Yeah, I suppose it's expecting a lot from Disney, but heck, at least Downey's character, Iron Man, has some character development. Could be that it's because Downey is such a damn fine actor, though, and my guess is that he has a lot of say in what they do with his role in these things. In my opinion, he's singlehandedly lifted the entire Avengers film series a level above what it would have been had he never been involved.
Indeed. Furthermore, the shield absorbs kinetic energy from any subsequent impact. Therefore, any impact of said shield with other objects would result in nothing more than the shield falling to the ground due to the lack of sustainable momentum. signed. Spoiler
From everything I've read they definitely touch on him not being in the right time period. I think people need to reserve judgment until they see the movie. Saying they didn't do this or didn't do that is moot...you haven't seen it. And people complaining about tone...everyone says this is arguably the most "serious" movie they've made yet. Avengers 2 is supposed to follow suit.
For one, Whedon is great at giving characters good roles and lines. And I'm not sure Disney was involved in Iron Man 1. I don't think they bought Marvel Studios until later.
I don't think that is giving enough credit to the audience. The Dark Knight did spectacularly well and it is focused on character issues. I am not saying that Captain America should be as dark as TDK but it seems like more could be done to flesh out Steve Rogers and give a sense of how he is struggling to reconcile suddenly waking up in the world of 70 years later. It could even just add some edgy humor such as referring to Nick Fury as a "negro" or when Nick Fury is getting in his face saying something like "you people" (ala Tropic Thunder). It could add to more character tension such as he has a difficult time accepting Natasha Romanov as an equal and feels he has to protect her since she is a member of the fairer sex.
True you are right we should wait and see the movie but from Avengers and what I've seen so far the most it touches on him being out of time is him grieving for the loss of his friends not about him dealing with the complexity and confusion of how much society has changed. Marvel likes to emphasize how much of a boyscout and nice guy he is to show that as being a trait that marks him as from another time but even if he is the nicest guy in the world and very open minded for the 1940's that still was a very different time. Just on race at a time when segregation existed and even in Northern cities blacks and other nonwhites racist attitudes were widely accepted it would be baffling to a man from the 1940's to have a black man with the power of Nick Fury and one named Obama in the Whitehouse. Spoiler From what little I remember of the comics The Winter Soldier is his former sidekick Bucky so the tension there is him dealing with someone who had been close to him that he thought was lost in time now showing up as an enemy in this time. I am guessing that is the issue with him not being in the right time period not so much how he deals with the standards of now versus then.
Don't get me started, though. Because it's a crying shame Edward Norton didn't continue as Bruce Banner. THAT would have elevated the movie and been worth the money and whatever pain in the a** that Norton supposedly is to some directors. He had a good replacement in Avengers; but (sigh) oh, well.
My comment was not really specifically pointed at you as much as at people who watch a trailer and then say it has 'terrible acting and direction', insipid things like that. That said, your comment quoted above, THAT was worth reading, that was actual intelligent discourse Saying 'Thor2 and IM3 were really bad' is not, that's what I mean about JV level commentary. I dunno, maybe it's just me. Just seems to me there's a difference between actually adding to the discourse and merely adding junk noise. And most of the time, when people just flatly state their opinion *as though it is a plainly evident fact* is doing nothing but adding junk noise. But stating one's actual thoughts and reasoning, that is when your opinion gains weight.
Review. Not really any spoilers, but... kind of spoilery. http://www.aintitcool.com/node/66682 I agree that the cinematography looks to be much better than the other Marvel films.
Winter Soldier is intended to be more of a political thriller than anything else - in the vein of "Three Days Of The Condor". I see it as a study on how Cap comes to grips with the multi-shades of grey that define the modern world. Things were far more simplistic politically in Cap's time period of World War as that sort of clarity no longer exists. Winter Soldier also highlights what can happen to a government that's driven not by what's right or its core principles but by fear - the same fear that has come to permeate all levels of American society today.
You're mistaken. The whole movie is about how the government has gotten too big and Rogers isn't happy with it. It's been stated that in the past it was all black and white, it was very clear who the bad guys are. Now it isn't the case, and that's what the movie is about. I don't see why it has to be a racism issue in order for him to touch on being from a different time period. Yeah...that would be different, but isn't it possible that he is just accepting that the president / his superior officer aren't white? [Edit]Is Obama even the president in the Marvel universe? It was a random white guy in Iron Man 3.
saw advance screening tonight it is as legit as the early review that are out there the AICN review above is spot on as always, be sure to stay for the mid credits scene, along with the after credits scene Spoiler Our first look (other than the set pics that were released a few days ago) of the "twins" on the silver screen, fwiw, HUGE QuickSilver fan
Amusing that there are still lots of people that do not stay for the mid and end credit scenes on a Marvel movie. Then when they're almost out the theater and the mid scenes play, they stand there going wait, and some of them try to get back to their seats. Glad that Marvel is doing mid credit scenes before the end credits now. 2 is always better than 1.
Racial attitudes are probably the most notable change in US cultural attitudes between the 1940's and now. Followed by women's rights and the tolerance of homosexuals. I'm not saying that the whole movie has to be about race but I think some acknowledgement of how different the culture is now versus then would add much more to the character than we have now. As far the big government and shades of grey now while it is true that to the average person back then that things were at least presented more simply. The Nazis and the Japanese were bad guys, the Allies were the good guys. The problem with that though is even then many recognized the shades of greys and all sorts of moral compromises made then. The fact that the US allied itself with Soviet Russia and Joseph Stalin shows. The difference now is that more people know and care about the type of moral compromises that happen. During WWII little was thought about firebombing thousands of civilians in Dresden and Tokyo. Now such a thing would put the officers who ordered it on charges of genocide. Also just to add the government was far more intrusive then than it was now. People were detained without trial just because of their ethnicity, there was mandatory draft, there was enforced rationing, miscegenation laws and sodomy laws were on the books and were enforced. The technology didn't exist for the type of eavesdropping and metadata collection we have now but then again this was a time when many still didn't have phones. The government though encouraged people to inform on their friends, families and coworkers. My own opinion is that an actual Steve Rogers who was incredibly patriotic and eager to fight against all enemies of the US coming from the WWII US would probably embrace the PATRIOT Act and the NSA. I have nothing against though exploring in an action movie the role that government, moral compromise plays in our current lives but I think it is rather simplistic to focus on that as the main struggle for a man from the past when as a commando in WWII he likely would've been faced with such things all the time. What this is more about is taking on the 1940's comic book character of Captain America and how he deals with the world of Jason Bourne rather than how an actual person might deal with the monumental changes from then to now. Just to add I don't want to sound like I'm completely bashing what Marvel has done with Captain America or declaring the movie terrible just based on previews but I feel that a lot more could be done with the idea of a man from teh 1940's finding himself in the 2010's. If anything in movies and art the issues of the intrusiveness of government and moral compromise for security is almost an easier thing take on than issues of race. Many action movies like the Bourne series, Enemy of the State, even the latest James Bond movies have dealt with those issues. Good point. I guess the producers might've been secretly hoping Romney would win.
We'll agree to disagree, but I thoroughly appreciate your well thought out opinion. Thank you for taking the time to elaborate. Granted we're talking about if homeboy were real, but the way I see Cap is the Cap from the Civil War comic. He was the same Cap but completely against the superhero registration act and the loss of privacy that came with it. That's just how I see him. He's not really a G(overnment) guy even though he's totally a G guy. Know what I mean? I do agree there likely will be more they could have done, but...well I haven't seen the movie and, it is a movie after all. I also feel like if they made it too much about the racial changes it would imply Cap is racist regardless of how he responded to the changes. As a biracial person I just don't (and don't really want to) see him that way.
Googled "AICN" and "Captain America" - is this the review you're talking about? http://www.aintitcool.com/node/66682
The movie needs to be up to date with current world issues and have Capt fight communism and find MH370.
I feel so bad. I overheard some fanboy kids in my class talking about Cap and one kid couldn't remember Caps sidekicks name. Of course, I told him Bucky, and for some reason, I just blurted out Spoiler You do know he's the winter soldier I truly saw that he was shocked. I felt so bad that I ruined the surprise, but every fanboy knows that.
