Movie One: Captain America!

 

Film: Captain America

Date seen: 1 August, 2011

Location: Dendy Canberra (cinema 1, which is obviously the superior cinema)

Beverages: 1x Coopers 

Companionship: Lachlan (albeit somewhat reluctant. he only agreed because he's nice, and misses his girlfriend who's in Melbourne).

Rating: 8 out of 10.   

Female Characters: (Peggy Carter) One token woman, who is more noticeable as a potential love interest than as a strong woman - though she does shoot people at one point.  Her Huge Cans & Red Lips were also noteworthy, and perhaps were actually as integral to the plot as the other functions of her character.  I'm still getting a hand on the representations of women and gender in comic books, and the use of Breasts as a plot device, though titillating to my not-so-inner pervert, strikes me as a bit off.  

Male Lead: (Steve Rogers - ie, CAPTAIN AMERICA!)  I wanted him to dirty dirty things to me, but only before he got turned into SUPERHERO STRONG MAN.  When he was a skinny white boy who took a pile of novels to the training centre after being enlisted, he was pretty much my idea of sex, come to life in an easily digestible, morally upright form.  I was shocked and ashamed to discover the following:

The Sad Truth About The Guy Who Played Steve Rogers 

General Thoughts (I'm reluctant to call this a review):

I loved it. There was no knitting involved, though - I can't knit in the cinema, because knitting in the dark is not advisable when you are doing cables.  One thing that I've noticed just through the movies I've seen so far is the absence of guns. Not in the film - but in use by the Superhero/s. They rarely use guns, and if they do, it's minimal, or because there is No Other Way they would escape the situation. It's all hand-to-hand, or using SUPERPOWERS and not the gun, and it appears that they disarm or knock people out more than they kill them.  Given the role of guns in a lot of action movies, it's an interesting theme - even more so with the American Thing of a right to bear arms.

Also - the theme of the Bully As The True Enemy is interesting.   Of course pre-Captain America Steve was bullied - he was skinny, he stood up for himself, he turned the other cheek, he Took It Like A Man.  Seriously, if you are getting that much head injury, you are going to end up with brain damage. I've got brain damage from being hit in the head with a soccer ball.*  Maybe brain damage explains it. Anyhow.  He's bullied. Bad Guys are not Bad because of their race, or class, or gender - it's about being bullies. That's why they are bad, and that's what Steve/Captain America wants to defeat.  He wants peace.  He is gentle, compassionate, and intelligent.  I bet he likes cat macros.  etc.  

I really like WWII - not in a 'yay war!' way, but intellectually, I find the interwar period, and the lead up to WWII very interesting. I like movies with Bad Nazis and Butt-Kicking.   I like this even more when it's fictionalised, and great exciting things are added, like the episode of Doctor Who where the Daleks become Winston Churchill's Secret Weapon.  So, the whole 'Nazis are evil, we are good and need to destroy Nazis because not only are they evil, but they are BULLIES' is really appealing to me.  It's likely this has been borne of playing too much Wolfenstein 3D at an impressionable age. (Do I even need to add how shit i was at it?  I found tetris, and never looked back).

I know it's obvious and somewhat heavy handed (alright. lead handed) but I find it heartening to see them representing heroes as those who are strong of heart, and not just of body.  Of course, they need to have their body match their heart, which is slightly dubious. i like the idea of Steve being Captain America while remaining twiggish and sexy, rather than becoming a hideous, hulk-like monstrosity of muscle and flesh and jaw.  That's very superficial of me, I know. Sorry.

Also, I'm just not even touching the issue of Historical Accuracy In Regards to America's Involvement in WWII, because I willfully ignored it. Only once did I yelp in the process of the film,

'But, America's war efforts were focused in the Pacific...' 

It's interesting.  Using Nazis as enemies is much easier than using the Japanese.  You don't have the nasty racial overtones when you are fighting other white people.

All In All? Righteously entertained. 

*Seriously, kids, if you get hit in the head a lot as a teenager, you can end up with Epilepsy.  Some people just need to wear a helmet all the time if there are balls around, or get really creative about avoiding soccer.  Failure to do so ends Really Badly.