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I just watched Captain America 2 and it blew my mind. It was incredible for so many different reasons.
You see, Captain America is just like that 2048 game that's been going around. If you don't know what that is, click on the link and be prepared to lose a few hours of your life. In fact, I'll be playing a few rounds with you...
Alright! Back to the review. I found that Captain America 2 was better enjoyed if you picked up some things in Captain America 1. Captain America 1 is just like that number 2 in the 2048 game. It provides some basics that Captain America 2 picks up from.
The first thing you have to know is that Captain America has always been very closely associated with spies. It took me a while to figure this out - at first I thought it was just a reason for Peggy to be introduced as a love interest (more on that later too). But later I realised that this is due to the nature of the super soldier project that made Steve Captain America. The super soldier project is a covert operation, kept under wraps by spies and managed by secretive organisations. His major archenemy is also a secret organisation, Hydra.
The trouble with Captain America is that he isn't a very secretive person. For all that he hangs out with spies, and in the case of Peggy, loves them, Steve isn't a person who likes to keep secrets, or be kept a secret. For most of the war, the politicians were happy to make him a spokesperson and keep him off the front. However, Steve has to fight for what he believes in.
The other thing that the Captain America origin is linked to is scientists. Namely, German scientists that tend to be on the mad side as well as linked with shady organisations like Hydra. I didn't think this was an important point at first, but it is for reasons that you'll have to bear with me about.
The last thing I want to point out right now is that Captain America is also about a sense of loss. Steve set out to save the world, only to have the things he loved ripped from him in turn - his best friend Bucky, his love and in the end even his whole world and identity. It's on this note that we ended Captain America 1.
But in order to have a fun Captain America 2, you need to add things to these basic ideas from Captain America 1 to get more. To bring us back to our crazy 2048 game analogy, there needs to be something similar to the 2 from Captain America 1 that you need to add in order to get a 4.
In Captain America 2, the spies are brought back in the form of Black Widow and Nick Fury. Steve falls back to working with them readily, because it's what he knows. However, that's when you get the whole gamut of issues from Captain America 1 coming in. Steve might work with spies, but their ways are not his ways. He doesn't believe in everyone having their own secret agendas, he has issues with a secret weapon stockpile (for all that he was a secret weapon) and when the team of spies he was working with aren't as trustworthy as your team of soldiers (read: the Howling Commandoes) he feels that it's a personal affront.
It's not always Steve's issues being out of sync with the others though. While Natasha and Nick Fury aren't out of time like Steve, they have the same issues with identity. Natasha admits that she can be whatever Steve wants her to be. Nick Fury finds out that the identity of SHIELD doesn't match his view of it. Together they add up to make the whole issue of identity resonate. In this context, it makes perfect sense for Captain America 2 to be a spy movie that has over the top action scenes.
With the confusion over identity comes a sense of loss and trying to make a sense of yourself in the new world. It's interesting that this is the context in which the Falcon gets introduced - a new connection that Steve makes in the new world outside of the Avengers from. They meet in a totally normal way on a run around the DC basin, and that's a touch I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE. He mediates himself, Steve and many other people to make sense of their place in a world that they don't think fits them anymore. Steve even has a meeting with Peggy to round things off.
These are the bits that I thought worked. However, like the game the layers that get added on get ridiculously complex. There's the Captain America museum show at the Smithsonian. There's the Winter Soldier, which if you don't know who it is I'm not going to spoil it for you. There's a call-back to the entire Nazi scientist situation, including a bizarro science moment. It is awesome, but a bit heavy when digesting the film.
On top of that, you have cinematic callbacks to the first movie. The scene on the bridge in the helicarrier is the first one I can think of off the top of my head. Then there's the bit where Steve crashes into the water and gets redefined again by it. (Baptism by crashing flying objects into bodies of water I guess.) I'm sure there's more, but it eludes me at the moment.
In conclusion: An awesome movie with lots of continuity that is a bit heavy on the going down because of all the goodies they tried to cram into it. The movie comes together well, but do you REALLY need to dial things up to 2048?
You see, Captain America is just like that 2048 game that's been going around. If you don't know what that is, click on the link and be prepared to lose a few hours of your life. In fact, I'll be playing a few rounds with you...
Alright! Back to the review. I found that Captain America 2 was better enjoyed if you picked up some things in Captain America 1. Captain America 1 is just like that number 2 in the 2048 game. It provides some basics that Captain America 2 picks up from.
The first thing you have to know is that Captain America has always been very closely associated with spies. It took me a while to figure this out - at first I thought it was just a reason for Peggy to be introduced as a love interest (more on that later too). But later I realised that this is due to the nature of the super soldier project that made Steve Captain America. The super soldier project is a covert operation, kept under wraps by spies and managed by secretive organisations. His major archenemy is also a secret organisation, Hydra.
The trouble with Captain America is that he isn't a very secretive person. For all that he hangs out with spies, and in the case of Peggy, loves them, Steve isn't a person who likes to keep secrets, or be kept a secret. For most of the war, the politicians were happy to make him a spokesperson and keep him off the front. However, Steve has to fight for what he believes in.
The other thing that the Captain America origin is linked to is scientists. Namely, German scientists that tend to be on the mad side as well as linked with shady organisations like Hydra. I didn't think this was an important point at first, but it is for reasons that you'll have to bear with me about.
The last thing I want to point out right now is that Captain America is also about a sense of loss. Steve set out to save the world, only to have the things he loved ripped from him in turn - his best friend Bucky, his love and in the end even his whole world and identity. It's on this note that we ended Captain America 1.
But in order to have a fun Captain America 2, you need to add things to these basic ideas from Captain America 1 to get more. To bring us back to our crazy 2048 game analogy, there needs to be something similar to the 2 from Captain America 1 that you need to add in order to get a 4.
In Captain America 2, the spies are brought back in the form of Black Widow and Nick Fury. Steve falls back to working with them readily, because it's what he knows. However, that's when you get the whole gamut of issues from Captain America 1 coming in. Steve might work with spies, but their ways are not his ways. He doesn't believe in everyone having their own secret agendas, he has issues with a secret weapon stockpile (for all that he was a secret weapon) and when the team of spies he was working with aren't as trustworthy as your team of soldiers (read: the Howling Commandoes) he feels that it's a personal affront.
It's not always Steve's issues being out of sync with the others though. While Natasha and Nick Fury aren't out of time like Steve, they have the same issues with identity. Natasha admits that she can be whatever Steve wants her to be. Nick Fury finds out that the identity of SHIELD doesn't match his view of it. Together they add up to make the whole issue of identity resonate. In this context, it makes perfect sense for Captain America 2 to be a spy movie that has over the top action scenes.
With the confusion over identity comes a sense of loss and trying to make a sense of yourself in the new world. It's interesting that this is the context in which the Falcon gets introduced - a new connection that Steve makes in the new world outside of the Avengers from. They meet in a totally normal way on a run around the DC basin, and that's a touch I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE. He mediates himself, Steve and many other people to make sense of their place in a world that they don't think fits them anymore. Steve even has a meeting with Peggy to round things off.
These are the bits that I thought worked. However, like the game the layers that get added on get ridiculously complex. There's the Captain America museum show at the Smithsonian. There's the Winter Soldier, which if you don't know who it is I'm not going to spoil it for you. There's a call-back to the entire Nazi scientist situation, including a bizarro science moment. It is awesome, but a bit heavy when digesting the film.
On top of that, you have cinematic callbacks to the first movie. The scene on the bridge in the helicarrier is the first one I can think of off the top of my head. Then there's the bit where Steve crashes into the water and gets redefined again by it. (Baptism by crashing flying objects into bodies of water I guess.) I'm sure there's more, but it eludes me at the moment.
In conclusion: An awesome movie with lots of continuity that is a bit heavy on the going down because of all the goodies they tried to cram into it. The movie comes together well, but do you REALLY need to dial things up to 2048?
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