I first heard about Marvel movies when I was in high school. In the midst of our strange and unproductive flirtationship, the Chess Master went to see the first Iron Man movie. He emailed me to tell me that it was (and I quote) "recommended by me and one of my friends who went with me."
Not that I didn't trust the Chess Master's opinion of movies...no, actually, I didn't trust his opinion of movies. I wasn't intrigued. I was all, "Iron Man? What's that about? Sounds dumb."
When I later learned that it was a superhero movie, I remained unimpressed. I've never been much for superheroes. I saw all of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies in theatres, of course, because they were good movies. But they weren't very uplifting. I didn't think much of Batman's so-called "morals."
A while later, when I heard that Disney had purchased Iron Man and associated properties (that was the first time I heard them referred to as "Marvel"), I reconsidered. If Disney was interested, then maybe I was wrong. But it was a few more years before I went to see a Marvel movie. I saw The Avengers with my cousin, and I liked it. It wasn't a movie about superheroes; it was a movie about interesting people who just happened to be superheroes.
Also, I finally found me a superhero whom I could actually wholeheartedly support. Captain America actually had values! Which maybe it says something about me that I have the same values as a guy from the 1940s. But anyways, I spent the whole movie being all, "Oh, I like this guy!" And then I told myself that I would probably watch the Captain America movies.
Except I didn't. And didn't. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ant-Man, but I didn't catch up with any of the individual Avengers. Until this past weekend, when I finally grabbed Little Brother and forced him to watch Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: Winter Soldier with me.
So what did I think? The verdicts are as follows:
Captain America: The First Avenger was a good movie. Good characters; fun times. The biggest complaint that I had was that, having seen The Avengers, I felt like the entire first Captain America movie was putting all the energy towards setting up for the first Avengers movie. I mean, The Avengers movie pretty much picks up where Captain America: The First Avenger leaves off, right down to a significant portion of the beginning taking place in Germany and old guys talking about how they bowed before Hitler so they won't bow down before Loki, la da da de da. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it's just that Captain America: The First Avenger didn't really feel like a full movie to me. It felt like the appetizer before the Avengers meal.
Nevertheless, having seen my first movie solely about Captain America, I was super excited to see Winter Soldier.
After watching Winter Soldier, my verdict is eloquently expressed by these two statements of Little Brother: "The first ten minutes of the second Captain America movie are more violent than the entire first movie," and, "The second movie is a very different sort of movie than the first movie."
I didn't think Winter Soldier was a bad movie, but I definitely did not like it as much I liked the first one. I mentioned once on this blog that it doesn't really matter what happens during a story as long as the audience likes the characters. People will stay invested in a story about buying a ham sandwich if the characters are interesting enough. In most Marvel movies, they play to that principle, but in this one, they don't. It's like instead of sitting down and saying to themselves, "Now how would these characters react to these situations?" and letting that drive the story, the writers sat down and said to themselves, "Now how many cool fight scenes can we put in this movie?" and let that drive the story. And thus, in my opinion, the emotional base of the movie really suffers. (The same thing, in my additional opinion, also happened in Age of Ultron.)
I was surprised to learn that the same team who wrote the first Captain America movie also wrote the second movie. Since there are so many Marvel movies coming out and so many writers involved, and since the tone of the second movie was so different, I assumed that the writing team for Winter Soldier was not the same team from The First Avenger. Of course, to my understanding, writers only play a small part of the tone of movies. The producers, special effects people, composers, and editors also play a hand in that. So, naturally, does the director. A lot, I should think, from my movie-going experience. It seems like the director affects the tone of the movie more than almost anything else. That may be why the tone of the Harry Potter movies fluctuates so much. Even though the same writer wrote seven out of eight of the movies, they switched directors what, three times? The difference between the tone of the first two movies and the third movie is especially notable. As a child, I was really confused by the third movie. Actually, I still am somewhat. It just seems a strange follow-up to the way Chris Columbus directed the first two movies.
Someone once told me that Alfonso Cuarón, the director for the third movie, was actually considered more of a romance movie director. So for years, I imagined him meeting with the writer and having this conversation:
CUARÓN: So who's in love?
WRITER: Huh?
CUARÓN: In this movie. Who's in love?
WRITER: No one?
CUARÓN: No one?
WRITER: No. This is Harry Potter. So, it's, you know, friendship and magic and stuff.
CUARÓN: Love is the only magic I know.
WRITER: Okay. Then I'll see if I can work in a few awkward hand-holding, side-hugging scenes.
That seemed the most reasonable way to explain how certain parts of the movie turned out. But then I found out that Cuarón isn't actually necessarily considered a romance movie director, so now I'm at a loss for an explanation. Regardless, I'm pretty sure that this conversation must have taken place:
CREW: Any requests?
CUARÓN: I would like for Hermione to become sexy, because ordinary girls are overrated. I also want her to be the only person in this movie who does anything remotely competent. I want the saturation of the film to be such that everyone looks deathly pale. And I think the best way to end the movie would be a blurred close-up of Harry's jubilant, screaming face.
CREW: You got it.
CUARÓN: Also, shrunken heads. With Jamaican accents.
CREW: ...?
CUARÓN: Best idea ever.
Anyways. Despite my disappointments in the first two Captain America movies, I'm still very excited for Civil War tomorrow. The ensemble of characters is so great, I would gladly watch a few hours of them doing nothing but purchasing ham sandwiches. I mean, fighting would be cool, too, especially since the movie is called Civil War and all. But I'd accept the ham sandwich thing, 100%.
Also, in case you were wondering...
Team Cap all the way!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Questions, comments, concerns, complaints?