!Jensen is secretly Steve with a thing for snipers?), everything with Howard Stark being so closeted homosexual, omg, how did he conceive children?, and just typing this I get excited, but... wow. There was no cohesion of these scenes, no heart to it for me.
I felt like the movie wanted to get into darker territory, what with the comment about the Asian-American guy being from Fresno and the blood in the interrogation room, about how war is both fought on the battlefield by men with pure intentions like Steve who just want to protect the little guy and yet also fought in locked rooms where the blood can be rinsed off. But I also felt like the movie wanted to be a popcorn movie where you didn't think too hard about Steve being the hero or WHY he wanted to be a soldier in the field. We never really found out why, aside from the "Steve hates bullies" answer, that he didn't want to kill but had to serve with a gun instead of a wrench or a pen or a scalpel.
And yes, that's way more thinky thoughts than a movie often puts into its story, but Captain America is coming on the heels of several movies that changed the game. Inglorious Basterds showed that being against the Nazis, being the better man, doesn't make you a GOOD PERSON by default. Watchman deconstructed superheroes in war and how it doesn't necessarily make things better for the little guy, and also how fucked up you have to be to become a superhero; Kickass did the same, plus the threat of escalation when you have caped superheroes, because then you get caped supervillains. Thor, which was so recent and involved the same comic company, had the god of Thunder from the freaking battle-hungry NORSE scolded for his war-mongering against a Always Chaotic Evil foe. So on the heels of all this deconstruction and "but WHY? and what happens next? and is that good?" questioning, you get this very earnest Captain America movie that wants you to pretend none of those other movies happened.
Anyway. I loved the last few minutes with Steve and Nick Fury, and Steve's loss. I felt like that was the real core of the film, the only time I was really caught up, and then it was over. And I'm so harsh on it because I wanted the movie to be better.
I wanted two more scenes, too, that I understand why they're not in the movie:
- bittersweet scene with Steve meeting the 90+ year old Peggy and getting his last slow dance
- Steve meets Tony Stark, because after two hours I needed something funny, goddamn it
In other news, I find it funny that in the Avengers trailer, Loki is being escorted by like 10 guards and he makes it look like "oh, these bitches? they're just holding my cape."
Also, we had dinner at a hibachi grill with the most annoying people ever, where the parents whined at their kids for whining, one dude bitched about getting too much food, and kids ran around the open fucking flame and the chefs using knives. Yep. We left our server a huge tip and I added a note to thank her for great service. I don't miss customer service at all.
Sorry, Chris Evans. You are beautiful and your eyelashes are sick and I want to smish you. I wish this had been a better movie. I miss Jake Jensen, basically.
I don't know if my lack of excitement in the movie (I ended up counting the minutes when the dude in the row in front of us checked his texts on his stupid cell phone) is a result of my cynicism about America. I don't know if it's my feelings on the false nostalgia around the 40s and 50s, which were mostly great for white Christian straight men because nobody talked about their privilege. I don't know if it's just my thoughts on Boy Scouts and why I love Batman more than Superman. I don't know why I'm qualifying my reactions like this, but I feel bad because I've seen so many squee posts and I just... didn't get that.
There were great individual scenes in the 40s portion of the film: the bootcamp, the transformation, the rescue of the troops in the Hydra base, the train battle, the scene with Steve grieving for his
I felt like the movie wanted to get into darker territory, what with the comment about the Asian-American guy being from Fresno and the blood in the interrogation room, about how war is both fought on the battlefield by men with pure intentions like Steve who just want to protect the little guy and yet also fought in locked rooms where the blood can be rinsed off. But I also felt like the movie wanted to be a popcorn movie where you didn't think too hard about Steve being the hero or WHY he wanted to be a soldier in the field. We never really found out why, aside from the "Steve hates bullies" answer, that he didn't want to kill but had to serve with a gun instead of a wrench or a pen or a scalpel.
And yes, that's way more thinky thoughts than a movie often puts into its story, but Captain America is coming on the heels of several movies that changed the game. Inglorious Basterds showed that being against the Nazis, being the better man, doesn't make you a GOOD PERSON by default. Watchman deconstructed superheroes in war and how it doesn't necessarily make things better for the little guy, and also how fucked up you have to be to become a superhero; Kickass did the same, plus the threat of escalation when you have caped superheroes, because then you get caped supervillains. Thor, which was so recent and involved the same comic company, had the god of Thunder from the freaking battle-hungry NORSE scolded for his war-mongering against a Always Chaotic Evil foe. So on the heels of all this deconstruction and "but WHY? and what happens next? and is that good?" questioning, you get this very earnest Captain America movie that wants you to pretend none of those other movies happened.
Anyway. I loved the last few minutes with Steve and Nick Fury, and Steve's loss. I felt like that was the real core of the film, the only time I was really caught up, and then it was over. And I'm so harsh on it because I wanted the movie to be better.
I wanted two more scenes, too, that I understand why they're not in the movie:
- bittersweet scene with Steve meeting the 90+ year old Peggy and getting his last slow dance
- Steve meets Tony Stark, because after two hours I needed something funny, goddamn it
In other news, I find it funny that in the Avengers trailer, Loki is being escorted by like 10 guards and he makes it look like "oh, these bitches? they're just holding my cape."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-24 11:56 pm (UTC)It would be interesting, and I can see them taking all those little hints that things weren't as pure and perfect as Steve thought they were and really bringing them home in the Avengers movie.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 06:24 am (UTC)I'm just optimistic about Marvel movies in general right now (Joss Whedon aside *twitchtwitch*) because there's a Luke Cage movie in planned production, a Jessica Jones tv show that might be picked up, and damnit, I want Wasp on the big screen!
Although, if I hear the words "Civil War" come out of one more writer's mouth, I will probably riot.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 03:19 pm (UTC)In the immortal words of Guns and Roses, we don't need no Civil War.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-25 12:15 am (UTC)Part of why I loved it so much has nothing to do with Steve Rogers, but that it was one of the few movies involving WWII that I've watched that actually acknowledged that it wasn't just white American men who fought in the war. I've always been really touchy about that because I had a grandfather who fought for the British army and was emotionally destroyed by his experiences there, and most Hollywood movies seem to never acknowledge that other people fought in WWII than just the Americans.
I mean, I know this is a movie about an American hero, and most Hollywood movies about WWII are from the American perspective, but I find it kind of sad that a superhero origin story got that part of it more right than a lot of other critically acclaimed war movies. This movie had a French soldier, African-American soldiers, an Asian soldier, and a British soldier. It doesn't seem like a lot, but considering there are Oscar-winning movies that never seem to even acknowledge even that much, I'm grateful for what little we got in this flick. Maybe in twenty years, another big-budget movie from somewhere in the world will show someone who looks like my grandfather fighting Nazis, and I can finally stop feeling so angry about this. :\
tl;dr - I agree with you, despite liking the movie. It could've been better, and I get where you're coming from with your disappointment.
In other news, I hope your appointment with your doctor goes well. ♥
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 03:21 pm (UTC)(Also, you and yours are in my thoughts. *hug*)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 03:25 pm (UTC)(*hugs* Thank you, love. Things are getting better, and we have hope.)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 04:10 pm (UTC)Mostly, the movie made me want to go watch Thor again, with it's Idris hotness and Thor hotness, and Sif hotness. And y'know, to read some more Darcy/Hawkeye fic.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-26 07:44 pm (UTC)I have to admit, the end of Captain America made me really excited for The Avengers, which hadn't happened before. I can't wait to see Thor and Loki again, and I will expect Darcy to make an appearance just to yell at Hawkeye because fandom has conditioned me for it.