And finally, Captain America
Aug. 11th, 2011 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drwex"The First Avenger" was the last one to hit the big screen and I've been delayed in seeing it. Last night ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
taura_g and I went and saw it. We had to endure the 3D, about which more in the spoilery bits.
Overall the movie gets a grudging "B-" almost exclusively on the strengths of Chris Evans' and Tommy Lee Jones' performances. Hugo Weaving does a fine job as Johann Schmidt (the Red Skull) - at least he knows how to manage a German accent to a reasonable degree - but he's not on screen enough to be able to hold this movie up. Likewise I thought Hayley Atwell did a good job as Sole Supporting Woman in a Guy Film. She's no Gwyneth Paltrow, but that's not her fault - the role just isn't that good.
At its core, the movie is about the creation of Captain America - just a kid from Brooklyn - as a person and as a legend. When Markus & McFeely's screenplay is in these elements it does well. As a superhero movie, this thing is a bust.
In a way the Captain America story is the inverse of the Thor story - one is about the scrawny punk with heart finding his strength and the other is about an overpowered god finding his heart. If the writers for "The Avengers" have any brains they'll pick up on this and we'll get an interesting team dynamic film. The set-ups are certainly there.
As noted, we saw it in 3D, something I normally avoid. To its credit the film avoids some of the more obvious and annoying 3D tropes, like explosion debris flying past the camera. There are one or two cheap/clever camera tricks done, but where the 3D really fell down badly was in the model work. The vehicles (with the exception of Red Skull's final massive airplane) just look fake and plastic and the buildings become simplistic and devoid of interesting detail.
Being Captain America, the film spends a lot of time on close-up action and punch-outs. Most of these are pretty good, but every time they pull back a bit I wanted to shout "No! Idiots!" at the screen. In the climactic assault on the final Red Skull base the good guys charge en masse at the bad guys as though it was some kind of insane WWI 'over the top' surge. No mortars, no grenades, no maneuvering, no tactics, just charge at the enemy who - miracle of miracles - has forgotten how to emplace a machinegun or throw their own grenades. Geebus but that scene sucked.
Also extremely annoying was the motorcycle version of the speeder chase through the forest from Star Wars. I almost expected Ewoks to pop out from behind the trees and yabber while lobbing ineffectual-but-cute homemade spears at the leather-clad storm troo...err, octoskull whateverthehell they're supposed to bes.
The speed-line onto the train was also ripped off from another movie, but I can't remember which one right now, and good lord did they need Admiral Akbar. It's a TRAP, you morons. *headdesk* I would pay good money to see Samuel L Jackson as Admiral Akbar: It's a motherfucking TRAP motherfucker what don't you understand about that? But I digress...
Pretty much all the military stuff sucked, except for the aforementioned Tommy Lee Jones who is one of the most believable 'military officer' actors you can find in Hollywood today. Pretty much anything that required a whiff of logic sucked. I mean, we're not talking about the comic book suspend-disbelief stuff like the existence of "vibranium". I'll give you that if you can just explain to me why in the name of all that is holy would SHIELD put its Mission Impossible base within a few blocks of Times Square.
No, seriously, I'll suspend my disbelief if you will make even a modicum of effort to be internally consistent, which this film does not. Why does Skull wear the flesh mask for most of the film when he's dealing with his underlings and after he's done the dramatic reveal for Cap never put it back on? This. Makes. No. Sense. Do the moviemakers think we're too stupid to remember what Red Skull looks like if we happen to see Weaving's face again?
I find it hard to quantify what makes a good "superhero" movie, but I know it when I see it (Iron Man 1 and Spiderman 1 plus several of the Batman films) and I didn't see it here.
taura_g and I went and saw it. We had to endure the 3D, about which more in the spoilery bits.Overall the movie gets a grudging "B-" almost exclusively on the strengths of Chris Evans' and Tommy Lee Jones' performances. Hugo Weaving does a fine job as Johann Schmidt (the Red Skull) - at least he knows how to manage a German accent to a reasonable degree - but he's not on screen enough to be able to hold this movie up. Likewise I thought Hayley Atwell did a good job as Sole Supporting Woman in a Guy Film. She's no Gwyneth Paltrow, but that's not her fault - the role just isn't that good.
At its core, the movie is about the creation of Captain America - just a kid from Brooklyn - as a person and as a legend. When Markus & McFeely's screenplay is in these elements it does well. As a superhero movie, this thing is a bust.
In a way the Captain America story is the inverse of the Thor story - one is about the scrawny punk with heart finding his strength and the other is about an overpowered god finding his heart. If the writers for "The Avengers" have any brains they'll pick up on this and we'll get an interesting team dynamic film. The set-ups are certainly there.
As noted, we saw it in 3D, something I normally avoid. To its credit the film avoids some of the more obvious and annoying 3D tropes, like explosion debris flying past the camera. There are one or two cheap/clever camera tricks done, but where the 3D really fell down badly was in the model work. The vehicles (with the exception of Red Skull's final massive airplane) just look fake and plastic and the buildings become simplistic and devoid of interesting detail.
Being Captain America, the film spends a lot of time on close-up action and punch-outs. Most of these are pretty good, but every time they pull back a bit I wanted to shout "No! Idiots!" at the screen. In the climactic assault on the final Red Skull base the good guys charge en masse at the bad guys as though it was some kind of insane WWI 'over the top' surge. No mortars, no grenades, no maneuvering, no tactics, just charge at the enemy who - miracle of miracles - has forgotten how to emplace a machinegun or throw their own grenades. Geebus but that scene sucked.
Also extremely annoying was the motorcycle version of the speeder chase through the forest from Star Wars. I almost expected Ewoks to pop out from behind the trees and yabber while lobbing ineffectual-but-cute homemade spears at the leather-clad storm troo...err, octoskull whateverthehell they're supposed to bes.
The speed-line onto the train was also ripped off from another movie, but I can't remember which one right now, and good lord did they need Admiral Akbar. It's a TRAP, you morons. *headdesk* I would pay good money to see Samuel L Jackson as Admiral Akbar: It's a motherfucking TRAP motherfucker what don't you understand about that? But I digress...
Pretty much all the military stuff sucked, except for the aforementioned Tommy Lee Jones who is one of the most believable 'military officer' actors you can find in Hollywood today. Pretty much anything that required a whiff of logic sucked. I mean, we're not talking about the comic book suspend-disbelief stuff like the existence of "vibranium". I'll give you that if you can just explain to me why in the name of all that is holy would SHIELD put its Mission Impossible base within a few blocks of Times Square.
No, seriously, I'll suspend my disbelief if you will make even a modicum of effort to be internally consistent, which this film does not. Why does Skull wear the flesh mask for most of the film when he's dealing with his underlings and after he's done the dramatic reveal for Cap never put it back on? This. Makes. No. Sense. Do the moviemakers think we're too stupid to remember what Red Skull looks like if we happen to see Weaving's face again?
I find it hard to quantify what makes a good "superhero" movie, but I know it when I see it (Iron Man 1 and Spiderman 1 plus several of the Batman films) and I didn't see it here.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-11 05:07 pm (UTC)I think I liked it more than you did. I also didn't see it in 3-D so that's probably the difference right there.
Tommy Lee Jones basically just plays Tommy Lee Jones these days. This isn't a bad thing, because he's pretty damn good at playing Tommy Lee Jones parts.
I wish they'd spent more time having Cap go after enemy bases rather than the montage -- although it set up this weird thing where there's WWII and behind the scenes there's SHIELD vs. HYDRA and it's like a whole separate war and nobody in WWII really seems to notice or care about it.
My attempts at arguing movie-logic:
1.) The base in Times Square -- I believe this was covered in the movie. Power infrastructure meant that they could juice up all their equipment. It's thin, but I'd buy it. In the early 40's New York still might have had the best combination of power, materials, talent, and everything else you need for a super-soldier project like that.
2.) The Red Skull -- Cap has just blown up a major base and Red Skull is now officially a rouge element. He has no reason to continue to wear his flesh mask when he's just chilling at his secret lair.
I do agree that HYDRA soldiers may be the worst shock troops since the original trilogy stormtroopers. You have a gun that vaporizes people and you can't stop a group of WWII soldiers? You're a bunch of (highly-motivated) WWII soldiers and you're going to charge some dudes with flesh-vaporizing cannons? Yeah.
later
Tom
not that base, the other one
Date: 2011-08-11 05:12 pm (UTC)Re: not that base, the other one
Date: 2011-08-11 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-11 05:12 pm (UTC)That's also quite explicitly from the original origin story.
Red Skull is now officially a rouge element.
I pray you made that pun on purpose.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-11 05:54 pm (UTC)Sorry, I acted without malice aforethought so my pun-ishment will be reduced.
later
Tom