Now maybe this is Marvels doing or the writers but there was never a time in this film where I felt Captain America wasn't going to win. There was never a moment where I felt the outcome wasn't in doubt, that Steve Rogers life, The Black Widows life, or for that matter Nick Fury's life was in danger. Now again, who do I blame for the anticlimactic feel of this movie? Is it Marvel who announced weeks before this movie that they are going to be releasing Captain America 3 on 5/6/16, so you know he doesn't die, no matter how hairy the situation may be or how bad ass the Winter Soldier is, or do I blame the writers? As a writer myself I feel it is my responsibility to tell a good story and to keep the reader entertained. The onus is on me to take the reader from pillar to post and back again, to keep the pages turning, for the reader to hate when the book ends and to make them want to start it all over again. As a writer, I am God, crafting a universe of substance out of nothing, and this is the reason I say the writers of Captain America: The Winter Soldier delivered a lazy and uninspired story, saved only by big explosions, massive shootouts, great fight sequences, and chase scenes (both by foot, car, and in the air). Remove that and you have something seen before and done a million times before that falls flat. Seriously, if you didn't see Nick coming back to life then you've never read Romeo and Juliet.
The writers of this cash grab are Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Ed Brubaker. These three men should send back their checks because while Captain was entertaining on the basic levels, it completely failed to connect emotionally. Those three men were probably hampered by the Captain America comic book storylines which never seemed to grab anyone in the first place so why not change things up a bit, the average viewer would never know and you don't hurt the Cap franchise since Avengers 2: The Age of Ultron will have Cap in it anyway? Why bring back relics from Caps past? Hydra? REALLY? Couldn't come up with something better than to have Captain fight Hydra all over again? Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier, not looking a day over however old he was when he was dropped from the train in The First Avenger. Was he given the same Captain America, woolly mammoth frozen in ice treatment too? I was expecting the Red Skull to pop back up on the screen, I mean why not?
Captain America: The Winter Soldier has made a ton of money so far, and it's gotten rave reviews, which makes me wonder what movie the critics were watching but I digress. The only good thing about this film is they replaced composer Alan Silvestri with Henry Jackman who delivers a masterful score. It's tense, dark, light, poignant, and heroic. Simply put, it tries to deliver the emotional punch the film fails too and it is masterful. Where Silvestri was over the top with the heroic themes, Jackman toed that fine line of hero worship with mournful horns, poignant piano, and energizing synths. There was no bombast here, just a sturdy score which was unfortunately married to a really uninspired film. I'm sure I stand alone in that camp, but that's fine with me. I refuse to be spoon fed garbage and say it taste delicious because everyone else on the planet says it's so. We are all snowflakes, individuals with our own opinions, and mine is Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a tepid waste of your time and a movie you should skip and save for video.
I can't help myself...1. I haven't seen the latest addition of Captain America. 2. I have zero interest in seeing it. Why? 3. Because the first one sucked. 4. Because I think Marvel is getting too use to delivering crap and making bank on it as I think the whole Avengers mess is a complete insult to intelligent folks every where and 5... well, 5 gets it's own damn paragraph.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Pretty White Boy America gives me fucking hives. There. I said it. I don't know about anyone else, but I have NEVER and I mean NEVER met a blonde haired blued eye perfect white teeth having pretty white boy that wasn't a complete and utter dick. It's like since inception these combination of genes gets predisposed to every damn privilege availed to them and completely corrupts someone who could have otherwise been a decent human being. So just looking at the marketing for Captain America makes my skin crawl. He's a symbolic visual of so much of what this country is inherently raised to believe that attractive white men with a boy scout outter shell can and will save the world.
Augh...augh...augh... come ON people. Demand something more than regurgitated and historically proven myth! There is more to the world and this country than the belief that the white boy saves the damn day.
Yeah...it's only entertainment, but seriously take a look at what media routinely pours out there...if we're to ever expect something better, maybe more of us should start speaking with cash. ~eye roll~ Stepping down from my soap box on the corner where everyone has likely already gone passed. lol
Oh and M...great post! Loved the breakdown, the descriptions, and hearing your whip-cracking opinion. Definitely a breath of fresh air to counter the overly perfumed marketing storm Marvel has farted into the atmosphere. Hehehehe ;-X
ReplyDeleteThat's a fantastic comment and I approve of your message :)
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