Only Slower.
Apr. 2nd, 2014 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eleanorjaneThe last trailer before the movie was for Guardians of the Galaxy, and it got a lot of laughs and appreciative noises. I'm certainly looking forward to it.
My thoughts, point form, because I'm not sensible enough right now to write coherently:
I thought Natasha was awesome, and absolutely stole the show. I still want a Black Widow movie, but if this is all we ever get, at least it did her justice.
I love Natasha's complicated relationship with Fury -- her emotions when he's dying, and her pain when he admits he didn't trust her.
I liked that Steve had a much more peer-like relationship with Fury. He might take Fury's orders, but he is not a subordinate. Contrary to fanon, he calls Fury "Nick" the entire time, which -- from somebody as respectful as Steve -- has to be a very deliberate signal that he might take missions from Fury, but he's not willing to be absorbed into the SHIELD hierarchy without question or objection.
This movie continued the trend of having the "unpowered" humans be awesome and essential (in tactical situations, not just moral support), which is hard to pull off in a setting with gods and monsters. Natasha was, as mentioned, excellent - and Falcon was likewise.
Aw, no, Sitwell. Dude. Not cool.
The writing was mostly really tight, and it really threw the lack of quality of Agents of SHIELD into stark (heh) relief. This movie is, I think, what most of us were expecting from the TV show. (Although wow, Pears was coded as a bad guy right from the start, wasn't he?)
(Tangentially, it'll be interesting to see where AoS goes from here. SHIELD isn't explicitly dismantled at this point, but on the hand all their secrets are out there, so.
Also, um. Why would Natasha do that? There are other ways to reveal HYDRA's activities, and her actions would have cost the lives of so many undercover agents. I have a hard time believing that little detail.)
I'd heard the stuff about the movie being inspired by 70s political thrillers, so the stuff with Zola as the literal deus ex machina was a bit jarring, tonally -- but once I reset my brain to "this is a comic book movie", it was fine. I genuinely wasn't expecting HYDRA to be the bad guys, though. (I like the theory that Zola is the Clairvoyant; that hadn't occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense.)
The final climactic scenes on the helicarriers were a bit by-the-numbers, leavened somewhat by Falcon's absolute awesomeness. They weren't bad, but I think the road battle setpiece was the better set of scenes.
Bucky's unmasking was perfect, IMO. (I thought the fangirl next to me was going to pass out from hyperventilation.)
Relatedly, the scene where they reprogram Bucky was heartbreaking. His absolute helplessness and frustration and then pain -- argh. And I loved his arc from there -- his bafflement as to why Rogers won't fight him, his very personal assault on Steve at the end, and then the rescue... and then looking for answers at the Smithsonian. So, so good.
Also, it was excellent seeing Jenny Agutter kick ass. :D (Though I was a bit sad it was Natasha in disguise - I'd hoped she was an old protegee of Peggy's or something.)
Basically, the entire thing was awesome. This movie is up there with Iron Man 1 and The Avengers for me, and way outstrips the others. They absolutely knocked it out of the park and I wasn't expecting even 50% of this much awesomeness.
My thoughts, point form, because I'm not sensible enough right now to write coherently:
I thought Natasha was awesome, and absolutely stole the show. I still want a Black Widow movie, but if this is all we ever get, at least it did her justice.
I love Natasha's complicated relationship with Fury -- her emotions when he's dying, and her pain when he admits he didn't trust her.
I liked that Steve had a much more peer-like relationship with Fury. He might take Fury's orders, but he is not a subordinate. Contrary to fanon, he calls Fury "Nick" the entire time, which -- from somebody as respectful as Steve -- has to be a very deliberate signal that he might take missions from Fury, but he's not willing to be absorbed into the SHIELD hierarchy without question or objection.
This movie continued the trend of having the "unpowered" humans be awesome and essential (in tactical situations, not just moral support), which is hard to pull off in a setting with gods and monsters. Natasha was, as mentioned, excellent - and Falcon was likewise.
Aw, no, Sitwell. Dude. Not cool.
The writing was mostly really tight, and it really threw the lack of quality of Agents of SHIELD into stark (heh) relief. This movie is, I think, what most of us were expecting from the TV show. (Although wow, Pears was coded as a bad guy right from the start, wasn't he?)
(Tangentially, it'll be interesting to see where AoS goes from here. SHIELD isn't explicitly dismantled at this point, but on the hand all their secrets are out there, so.
Also, um. Why would Natasha do that? There are other ways to reveal HYDRA's activities, and her actions would have cost the lives of so many undercover agents. I have a hard time believing that little detail.)
I'd heard the stuff about the movie being inspired by 70s political thrillers, so the stuff with Zola as the literal deus ex machina was a bit jarring, tonally -- but once I reset my brain to "this is a comic book movie", it was fine. I genuinely wasn't expecting HYDRA to be the bad guys, though. (I like the theory that Zola is the Clairvoyant; that hadn't occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense.)
The final climactic scenes on the helicarriers were a bit by-the-numbers, leavened somewhat by Falcon's absolute awesomeness. They weren't bad, but I think the road battle setpiece was the better set of scenes.
Bucky's unmasking was perfect, IMO. (I thought the fangirl next to me was going to pass out from hyperventilation.)
Relatedly, the scene where they reprogram Bucky was heartbreaking. His absolute helplessness and frustration and then pain -- argh. And I loved his arc from there -- his bafflement as to why Rogers won't fight him, his very personal assault on Steve at the end, and then the rescue... and then looking for answers at the Smithsonian. So, so good.
Also, it was excellent seeing Jenny Agutter kick ass. :D (Though I was a bit sad it was Natasha in disguise - I'd hoped she was an old protegee of Peggy's or something.)
Basically, the entire thing was awesome. This movie is up there with Iron Man 1 and The Avengers for me, and way outstrips the others. They absolutely knocked it out of the park and I wasn't expecting even 50% of this much awesomeness.
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Date: 2014-04-02 02:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-04-02 03:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-04-05 02:45 am (UTC)