Captain America 2 - Open Spoilers

Cafe Society
1

Had the opportunity to see a sneak preview of the new Captain America movie last night, and I came away very impressed. Great action pieces, some really nice (and often very subtle) character moments, and a villain plot that mostly makes sense - although I’m a little unclear how three helicarriers floating over the Triskelion were supposed to kill ten million targeted individuals world-wide.

The dialogue’s not nearly as quippy as The Avengers, which I think works to its credit. Captain America isn’t really the wise-cracking type, and the movie’s espionage themes benefit from the more serious treatment.

The cast overall is excellent. There’s genuine chemistry between Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie as Cap and Falcon. The opening scene, where they meet cute while running laps around the reflecting pool in DC, is my favorite in the movie. There’s a bit where Sam Philips (soon to be aka The Falcon) tells Cap to check out some Marvin Gaye to “learn what he missed out on.” Cap says, “Thanks, I’ll put it on the list,” and pulls out a notebook filled with similar suggestions. Because, obviously, that’s what everyone says to the guy who’s been frozen in ice for seventy years. But Cap’s just genuinely grateful for the suggestion. There’s a bit of a callback later on, when he gets a reference to the movie WarGames. Apparently, it was on the list. (I like to think that the SHIELD tech who refuses to launch the helicarriers and almost gets shot in the head is the guy who suggested it.)

I was really impressed by Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, particularly after being rather lukewarm on him in the first movie. He does a great job combining implacable menace with a sort of whipped-dog vulnerability, and that’s despite having very little dialogue to work with. I think it’s those big puppy dog eyes. It’s hard to communicate “I just need a hug,” and “I will kill you with this grenade launcher” at the same time, and Stan pulls it off perfectly.

Robert Redford gives some good villain as the leader of HYDRA. He does a good job with his villainous justifications, and has enough charisma to almost make you believe him. Also, Frank Grillo gets an origin story as costumed villain Crossbones out of the deal. Grillo’s Frank Rumblow is another bad guy who’s just really likable, up until he starts beating Cap with a shock stick.

Marvel’s Phase Two movies have started out a bit slow, but I think they’re hitting their stride with this one. I’m really looking forward to Guardians of the Galaxy now.

2

Didn’t care for Falcon. Kind of felt he was crammed in to explain why, when Captain America really needs an ally who can fly he didn’t just call Stark and get some help from Iron Man (it isn’t like Stark wouldn’t be interested in a Hydra plot to use his technology to kill millions after having killed Fury).

Overall I enjoyed it. The physics of Rogers’ superheroeosity really don’t make any sense. He can jump from hundreds of feet while flying at hundreds of miles an hour and not even feel a moment of discomfort but small caliber handguns are a major problem (and his storyline will end as soon as the bad guys figure out to shoot his feet instead of the shield). Like Johansson and saw Nick Fury not being dead from about four billion miles away. Though good thing for him Robert Redford didn’t say "in honor of my dear dead friend’s service to the world he’ll lie in state in our lobby for four days of viewing. Apparently they just threw his body away.

But yeah, overall it hung together pretty well an the action scenes mostly paid off (though I’m a bit bothered by the casualness and emptiness of the civilian collateral damage). I’m ok with civilians getting dead, but having that happen as a visual lark is a bit troublesome.

3

Can you please spoil the fate of Nick Fury for me?

4

You think he dies and then he sneaks away into the night like a phantom. dun dun dunnnnnnnn…

I think that it’s not so unreasonable that Falcon comes in as the air power - Iron Man did pretty much retire in a blaze of glory. Now, WE as the audience know he’s coming back, but they don’t know that. He may have sent everyone an email saying his consulting days are over and he’s busy with overthrowing the local energy industry.

5

Apple, by any chance? :smiley: (I was there too, and I have a vague memory of you mentioning you were at the Avengers preview a couple of years ago)

I really enjoyed it. Not as much as Avengers or Iron Man 1 (what can I say, I’m a Tony/RDJr fan) but I thought it did a good job. I pretty much agree with everything you said, except…

I think the term “meet cute” should be taken out in the back yard and shot. By all three helicarriers. At once.

6

Yep. :slight_smile:

7

As mentioned, he is killed by The Winter Soldier. We see him die on the operating table. Then it is revealed that he had been given a drug to slow his heart rate to one beat a minute and snuck away to recuperate while the baddies within SHIELD would stop trying to kill him since he was already dead.

Now, exactly when in between being shot twice by The Winter Soldier and dying on the operating table he had the opportunity to devise and implement this plan I’m not sure. Unless it had been his plan all along to get shot extremely seriously but not fatally while also perfectly timing it after having given Steve Rogers just enough information to get him moving down the right path.

That would be stupid, but it is a comic book movie so omniscient villains and heroes aren’t unheard of.

8

[ul]
[li]Rogers’ list[/li][li]Fury’s tombstone had Jules Winnfield’s famous line[/li][li]The 70s webcam was a nice tip-off to comic fans about Arnim Zola[/li][li]In the mid-credits scene, that was Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch[/li][/ul]

Well the directors, The Russo brothers, are now a very big deal. Given their resume, I can’t believe they put out an action movie of this caliber and intensity. I see they’re already slated for Cap 3. If Whedon were to fall off the face of the earth, I’ve no doubt Marvel could and would confidently sub these two in the director’s chair for future Avenger flicks.

I can’t stress how great the hand-to-hand fight choreography was. It is just the right amount of superhuman. DC’s Superman vs Zod by comparison was too epic for us grounded mortals to relate to – too Dragonball Z in scale. When you hear that distinctive PANG and Cap shield checks a guy a good five feet, you feel it: you know that scale. That knife throw! The Batroc fight! Man. Oh, and the sound that accompanies the Winter Soldier’s metal arm revving up is dreadful and ominous.

Speaking of ominous, they absolutely nailed WS’s presence of pure terror. Not since The Terminator have the main characters looked so out-manned. When Black Widow heroically takes him on solo, Johansson channels that same dread she displayed with The Hulk in the first two acts of Avengers. Oh, and Winter Soldier’s theme music is bone chilling. There’s this metallic bird of prey-type scream that accompanies his presence. And respect to Sebastian Stan who not only seriously upped his performance vs the first movie, but obviously put in serious gym time to carve a physique to stand toe to toe with Chris Evans.

I’m left wondering when we’ll see Bucky next. I’d wager against Avengers 2. But will it be Cap 3 or Avengers 3. How much of a long game is Marvel playing? Could we see Bucky-Cap after Rogers is killed of in either trilogy? I wouldn’t have wanted it before, but in light of the performances and effects, it wouldn’t be hard to swallow now.

9

Different for each country. I saw it yesterday, and we had AC/DC, Steve Irwin, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo for some reason, and apparently TimTams though the shot was too brief for me to catch that one.

10

Wasn’t this pretty much stated in the movie? I can’t give you the exact quote, but I think Maria Hill said something along the lines of “If someone tries to assassinate the head of Shield, the standard procedure is to let them think they succeeded”

Nick Fury has more contingency plans than Batman, as I’m sure we will see now that Shield has been disbanded.

11

Yeah, we had the 1966 World Cup Final on the list, which makes no sense at all. Why would an American care about the English national football team?

12

Only some countries.

Sweden had the US list.

13

In some countries there was a competition where people could submit country-specific items for the list.

14

Yeah, so I heard, but for me, it was a nice idea done badly. It was a bit too obvious that the list had been doctored

That said, it was about the only thing in the movie I could find fault with

15

Well, how much money is Chris Evans asking for? :wink:

16

She said that letting them think they succeeded was what happened, I don’t recall her saying that was SOP. Though if it were that would make it even stupider that Robert Redford apparently just let the body be tossed in the trash sight unseen (as it would have to be something quite a few people would have to know about ahead of time for it to work while he’s unconscious).

Yes, the whole omniscient thing.

Not a huge deal in something so cartoony (the inconsistency with the shield, and selective imperviousness of Steve Rogers, bothers me more), just something I wondered while watching.

17

Well, Evans is on the hook for 9, and he’s only four down, with Cap 1, Avengers, Cap 2, and Avengers 2 (street shots of filming with Cap in South Korea are making the rounds for those who enjoy those sorts of things - very similar costume.)

No one has yet (to my knowledge) sussed out whether the one-shots and post credits scenes and cameos count toward the total or not, but even so, Evans has only been in the Shwarma scene and Thor: Dark World, bringing it to 6 if that’s the case.

We know they’re already writing and fast-tracking Cap 3, and I would presume he’d be still in for Avengers 3, and that’s only 7&8, so if Sebastian is planning to take over (which would be an awesome nod to comics) it’ll be a damn long while before it happens.

Of course, the recent rumor swirling is that Feige’s timeline wall of Marvel Universe movies is sketched out through 2028, so as long as the actors stay in decent shape and don’t get too old, there’s no telling how long they’ll be around.

18

Chris Evans stated that his cameo in Thor:TDW did not count towards his total of 6 films

19

I thought it was Shaw that had signed for 9. Evans has repeatedly stated that after Cap3 and A2 he is pretty much done with acting, so having Bucky there to take his place for Phase 3 & 4 makes plenty of sense.

20

Actually, Evans distanced himself from that comment recently

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2014/04/03/chris-evans-clarifies-hes-not-retiring-from-acting/