Forgive me a bit while I let off some steam.
Ever since I heard about the new Captain America movie I have been going up and down about even setting foot in the theater, or just watching it for that matter since I don't go to the movies anymore.
The casting rumors when they first started worried me. Also I should mention in this rant there will be good things and bad things I think, or thought they are doing. But when Chris Evans was picked to play Cap/Steve I was thinking well that is a good thing. I liked Evans as the Torch, yes I finally saw those FF movies. Yikes I thought but one of the only things I liked about those was Evans as the Torch. So to me Evans is a good choice for Steve.
Also I understand why they do the Hydra during WW2 thing. Because you can't have Nazis in a movie showing overseas in some places. It still amazes me on this point, it is like comics with Nazi bad guys in them aren't sold in Germany. It is one of those things like on the Avengers animated series that just started up, WW2 was fought between the Allies and Hydra....I don't know if Hydra invaded Poland but I guess they did to help fuel WW2's beginnings. Of course when you think about it why would Hydra want Poland?
So I assume that the mention of Germany and Nazis will be at an all time low in the new Captain America movie.
I guess I could live with that, knowing that they want the movie to play overseas, I am just sad we can't admit to our past and get over it. It's just a movie after all.
The costume is my next rant....I HATE IT. I have read many many forums and boards lately on or about the movie and I am totally sick of people saying it looks cool and like it is more WW2 looking than Jack Kirby's original design. That costume looks like NOTHING that ever came out of the 40's. I know it is based on the Ultimate universe Cap costume. I have actually never read any of the Ultimate universe stories. And once again I am going to say that for a fighter like Steve/Cap is all those pouches....and ammo pouches at that hanging all over a costume would make it harder to fight. Cap is a acrobatic style fighter and a metal helmet, belts, buckles, and pouches flopping all around doesn't seem like reality to me. Reality is the reason most of these things were added as I understand it in the Ultimate comics stories.
I like that they set the first movie in the time period of the World War 2. I think that was maybe one way to get me to see it. But all these other things are going to keep me away.
Believe me I could go on and on about all this....but I just read the clincher for me.
In an interview with the guy playing Bucky he stated that Bucky and Steve are both orphans so they have that bond.
Well that did it for me. One of the strong points of Steve's character in my mind is his parents. Or a family of some kind. I think it takes a piss poor writer to have to change a character like that just to make a bond between two people. I know it is probably a minor thing to most people, but it is kind of like getting divorced...people state problems like not putting the top back on the toothpaste as a reason when there are deeper problems they don't realize, like being feed up. Well this was the top on the toothpaste for me with this movie.
I was hoping that this movie would at least capture the flavor of the strip, but I just don't know anymore. I thought the Iron Man movie did a good job of capturing what I thought Iron Man was about. Hell I even thought the Xmen movie did a decent job of that. I am not really a X fan I quit buying that book with X men number 10 in the sixties when Jack Kirby quit drawing it.
I just wish they could have done a bit better with some of the character details on the Cap movie. I have been a Captain America fan all my life, well since I bought a copy of Avengers #4 and was totally hooked when Sgt Fury 13 hit the stands. I quit when they recently killed Steve off, I figured it was a good time too. I wasn't enjoying the book except for the art. Hell really that book hasn't been good since they split Tales of Suspense up. But I was a fan and have every issue of Cap, except those Liefield pieces of dung.
Sorry for the rants, and I don't expect anyone to read it all or agree with me. It is just my two cents, and the fact I am feed up with it all. At least they didn't make the Red Skull italian like they did the last one....ha.
"I was hoping that this movie would at least capture the flavor of the strip, but I just don't know anymore."
ReplyDelete"I just wish they could have done a bit better with some of the character details on the Cap movie."
What?!? Look, I hear what you say about the costume. That's cool. I don't have a problem with it, but then, I'm not a huge Cap fan and am just looking forward to a rip-roaring comicbook movie that is fun to watch. I'm not interested in seeing the 1940's comic stories played out in celluloid. I like that they've updated the look.
But you can't say that you were "hoping that this movie would at least capture the flavor of the strip", or that "wish they could have done a bit better with some of the character details". It's not even out yet. There hasn't even been a trailer*. You don't know anything about those factors. You're judging the whole movie on a few press shots, and even then, the costume shots are clearly design images, not actual movie stills, it may not even look like that in the end.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to tell you the movie will be better than you expect, or that you're wrong to state what you did. I'm not some arrogant lunatic. My opinion isn't any more valid than yours, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, to each their own and so on, so on. Just don't go slamming the flavor of the movie or the character details when you haven't seem them yet. Remember, all you've seen are a few photographs, that's all.
*The trailer issue, of course, is another problem. Apparently it's been delayed from release because, according to branding consultant Gregory Littley "the footage isn't 'amazing.'" This does not bode well for the finished product. You may well be exactly correct in everything you claim, just don't be so hasty to claim it, that's all I'm saying!
Finally (sorry this is so long), despite my disagreement over this post, keep up the great work. I love the pulp era, and I've been reading your blog for months now. Hope you don't mind, but I added Specter and the Legion to a session of the pulp RPG Spirit of the Century I was running recently. There may have been a slight mixup, as now Sir Alistair Montgomery, Inventor to His Majesty King George V of England has Specter as a named rival! Haha!
Denis...
ReplyDeletewow thanks for the comment and discussion.
I really want this movie to do well and like you say be a rip-roaring action movie so people will feel a bit of the fan frenzy I have for Captain America.
As you said and I agree, I don't want to see the stories from the 40's either. I think one of the reasons I have hopes for the movie is that it is a period piece. Mainly since I think the comics sometimes forget that Cap isn't about politics, it's about the American Dream. I think this is a good point for placing the story mostly in the World War 2 setting.
I hadn't seen anything about the problem with the footage as you mentioned, but yea that doesn't bode well when you hear stuff like that.
I really hope I am so wrong with my opinion about the movie. And again this is just my very personal opinions here. Again I will eat crow if it is a good movie. Hell, I will take good, even if it isn't great.
I will make you deal. I so hope I am wrong you have talked me into seeing it. And if I have to eat my words or my opinion I will present you with an original sketch.....so if you are agreed we meet back here after the film comes out. ok.
And thanks for reading my blog and liking my stuff, that is more important to me anyway....thanks.
tom
No! Don't do it! It's not worth the risk. At least let me see it first. If I don't like it, you'll hate it (I loved Daredevil and have both the cinema cut and Directors cut on DVD. That said, nothing on Gods green earth will make me suffer through Electra or Ghostrider ever again...).
ReplyDeleteHilariously, it wasn't an hour after I posted my comment before a photo of Cap onset in gear was posted online: http://bit.ly/ChrisCap Slightly dirtier than the promo shot, but pretty much exactly the same. At least he has the wings. AND, the first photo of Spider-Man was posted too: http://bit.ly/GarfieldSpidey I laughed so hard when I saw this, because my first reaction was pretty much exactly what I was warning you against! "No!! No webbing?!? More blue than red! What have you done?!?" Haha! Come in Poetic Justice. Your time is up.
On the upside, it looks like his mechanical webshooters are back.
If they can just capture some of the WWII era, and have a good plot I'll be happy. I'm not that familiar with the history of Cap anyway. I picked up one of the Essentials for some of the back story, and read some Avengers. That's one of the reasons I enjoyed the Brubaker run, it filled in a lot of the back story with Nomad,Falcon, and older characters. Plus had amazing art.
ReplyDeleteI don't think though that the modern reader would still still for the old school Marvel. The stories from the Essentials are a bit formulaic: Cap meets villain, exchanges words, obligatory fight scene, and ends on a cliffhanger. Too much water under the bridge and time has moved on. New writers and artist have raised the bar for that like Miller, Alan Moore, Hellboy, The Walking Dead, Bendis, Preacher, Grant Morrison, et al.
Newer readers want more sophisticated stories. I've read a few of the Ultimate titles and they are sort of neat. Ultimate Spider-man is still a huge title for Marvel. So it's hard to say when making the movie, which mythos/cannon are you going to include? Are you going to sort of combine them?
Back to the movies, they've been hit and miss with me, and sometimes all within the same film. I've pretty much enjoyed all the Spider-Man films, even 3, which most people didn't. The Hulk films were hit and miss, but I think I enjoyed the first one by Ang Lee better, even though they changed up some of the backstory. I didn't care for the Daredevil film when I saw it at the theater, but once I saw it again on TV, thought it was decent. The FF I didn't care for at all. It was badly miscast, and pretty bad all the way around.
I do hope they make a good Cap and Thor story though. They are good characters, so need good films and future storylines.
I also think that it's just piss poor writing if you can't stick with a story/character as established. If someone wants to do something *ooooh* different, then stop hanging on to coat tails for no more reason than to make money. This is why I really hate Nick Fury being a black guy in the movies and in some of the Ultimates. Sorry, but he simply couldn't be, racism sucked in WWII. Maybe they're claiming that there was an "original" and Sam Jackson is his son but I still hate it.
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