RE: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This can’t be happening…

I trusted you, Captain.

I trusted you.  I would have thought that if there was one hero I could trust, and one movie I could depend on, it was yours.  I didn’t name your last solo outing as one of my favorite movies ever just for laughs.  It was because you earned it.  And I thought you’d earn it again.  But then you, and all your Marvel Studio cohorts, decided to put out this…this…this thing.  I can’t believe it.  But I have no choice. 

You put out a movie worse than the RoboCop remake.  And for that, you will NEVER be forgiven.

…Nah, just kidding.  This movie’s freaking great.

  

I’m not even going to try and act like The Winter Soldier is the best thing ever.  Frankly, I’m still contemplating whether or not it’s better than The First Avenger -- because if it is, it would demand a reshuffling of the list.  But for what it’s worth, I am PLENTY satisfied with the end result of Cap’s latest adventure.  It’s at a point where, if you’re expecting me to do a post with paragraphs of listed flaws (set to Groose’s theme, natch), you’re going to be disappointed.  It’s true that there are some flaws, but A) they’re negligible in the long run, B) the movie’s entertaining enough to make you get caught up in its pace, and C) the moments of jaw-dropping hype put my logic organs out to pasture.

What I find supremely interesting about TWS is that it’s at once simple and complex.  It’s definitely a superhero movie, but it takes on a harsher edge by way of the story and the ideas in it -- but there’s a solid balance of both, matching that now-commonplace jovial spirit with the suspense and paranoia of a political thriller.  And while there are cracks in both by design, in this movie the execution is top-notch.  Things work.  Things happen, and happen well.  And get this: it actually does its damnedest in (and largely succeeds at) taking controversies and real-world topics, and making them more than just “DURR, ME GOOD, YOU EVIL” terms.  Suck that down, RoboCop.  And this, while you're at it.

D-O-P-E spells ohymygodthatiswaytoocool.

If this post seems a bit short on details, then that’s because I just saw the movie, and I want to take some time to digest it before nose-diving into some ramble and puking all over my keys.  Ideally, you can look forward to something in the next few days (let’s shoot for Thursday, but given the sheer number of interruptions I’ve had recently, who knows what’ll happen).  That post will get in deep with the movie, and I’ll use that as a point of discussion -- a way to see what went right, and what lessons we can take away from it.  So if you haven’t seen the movie yet, this is your chance.  If you HAVE, and you can’t wait to start talking about it, then just leave a comment or something.  Just be courteous to other readers, and mark any spoilers.

But there’s more to it than that in this instance.  I will be the VERY first to admit that I’m biased, and I’m the most uninformed Captain America fanboy you ever did see.  All told, it’s probably safe to assume that I like the movie as much as I do because, holy hell, Cap totally does a bunch of Charging Stars!  But I’d like to think there’s a reason why a character like Cap works (for me, at least).  So I’m thinking that I might do another post to try and dissect Cap.  At the moment, it feels like I’m going to end up repeating things I’ve said a million billion crogtillion things I’ve said here already -- but even if that’s the case, I think it’ll be all right.  You can just think of it as a nexus.  All my ideas, and concepts displayed elsewhere, gathered into one handy-dandy focal point of a post.  Something like that, I’m hoping, will be good for my blood pressure.

I might need it.  My brother’s been bugging me to play and do a blog post on this.

I just puked from my eyeballs. 

So that’s about where I stand, I guess.  I’m hoping I can get TWS stuff out soon, because -- once again -- some of the other posts I have planned, not to mention already-written, look like they’re getting pushed back.  For the record (assuming there aren’t any more interruptions or post-hijackings), the next game on the docket is going to be Infamous: Second Son.  That’ll go up…someday…but if you’re starved for a second opinion, I’ll give you a short one: it’s an awful PS4 game.  It’s a pretty good PS3 game, though -- even if nearly every good thing it does gets counterbalanced by something bad.

But that’s a topic for another day.  Right now I’m still riding high on TWS -- as I should be.  That’s just proof that the movie did something right, and I’d like to relish this feeling for as long as I can before it’s time to go back to zombies, grit, and the increasingly-frequent-but-simultaneously-depressing-and-borderline-parodic missteps of the modern games industry.

I ain’t even mad, though.  Because guess who's back?

Awwwwwwwwwwww yeah!  You know what it’s time for!

Damn.  The scars are still fresh.

Enough talk, you commie.  Get on with Part 1.