So there was this one bit in Captain America: The Winter Soldier where this one guy said Hail HYDRA to this other guy, and everyone loved it, then everyone started making a load of characters from other things say Hail HYDRA. Most of the following images gathered for your viewing pleasure were turned up from Google Images and Know Your Meme, but I made the ones from Goku onwards myself on Meme Generator.
Why yes, I am obsessed. For the record, the Scar one is my favourite. Mufasa's shock at Scar's betrayal is perfect here.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is
the biggest game-changer yet for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with major
ramifications for the future. Does the film itself hold up in its own right?
I forgot to put a buffer picture on the
last review, so here is footage of me having my head bashed against thin air as
punishment for the oversight.
While on a mission to rescue SHIELD
hostages from pirates, Captain America finds Black Widow hacking the computer
systems on the ship instead of helping out, and his trust in Nick Fury is put
in question when the information was for Project Insight, a system of
satellites and helicarriers with the purpose of eliminating potential threats.
Cap is not okay with this since it’s a bit too Minority Report for him, as well
as raising ethical questions about people’s privacy. For his part, Fury gets
suspicious when he can’t access the data Black Widow retrieved for him. Then,
every policeman in New York shows up to ram him off the road, which really sets
off the alarm bells. Fury’s bad day gets even worse when he hides in Cap’s
apartment because he suspects a mole in SHIELD, only to be gunned down by the
mysterious and evil Winter Soldier.
SHIELD boss Alexander Pierce blames Cap
for Fury’s death, and being attacked by thugs in a lift, (fortunately, these
ones didn’t steal Otacon’s experimental cloaking device) he and Black Widow
escape to Cap’s old training camp from World War II. There, they find a secret
room containing Arnim Zola’s consciousness uploaded to a computer, as a Master
Zola Program. The MZP explains that after World War II, HYDRA realised that
they couldn’t achieve their goals by force, so after he was hired by SHIELD, Zola
had HYDRA infiltrate the entire organization, and from there, achieve positions
of influence in government, giving them power to create global terror that
would make people willingly give up their freedom. He was also responsible for
recovering the body of Cap’s friend Bucky and turning him into Winter Soldier,
HYDRA’s version of Captain America. All that is pretty evil for the comic
relief minion of the previous film.
Following the revelation that virtually
the whole of SHIELD is rotten to the core, and Project Insight is really
intended for the destruction of HYDRA’s enemies, Cap decides to destroy the
organization outright, with the help of Black Widow, Nick Fury, who faked his
death in hospital, Fury’s second in command Maria Hill, and his best friend
Falcon, who he bonded with over races where Cap is much faster. Gotta go fast!
Cap and Falcon get special computer
chips to disable the helicarriers, so that Maria Hill can make them destroy
each other, Fury and Black Widow out HYDRA to the honest members of SHIELD and
the world and kill Pierce for his treachery. However, after disabling two
helicarriers, Winter Soldier attacks Cap while he tries to disable the third.
The scene is set for an epic final showdown between two equally matched foes… but
Cap refuses to fight Winter Soldier, and concentrates on disabling the
helicarrier while letting Winter Soldier whale on him. The Helicarriers are
successfully disabled and shot down, and Cap helps Winter Soldier loose from
some debris as the helicarrier crashes. Possibly remembering his opponent,
Winter Soldier fishes Cap out of the river he fell in and leaves.
Recreation of the final battle with two
Pikachus. Not sure if adorable or depressing.
After the credits, it is revealed that
Fegelein was able to escape the Downfall bunker (he could only listen to Hitler
rant about being banned from Xbox Live so many times before it got old), and
works under HYDRA as Baron Strucker, having somehow acquired Loki’s sceptre and
captured the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
Once again, Winter Soldier offers
something different for the franchise. This time around, we’re getting a
political conspiracy. Because of this, this film arguably has a darker tone
than is usual for Marvel. Like Iron Man 3 before it, the film examines serious
issues; in this case, the ethical issues behind peace and issues of privacy and
trust. How far can you go to fight an enemy before you become as bad as them,
or worse? It also helps that, like with Iron Man 3’s tackling of terrorism,
these are real world issues that concern people today, which helps the films
stick in the memory once you finish watching. Captain America is the perfect
character for such a plot because of what he represents as a symbol of justice,
freedom and determination. The first half of the film presents a moral conflict
between two shades of grey with no clear right answer. Admittedly, the second
half’s revelation that the people pushing for more surveillance are all Nazis
is a teeny bit of a cop-out for invoking Godwin’s Law, but it’s done well enough,
and raises interesting possibilities of its own, that I can forgive it.
Speaking of HYDRA, the big twist that
they’ve infiltrated SHIELD is a show-stopper that casts various events from
previous films in a new light. It’s shown that the senator from Iron Man 2 is
in HYDRA, and was trying to get Tony Stark to hand over his Iron Man suit so
that HYDRA could have it, not because Tony Stark is reckless and irresponsible
as was implied earlier on, but there are others too. Was Obadiah Stane from
Iron Man 1 affiliated with HYDRA? What about the guy from The Avengers who was
playing Galaga instead of working? Was slacking off his way of sabotaging
SHIELD’s day to day operations? How far does the rabbit hole go? The nature of
the twist is ripe for paranoia and questioning everything we thought we knew,
not to mention prompting thoughts such as what if an organization like HYDRA
exists for real, and they have control from behind the scenes all over the
world? On that note, I think I should take off the foil hat and sandwich board,
since you don’t come here to read my paranoid ramblings.
Instead, I’ll talk about the villains of
the film. I’m pleased to announce that, in Winter Soldier, we finally have
another villain as good as Loki. Like Loki did when he was introduced, Winter
Soldier sets himself apart from previous villains. Winter Soldier does this by
bringing a sense of genuine dread and menace whenever he’s on screen, which is something
not even Loki can do. Winter Soldier can do everything Captain America can do, but
unlike Cap, he inspires fear rather than adoration and hope. His actions and
little dialogue help convey the idea of a merciless assassin who will not show
mercy, and will not stop until his target is eliminated. The frightening music
that plays whenever he appear also helps to set the tone and enhance the
feeling of dread. Surprisingly, despite his name being in the title, Winter
Soldier doesn’t get that much screen time, but in this case, less is more, and
he’s able to make the most of his limited screen time. Considering how great Winter Soldier is, it's pleasantly surprising that Alexander Pierce doesn't suffer in comparison. He's a great villain in his own right, so it's a shame that he's most likely a one-off character. I wouldn't mind seeing him make a return somehow.
This spooky music wouldn't be out of place in Silent Hill.
Winter Soldier is a first for the Marvel
Cinematic Universe; a sequel that’s better than the original. Not only that,
but I’d argue that the added substance to the film means that it tops The Avengers as the best film to come from the franchise yet.
Stan Lee Spotter: Stan Lee appears as a
night watchman at the museum where the Captain America exhibition was held. As
it turns out, the exhibits only come to life when Ben Stiller does the night
shift.
Next Time: Electro Unchained
Bonus: At the start of the film, Cap is
shown recording things he missed out on while frozen in a notebook. Some of the
things listed vary between countries showing the film. See the list here. http://comicsalliance.com/captain-america-the-winter-soldier-movie-international-list-differences/
My Response to Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Yesterday, it was announced that Spider-Man would be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an appearance in another film, most likely Captain America: Civil War, before getting his own film film in 2017. You may be wondering how I reacted to this news. Well, wonder no more.
Yep, that sounds about right, masturbation aside of course.
This is just a quick announcement to say that this project is almost over. When I started this, I intended to keep going until I had reached the most recently released film based on a Marvel license. On that note, I can confirm that the final film to be covered for this will be Big Hero 6.
Just look at how adorable Baymax is, I mean seriously.
Ending at Big Hero 6 also leaves the project at 35 films, which is a nice number to finish on. For an idea of where we are now, the last film, Thor: The Dark World was the 30th film I looked at. While there are several other Marvel films released this year after Big Hero 6, not to mention a little thing you may have heard of called The Avengers: Age of Ultron, I most likely won't do full reviews for them since the project will have finished by the time they come out, unless I fall way behind schedule of course. However, there will be a little summary and Hype-o-Meter for the rest of this year's films, at least. We're at the home stretch now, so let's enjoy what's left of this.
Thor is the second character from the
Marvel Cinematic Universe to get a sequel following Iron Man. Unfortunately,
The Dark World is closer to Iron Man 2 quality-wise than Iron Man 3.
The prologue establishes that years ago,
Odin’s father fought with the evil Dark Elf Malekith, who used a mystical
artefact called the Aether to wage war in order to destroy the world and make
everything fall into darkness, because he is evil and that sounds like a
sufficiently evil thing to do. The Asgardians win and seal the Aether away, but
Malekith, his lieutenant Kurse and a handful of mooks escape into space, ready
to come back and do more evilness in the future, which is to say the present, or the present day events of the film. Whatever.
Portals to other realms are starting to
appear, and Thor’s love interest Jane Foster ends up in Svartalfheim, the world
of the Dark Elves, and finds the Aether, which goes into her after she touches
it. After she goes back home, Jane finds that anyone who tries to touch her is
thrown back by a shockwave, which is quite an effective way of saying “No means
no.” Thor is able to return to Earth thanks to the Bifrost being rebuilt
between films, and takes Jane to Asgard with him to get the Aether out.
Unfortunately, this proves to be a no-go, and to make things worse, Malekith
and Kurse arrive to get the Aether back from Jane, causing a prison riot that
lets out everyone except Loki, who is in prison following the events of The
Avengers, leaving poor Loki locked up.
Odin’s wife Frigga wrecks Malekith sideways,
but is killed when he taps out and brings Kurse in to finish the fight. The grieving Odin refuses to let Jane go
home because he wants Malekith to come back for round 2, which Thor recognises
as suicidal and instead decides to take her to Svartalfheim, and battle
Malekith on his home turf. Thor breaks Loki out of prison to help them get to
Svartalfheim because leaving him locked up forever alone would upset the
fangirls. Malekith takes the Aether out of Jane, but Thor is unable to destroy
it before Malekith absorbs it himself, and a dying Kurse manages to take Loki
with him.
Thor and Jane go back to Earth and go to
Greenwich, which is where Malekith plans to do his evil plan to destroy
everything because Greenwich is in the exact center of the universe, give or take 50 feet. Thor and Malekith fight
in a creative battle that shows them thinking with portals to go to various other
worlds, but eventually the Aether is taken out of Malekith, and Thor uses
Jane’s scientific equipment to warp Malekith back to Svartalfheim, with Dr
Selvig sending his ship back. Since there’s a chunk of the ship missing, and
Malekith is lacking arms with which to construct additional pylons for holding
up his ship, he gets crushed.
Thor declines the throne of Asgard and
decides to stay on Earth with Jane because he is a Son of Man, look to the sky,lift your spirit, set it free… Anyway, it is revealed soon after that Odin is actually Loki
in disguise, having faked his death and usurped Odin as king. Meanwhile, Sif
and Volstagg take the Aether to the Collector for safe-keeping, reasoning that
the Tesseract is already in Asgard and having two Infinity Stones there is too
dangerous, yet giving one to a guy called the Collector who announces his
intention of collecting the rest is a great idea that will totally not
backfire. Nice going, you two.
Most of the first film’s characters
return for the sequel, but most of them don’t get to do much, which is
disappointing. Jane’s colleagues, Heimdall, Sif and the Warriors Three are all
demoted to extra, although it is justified for the earthbound characters, since
most of this film is set in Asgard and Svartalfheim, and they do get to the
take part in the climax since that’s set on Earth. Hogun and Dr Selvig are hit
worst, since Hogun essentially stays home after the opening scene and sits this
one out, despite getting the least screen time of the Warriors Three in the
first film. Meanwhile, Dr Selvig has had a nervous breakdown after Loki
brainwashed him in The Avengers, and this is played for laughs, what with him getting
up to antics such as streaking at Stonehenge and stealing Stan Lee’s shoes.
Most of these aren’t terribly funny and is rather disrespectful to the
character, which is all the more disappointing considering Tony Stark’s PTSD
was taken seriously in Iron Man 3. On the plus side, Frigga has a bigger role
this time around, after being a glorified cameo in the first one, and does a
lot to stick out as one of the film’s bright spots. Her death scene, funeral
scene and the grief of Loki and Odin to her death is actually surprisingly
effective considering that she had been such a minor character until now. While
some may take issue with the mother being killed off to act as a motivation,
she does at least get to go down fighting and establish herself as a character
in her own right, not just an extension of Odin or Loki.
While Loki is just as charismatic as
ever, his presence unfortunately overshadows Malekith, who is a very dull
villain. He has no motivation for returning everything to darkness besides the
fact that it’s evil (then again, if Marvel ever got into Kingdom Hearts,
Malekith would be very easy to adapt, considering the prominence of darkness there),
and he has no personality other than being evil. It’s not even scenery-chewing
hammy evil that’s gloriously entertaining, he’s just the bad guy who is there
because there has to be a bad guy for Thor to fight. Malekith sticks out as the
Marvel Cinematic Universe’s weakest villain, which is particularly problematic
for him since he’s the main antagonist and has to do all the villain work
himself. At least Whiplash wasn’t the only villain in Iron Man 2, and the more
entertaining Justin Hammer was there to alleviate some of the pressure from
him. Malekith isn’t so lucky in that regard.
Thor: The Dark World does at least have
Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as Thor and Loki to salvage it, but when the
most memorable part of the film is the two sequel hooks, something somewhere
didn’t really go to plan. After how the first one exceeded expectations, The
Dark World is disappointing.
Stan Lee Spotter: As mentioned earlier,
Stan Lee appears as a patient at the asylum, where Dr Selvig has stolen his
shoes in the name of science! Did Stan ever get his shoes back?
Bonus: A scene removed from the film
involved Jane using the Aether to destroy Svartalfheim, which was cut for time
and also because Dark Phoenix already did it in X-Men 3. What can I say? She doesn’t
like sand. It’s all coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
