Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier

(Movie Review)

Negatives
* Action sequences are getting pretty far-fetched.

* Related to the above point: I know Captain America has a super serum which gives him super-strength, but even given that super-power, his body should not be surviving all these high speed crashes and falls.

* So many unbelievable coincidences are used to keep the plot of this movie going.

* Related to the above point: so many plot holes

* Lots of bad movie cliches: from "bad guy tells them all about his evil plan for no reason" to "they never kill the hero when they have a chance"

Positives
* As much as I was rolling my eyes at how much physics and human biology was getting disregarded in these action sequences, I've got to admit they were pretty high adrenaline, cool and cinematically well directed.

The Review
This is a popcorn movie. If you can turn your brain off and enjoy all the explosions and people flying through the air and just watch it for the spectacle that it is, you'll enjoy yourself fine.  If you try to make sense out of any of this mess of a plot, your brain will explode.
The movie starts out with what looks like it might be a promising plot, but it quickly degenerates into just another super-hero action-fest.  On the plus side though, the action sequences are exciting, even if they are pretty ridiculously unreal.

Other Things I was Talking About If I Wasn't Limiting Myself to 100 Words
* Wow, the body count in this flick is really high--Remember when we were kids, and there was that unwritten rule that superheros were never supposed to actually kill anyone, unless you were specifically going for a darker edgier superhero movie?

Rating :
4 out of 10 stars.  (Really really dumb, but action sequences are at least delivering the adrenaline thrills.)

Links
For my take on other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe see Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Captain AmericaThor, The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

External Links
So, as I'm watching this, I'm thinking: "Oh man, Cinema Sins is going to have an absolute field day with all the plot holes, unrealistic action sequences, coincidences and cliches in this movie."  And then I googled them, and sure enough, they do not disappoint.  They find enough material here to make a 22 minute video detailing everything that was wrong with this movie.
I love Cinema Sins.  It makes it a lot easier to just link to them then to attempt to detail all of this stuff myself.


But that being said...I think there's even more ridiculous stuff in the movie then they caught.  I caught a few more things watching this movie that they don't even mention.

Honest Trailers was somewhat more complimentary--and I agree with them, the action sequences in this movie are pretty cool (provided you can turn off that nagging little voice in the back of your head that keeps telling you how unrealistic they are.)  But I agree with their nitpicks more than I agree with their praise, and they do get around to nitpicking this movie as well.


Link of the Day
Grammar, Mind and Body A Personal View

2 comments:

dpreimer said...

Haven't watched the 22 minute video (the movie was already long enough), but I probably had to quash my disbelief the hardest when Cap's mortal friend with PTSD starts to endure the same Herculean level of physical abuse, without so much as a limp.

Joel Swagman said...

You mean that scene on the highway? When they all go thrown out of the car at high speed, and Cap's friend (Sam Wilson) just rolls along for a while and then walks off like it's no problem?

I agree, that was ridiculous. The thing is, I don't even think Captain America should be surviving these things himself, right? The super-serum just gave him super strength, not invulnerability.

I mean, I know it's a movie, and you're supposed to suspend your disbelief a little bit. But the movie has got to meet you half way on a lot of this stuff. I shouldn't have to be constantly working so hard to suspend my disbelief.