Oh ... grr. ARGH.
Or, How I Pissed Off My Entire FList (Except One And I Know Who You Are)
Yeah, so ... I saw The Avengers. Um. It was ... okay, mostly ( Read more... )
Yeah, so ... I saw The Avengers. Um. It was ... okay, mostly ( Read more... )
I mean, really? In a script that was a veritable smorgasboard of the cliché and the gobsmackingly obvious, I think Germany could be the pièce de résistance. I mean, maybe this is a staple of Cap's story, maybe it was a brilliant call-back/shout-out for those who have read the comics or seen the movie(s). I haven't. It came off quite breathtakingly smug, not to mention arrogant and condescending and slightly nauseating
What's with Germany? Please explain. I am intrigued.
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I'll prefix this by restating that I've only seen it once, and it's possible I was slightly in shock that they were actually going there in the story, so my recall of it may not be perfect. I'll give you the impressions it left with me as accurately as possible, though. (There's a remote possibility that these impressions may present more snarky than the filmmakers intended the sequence itself to. I make no promises as to accuracy on that account.)
Context: Loki (bad guy, inferiority-fueled-power-trip and earth's-my-brother's-favourite-toy-envy issues) has this Sceptre with a blue glowy piece of Phlebotinum, plus a metal pointy bit that he pokes people in the chest with and it converts them to his mastery (and therefore cause). (Ohnoes!) But he needs another Thing to channel the other Phlebotinum Cube's energy into a portal to the Underverse Bad Mean Dimension with the Army of Meanies of Invasion ( ... )
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I'll point out again, it read in-character and not offensive on Cap's part, which, well. There's a compliment for you. Also that this was in the secion of personal nitpicks, because I may honestly be alone in how distasteful the sore winner aspect of US military successes come off.
But from a broader perspective, and not just whinging about Joss's one-note Freedom! ideology drum being beat because he doesn't know how to tell any other story and no one ever went broke pushing that down the throats of American/Western/postmodern audiences, I ping off the inherent judgement and contrast and, yes, blame it's assigning.
Jaydeyn, below, pointed out that it's not a bad idea to remind people of "Germany's legacy". Right, I completely agree - except that it is instinctively (that is, without conscious thought) popularly conceived to be Germany's legacy, rather than humanity's. Because history is depressingly clear that absolutely anyone and everyone will, given the right circumstances, slaughter on an unimaginable scale if ( ... )
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I adored that line, because it was so... mild. ;)
The reason Loki was there was very specifically to create a distraction (1) for Hawkeye - to draw the Avengers or whoever Earth's opposition was going to be (and it worked, and Loki was in control the whole time), as well as to (2) acquire a retinal eyescan (in a very awful way) from a guy attending the event. The guy was wealthy, which makes sense because what they needed his eyescan for was to access a vault where they were stealing a large chunk or iridium, which is astronomically expensive therefore not usually available in large chunks ;)).
I suspect the reason Germany was chosen was as a call back to Rudolf Mössbauer, who died last year. See Mössbauer effect and its connection to gamma rays, a significant plot point built in to the story at that point.
But I could be tripping. :)
*ducks and runs*
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Thank you for this. I hadn't even considered that connection. I'm still a little dubious of Cap's whole 'I'm American and therefore will FREE you poor little Germans from tyrany (again)' stint, but I'm a little happier if there's a reason for the location choice.
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I'm still a little dubious of Cap's whole 'I'm American and therefore will FREE you poor little Germans from tyrany (again)' stint,
What exactly is he supposed to do, instead? And where does all the snark come from? Does anyone think he wouldn't try to save people in Sri Lanka? Or Tulsa Oklahoma? How does Captain America trying to save people who are in danger get to be a bad thing?
*confuzzled*
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I can't answer for lmx, but I can say that in much of the Commonwealth, snark is not primarily a passing attitude or mood, it is a near-continuous language. It, and its interpretation by both parties, has been one of the biggest communication hurdles I deal with when I interact with (most of) my American friends, and has more than once left them hurt (and annoyed) and me annoyed (and hurt ( ... )
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Which is where the broader answer to your confuzzlement comes in: from what I can tell, where the snark comes from is being one way we've developed to navigate and shortcut (where possible) our protocols. It is a communication style which allows greater freedom of expression than we'd otherwise give ourselves - because it's funny. And, for us at least, funny makes room (and may even win respect) where serious and straightforward will not. (It also means that, in general, we feel no contradiction in snarking the hell out of something and respecting it/loving it at the same time. It doesn't always mean we respect the subject, but employing snark itself does not rule out respect. The type or tone of snark, on the other hand, can be very definite about it.) And, yes, it's also used when we're annoyed about something.
Huh.
That's complicated. *still confuzzled*
;)
Which of course is amusing, since everyone knows Australia is the best country on earth. :pMost Americans think Aussies are cool. You knew that, right ( ... )
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Oh yes. It is. A whole lot more than I ever thought it was, before I spent years trying to explain it to Americans. When you live with something, it just makes sense, you know? With my closest friends, I spent a heck of a lot of time watching Top Gear and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and discussing the humour therein. It was helpful to work off concrete examples. One of my friends even started trying to imitate the irony and understatement aspects, with ... varied results.
Most Americans think Aussies are cool. You knew that, right?
Oh yes. And used it shamelessly to my benefit, I might add! It's amazing what you can get away with with an Australian accent. ^^
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No argument!
Alas I have to suffice with a sexy southern drawl. :)
...yall.
;D
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Oh no, thank you. I knew I couldn't recall the exact wording. Anal obsessives ftw! (I think I need that as an icon.)
Yes, like I said, Cap was quite gentlemanly about it. I had no problem at all with the way Cap himself played in the whole incident, and I get that fighting Nazi's is very specifically Cap's thing. (In fact, the way Cap was presented throughout made me give more credence to some of my American friends' insistence that I would like his movie.)
It's the unavoidable unfortunate implications of the story choices themselves that I was reacting to, as outlined above. Because while the Mössbauer thing is a neat connection (and I'm glad you pointed it out because I didn't know it), you'd have to agree it's slightly more obscure a reference than Nazi Germany - even if Nazi Germany wasn't the explicit reference made through Cap's dialogue, let alone his raison d'être.
Please don't run! *lures you back with cookies*
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(In fact, the way Cap was presented throughout made me give more credence to some of my American friends' insistence that I would like his movie.)
I can't predict if you will like the Captain America movie, but I can tell you this: it was beautifully done, Chris Evans was amazing (not just amazingly gorgeous!), and it was the most heartbreaking thing I've seen since... well, it was heartbreaking. ^^
The genius of the "new" Marvel movies of recent years is that they each managed to take these characters which, thanks to the insanity of comic continuity, are not that easy to identify with, and made them very human, very three dimensional.
...cookies? ^_^
:D
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Captain America was created in 1941, he fights Nazis. *shrug* It doesn't surprise me at all that they'd end up in Germany. I guess I'd be more surprised if they hadn't.
Becuase we're good! We will fight! We will eventually come to the rescue of those who didn't kneel! Democracy! Freedom! Oil! Regional Control Stability! Why Won't You Do What We Clearly Reasonably Tell You To?!?
LOL. Okay, that explains it. :)
I think the lesson here is not to pay 20+ dollars to see a Whedon movie. I'm waiting for the dvd. ;)
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This makes me surprisingly sad. :O
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Besides, the only one of the other movies I've seen is Iron Man.
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<3
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