Who'll watch my right shoulder, break our fall, let it get colder?
It looks as if I only ever post on LJ when there's a Marvelverse movie to blabber about. :)
One thing I really appreciate in Marvel's Phase 2 is that while you can obviously watch just one of the movies and get a full story, they become richer when you've seen all of them. And they're not just using silly Easter Eggs of dropped names/events/places from the comics, it's full on character development and worldbuilding. You know, like in a good TV show. It feels like watching TV at the movies once or twice a year, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the newest episode of this massive series.
I had watched a couple of trailers, but I went into this movie knowing next to nothing re: what the plot was about. I knew nothing except Black Widow and Falcon had big roles in it, but plot-wise? I went in blind. And I was wondering, really, how the hell do you transport Captain America to 2014 and give him character development that doesn't make him completely ridiculous, considering his raison d'être is War Propaganda? And I guess the answer is, you don't. This movie isn't so much about Cap because Cap cannot change, and a character that doesn't change doesn't really make up any kind of story. I guess one could argue that the world became cynic, and Steve needs to learn how to live in this new world, but the fact is, the world changing didn't fundamentally alter who he is in any way. And btw, this is not a diss on Steve. I'm pretty sure anyone with a good heart agrees with his views of the world. But while Cap works in comic book form perfectly -- where character development sometimes literally take 50 years to happen -- this is the dude who's supposed to represent rightness and goodness and hope for a better, peaceful future. And he already represents all those things.
But the workaround they found to deal with Cap's lack of development needs is pretty perfect: you turn his environment upside down and have him react to that. You change SHIELD, and suddenly Cap's idealism and beliefs are being used by the same kind of evil he fought in WW2, to achieve even worse global levels of horrifying genocide. And now Cap has a goal, that links to his past, that makes him choose the right people to fight along with, without anyone having to blink an eye over the fact that he's not gonna get any character development whatsoever because it's kinda impossible to give him any by design. [This is brilliant, really, when you think about it.]
So what happens is that it's Natasha, and Sam, and Nick Fury, and Maria Hill, and Bucky Barnes, and even Emily Thorne from Revenge, that get the burden of character development. All of these characters end the story in different places in their lives -- and the movie makes a point of showing it to us in a montage because we as audience need that post-resolution reprieve to go back to breathing normally and stop worrying about fictional people's state of unemployment.
Even Bucky's arc is *about* Bucky himself, and not Cap. Steve is distraught, but in the end he's there FOR Bucky, and his actions are what make Bucky [hopefully] begin to change. Cap only provides the means for Bucky's character arc, and I find it all very interesting because this movie is almost an inversion of Hero's Journey, at least up to the point when Steve tells Hill to destroy the hellicarriers even if it means self-sacrifice.
The best part for me is that it's Nat that gets the big story-arc of awesomeness. Her role in the movie is pretty much as big as Cap's, but finding out about HYDRA hits her where she lives much more than it does Steve. SHIELD was her chance at righting her wrongs [and we've known this since Avengers], and destroying it means exposing all of her sins to the world, and living without an identity -- and the sense of belonging that comes with it -- all over again. In the end she makes all the right choices BECAUSE they're the right ones, and sacrificing SHIELD is okay because it's the people -- Steve, Sam, Fury, Hill, the rest of the Avengers -- that she can trust unconditionally that matter. And it helps that she's fully aware she lives in a world that needs superheroes and so she can go to a congressional hearing and double dare Steven Culp to put her in prison. He won't, and she knows it.
...
And now that I've written a disjointed college essay on classic narrative storytelling, let's get into the most important part: the flailing:
- SAM. WILSON. FOR. PRESIDENT. Actually, Anthony Mackie for ALL THE SUPERHERO ROLES EVER. I could watch him read the phonebook in a dead language and I'd be 300% entertained.
- I wrote all that crap upwards about story, but seriously, this movie could be called STEVE ROGERS MAKES TWO BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, and that'd be all right.
- MARIA. FUCKING. HILL. I cannot express how much I love it that Cobie Smulders took this role and RAN WITH IT LIKE HELL. She does SO MUCH with the very little story time she gets, it's a wonder to watch. I don't really care that much about Agents of B.O.R.E.D.O.M., but I'm looking forward to Cobie coming back for May sweeps because I'll take any and all Maria Hill I can get. GIRLCRUSHEST.
- I also appreciate bringing Robert Redford in and giving him the cardboard bureaucrat villain of obviousness, because he brought just the right amount of gravitas to Pierce to make him not completely boring. When he killed the housekeeper? That was terribly great.
- I'd also like to thank Marvel for not going the gotcha! route on this movie and making one of Our Heroes a sleeper HYDRA operative, and left that kind of terrible storytelling to S.H.I.E.L.D., which nobody gives any fucks whatsoever about.
- Okay, one more filmnerd storygeek comment: how awesome was it that this movie uses exposition TO MOVE THE STORY? The Smithsonian exhibit provides a shit ton of exposition, but it also serves to advance plot. The same way the Stark Expo did in IM2, it catches up the viewer in all necessary backstory, but it serves the plot as well: Cap needs his uniform later in the movie, and Bucky needs to go there to learn the past HYDRA erased from his mind. And as a bonus, it really is a nice callback to the earnestness and innocence of WW2 era Cap [and the first movie], especially when the obligatory little kid [TM evergleam83] recognizes Steve in the crowd.
But even more so, the exposition driving the plot is PERFECT in the scene in the SHIELD bunker place, with the computer!Zola explaining 50 years of story to Steve and Nat [and the audience] only to state that he was babbling BECAUSE HE WAS STALLING so S.T.R.I.K.E. could get there.
[I was so delighted by this exposition-as-plot-point detail that I actually missed HOW Steve and Nat escaped, tbh. Excuse to watch it again, I can has it. *g*]
Anyway. HI!
One thing I really appreciate in Marvel's Phase 2 is that while you can obviously watch just one of the movies and get a full story, they become richer when you've seen all of them. And they're not just using silly Easter Eggs of dropped names/events/places from the comics, it's full on character development and worldbuilding. You know, like in a good TV show. It feels like watching TV at the movies once or twice a year, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the newest episode of this massive series.
I had watched a couple of trailers, but I went into this movie knowing next to nothing re: what the plot was about. I knew nothing except Black Widow and Falcon had big roles in it, but plot-wise? I went in blind. And I was wondering, really, how the hell do you transport Captain America to 2014 and give him character development that doesn't make him completely ridiculous, considering his raison d'être is War Propaganda? And I guess the answer is, you don't. This movie isn't so much about Cap because Cap cannot change, and a character that doesn't change doesn't really make up any kind of story. I guess one could argue that the world became cynic, and Steve needs to learn how to live in this new world, but the fact is, the world changing didn't fundamentally alter who he is in any way. And btw, this is not a diss on Steve. I'm pretty sure anyone with a good heart agrees with his views of the world. But while Cap works in comic book form perfectly -- where character development sometimes literally take 50 years to happen -- this is the dude who's supposed to represent rightness and goodness and hope for a better, peaceful future. And he already represents all those things.
But the workaround they found to deal with Cap's lack of development needs is pretty perfect: you turn his environment upside down and have him react to that. You change SHIELD, and suddenly Cap's idealism and beliefs are being used by the same kind of evil he fought in WW2, to achieve even worse global levels of horrifying genocide. And now Cap has a goal, that links to his past, that makes him choose the right people to fight along with, without anyone having to blink an eye over the fact that he's not gonna get any character development whatsoever because it's kinda impossible to give him any by design. [This is brilliant, really, when you think about it.]
So what happens is that it's Natasha, and Sam, and Nick Fury, and Maria Hill, and Bucky Barnes, and even Emily Thorne from Revenge, that get the burden of character development. All of these characters end the story in different places in their lives -- and the movie makes a point of showing it to us in a montage because we as audience need that post-resolution reprieve to go back to breathing normally and stop worrying about fictional people's state of unemployment.
Even Bucky's arc is *about* Bucky himself, and not Cap. Steve is distraught, but in the end he's there FOR Bucky, and his actions are what make Bucky [hopefully] begin to change. Cap only provides the means for Bucky's character arc, and I find it all very interesting because this movie is almost an inversion of Hero's Journey, at least up to the point when Steve tells Hill to destroy the hellicarriers even if it means self-sacrifice.
The best part for me is that it's Nat that gets the big story-arc of awesomeness. Her role in the movie is pretty much as big as Cap's, but finding out about HYDRA hits her where she lives much more than it does Steve. SHIELD was her chance at righting her wrongs [and we've known this since Avengers], and destroying it means exposing all of her sins to the world, and living without an identity -- and the sense of belonging that comes with it -- all over again. In the end she makes all the right choices BECAUSE they're the right ones, and sacrificing SHIELD is okay because it's the people -- Steve, Sam, Fury, Hill, the rest of the Avengers -- that she can trust unconditionally that matter. And it helps that she's fully aware she lives in a world that needs superheroes and so she can go to a congressional hearing and double dare Steven Culp to put her in prison. He won't, and she knows it.
...
And now that I've written a disjointed college essay on classic narrative storytelling, let's get into the most important part: the flailing:
- SAM. WILSON. FOR. PRESIDENT. Actually, Anthony Mackie for ALL THE SUPERHERO ROLES EVER. I could watch him read the phonebook in a dead language and I'd be 300% entertained.
- I wrote all that crap upwards about story, but seriously, this movie could be called STEVE ROGERS MAKES TWO BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, and that'd be all right.
- MARIA. FUCKING. HILL. I cannot express how much I love it that Cobie Smulders took this role and RAN WITH IT LIKE HELL. She does SO MUCH with the very little story time she gets, it's a wonder to watch. I don't really care that much about Agents of B.O.R.E.D.O.M., but I'm looking forward to Cobie coming back for May sweeps because I'll take any and all Maria Hill I can get. GIRLCRUSHEST.
- I also appreciate bringing Robert Redford in and giving him the cardboard bureaucrat villain of obviousness, because he brought just the right amount of gravitas to Pierce to make him not completely boring. When he killed the housekeeper? That was terribly great.
- I'd also like to thank Marvel for not going the gotcha! route on this movie and making one of Our Heroes a sleeper HYDRA operative, and left that kind of terrible storytelling to S.H.I.E.L.D., which nobody gives any fucks whatsoever about.
- Okay, one more filmnerd storygeek comment: how awesome was it that this movie uses exposition TO MOVE THE STORY? The Smithsonian exhibit provides a shit ton of exposition, but it also serves to advance plot. The same way the Stark Expo did in IM2, it catches up the viewer in all necessary backstory, but it serves the plot as well: Cap needs his uniform later in the movie, and Bucky needs to go there to learn the past HYDRA erased from his mind. And as a bonus, it really is a nice callback to the earnestness and innocence of WW2 era Cap [and the first movie], especially when the obligatory little kid [TM evergleam83] recognizes Steve in the crowd.
But even more so, the exposition driving the plot is PERFECT in the scene in the SHIELD bunker place, with the computer!Zola explaining 50 years of story to Steve and Nat [and the audience] only to state that he was babbling BECAUSE HE WAS STALLING so S.T.R.I.K.E. could get there.
[I was so delighted by this exposition-as-plot-point detail that I actually missed HOW Steve and Nat escaped, tbh. Excuse to watch it again, I can has it. *g*]
Anyway. HI!