I’m going to potentially sacrifice
the nerd cred I’ve cultivated over the last several years and say Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a much better movie than The
Avengers overall.
Yes, I mean that, and no, I’m not a contrarian dweeb who
says stuff like it just because he knows most people will think the opposite. After
spending two-plus hours in a packed IMAX screening room – with a crowd so captivated by the movie I barely heard anyone speak once the lights dimmed, I might add – I can say with some authority that I enjoyed The Winter Soldier on a whole different level than I did The Avengers.
The difference? Lots of stuff, but it comes down to two big
points: The Avengers was a summer
popcorn flick, and Joss Whedon didn’t have anything major (if anything) to do
with Winter Soldier.
Again, I’m not being one of those dweebs when I say Whedon’s whole bag is getting a little
played out with me. I’ve never liked his stuff. I didn’t like Buffy, straight-up hated Dr. Horrible, and only found Cabin
in the Woods entertaining at certain points – namely the ones where the D-bag
characters weren’t flapping their stupid idiot gums.
In fact, besides the (admittedly wonderful and brilliant) Toy Story, it’s fair to say Mr. Whedon’s
style and my tastes don’t really intersect at all. That’s not a knock on him or
his work – it’s just not for me.
His characters are smug, and despite any superficial
differences, they all have the same personality: Snippy, snarky, too smart for
their own good. Ready to throw out a castaway one-liner at a moment’s notice.
Ready to sacrifice the movie’s pacing and general integrity to steal a quick,
cheap laugh from the audience. It feels like every character in his films
should be sporting a fedora and a heavy neckbeard. Like all the dialogue could
have been posted in a particularly droll reddit thread instead of delivered by
superheroes or doomed horror-movie teens or what have you.
Winter Soldier is,
in many ways, much more of a superhero movie than The Avengers. It’s not a comedy, though it does pack a few laughs
in; it’s not a mindless action flick, though the action sequences were some of
the best I’ve seen, especially on the spectacular IMAX screen.
Compare this to Avengers,
which mostly felt like a string of solid action scenes strung together by
superheroes trying their hardest to be the biggest smartass in the group, and
you start to understand why I think Winter
Soldier is the superior product.
True to the headline, I’m going to remain as spoiler-free as
possible here. I mean that for comic fans and non-readers alike, since I mostly
belong to the latter group. Anything that does
resemble a spoiler will be clearly marked, with plenty of space for you
neurotic types to skip around it… that said, if you think me mentioning the existence of certain characters
constitutes spoiling the film, well, you might want to go look for a different
review/critique.
You also might want to stop being such a nitpicky baby. Just saying.
On that note, the differences between Whedon’s Black Widow
and the one featured in Winter Soldier illustrate
exactly why his characterization rubs me the wrong way. In Avengers, we’re introduced to the character via one of his classic “witty”
exchanges – she’s tied to a chair, and her captors are big, mean, scary dudes,
but they still stop to let her talk on the phone.
Even though she’s tied to that chair, however, she makes it
clear she’s still in control – as I recall, she says something to the effect of
“I almost had what I wanted from them” – and then she proceeds to kick evil military
dude butt. I’m pretty sure she says some other snarky thing prior to walking
off.
To be clear, I am not at all
opposed to the idea of strong females in film. There should be more of
them. But just as there is more than one way to skin a cat, there are certainly
more sorts of composed, self-confident women than the wisecracking, plucky,
anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better variety. I’m aware that this character is one
of Whedon’s calling cards – as is anyone who has seen more than 15 minutes of
his work – but that doesn’t mean every single lady in every single film has to
act that way. Joss apparently doesn’t understand that.
While Winter Soldier definitely
features more of Ms. Romanova, and is definitely more dependent on her
development as a character to further the plot, the differences go beyond that.
In Avengers, as with many other
characters, she largely exists to fight and wisecrack. Here, she develops realistically
– a challenge for anyone in a Marvel movie, let alone one with a backstory like
hers.
SPOILER: She’s
conflicted about her identity, the actions she’s taken to survive in both the
US and Russia, and who she thinks she can trust – she’s also much more of a “gray
hat” character than the ultra-skilled bad guy killing machine we see in Avengers.
A lot of this comes from necessity. We need a character nearly
as skilled as the good Captain himself, but one with a vastly different set of
morals, to foil the All American Good Boy image Rogers is supposed to
represent, especially throughout the film’s early going. Romanova lies; Rogers
tells the truth. Romanova kills; Rogers is much more inclined to knock the
target out or brutally break his limbs or something.
The story sees similar degrees of subtle change, and the movie is all the
better for it.
To get something out of the way up front: Yes, I realize one
movie was a summer blockbuster type of film and the other is an early-spring
sequel, thus allowing it to be headier and smarter in general than its
Whedon-built counterpart. That still doesn’t excuse Joss from filling his
narrative with points so thin and light they might float away in a strong gust –
especially considering how heavy the topics in Winter Soldier can get.
SPOILER: Much of the
movie’s plot come from current-day
events. Without giving too much away, there’s a big focus on spying here: Like
the NSA, countless organizations are intent upon stealing data from the public
in this film, and the ever-popular “threat of terrorism versus appeal of safety”
motif is obvious throughout as well.
Is any of that groundbreaking stuff? Absolutely not. But the
film is deep and relevant enough to create discussion among adults and teens alike,
something I noticed from both camps leaving the theater this afternoon. Compared to Avengers, whose overarching idea seems to be “big aliens are bad,”
we have a film that operates on a whole different level of thought in Winter Soldier.
We know that big budget, summertime superhero blockbusters can approach ideas like these. All three
of Nolan’s Batman films did. So, to a much smaller degree, did both iterations
of Sony’s Spider-Man.
In a lot of ways, differences like these almost make me feel
like I’m comparing apples and oranges, despite the films coming from the same
company and being set in the same universe. It’s also worth noting that not
every summer blockbuster needs a
subtextual critique of the government or society to be worthwhile. Sometimes we
just want to watch shit explode, and Avengers
was at least great on that front.
It’s just that, with superhero movies, that kind of focus
makes a lot of sense. Many of the characters we know and love today come from
some sort of political unrest of social concern – taking that away from them in
their biggest on-screen gathering ever seems
like a near-sighted move.
So, yes, people do go
to superhero movies to watch muscly dudes in spandex battle it out. Others like
the interconnected story lines and consistent universes across franchises and
films. But a lot of people go to see those issues compared to their own daily
lives reflected somehow… doing away with
that angle feels like visiting a relative you only see once every couple of
years, only to find he’s become a little more shallow each time.
I’m sure Winter
Soldier will blow box-office doors off. I’m also confident it’ll generate
some useful discussion about the value of personal data and the destructive things
that can befall anyone who doesn’t monitor it carefully, particularly among
younger people.
It’s exactly the kind of conversation current and future
voters need to be having, what with campaign contribution laws vanishing and
the NSA monitoring its own citizens (and their neighbors) without any sort of effective
oversight. At this point, that kind of awareness is basically the only thing
that can lead us from this hole we’ve dug ourselves into by not speaking up
earlier.
And even if I’m being dramatic, it’s a damn sight better
than three straight hours of scary aliens, spectacular explosions, and plucky,
sarcastic females. They stop being “one”-liners when that’s all anyone speaks
in, Joss. Just an FYI. :)