Trailers
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The perceived “Avengers
effect” whereby individual Marvel superhero properties are expected to get a
box office boost from the goodwill and increased exposure of that mega hit, got
an easy vindication when Iron Man Three
sailed past the previous two installments.
Indeed, it doubled Iron Man 2’s
worldwide gross.
But Downey Jr’s Tony Stark was already twice as successful
as Marvel’s other fledgling superheroes, and the combination of his witty delivery
and Joss Whedon’s post-modern dialogue was central to the appeal of Avengers. It should be no surprise that Iron Man Three did well, because it
would have coasted to success on its star’s charm anyway. What differentiated
it (controversially, perhaps with some fans) was that it ploughed its own
distinct furrow. It wasn’t content to offer the lazy option of the big, better,
more forgettable sequel that was Iron Man
2. Instead it chose not to follow the standard superhero formula and embraced
a plot that included, well, you know, a plot.
There were major twists, and Stark was kept out of his suit for the majority of
the running time (a studio-friendly decision, since for some reason they think
the public are paying to see the actor not the masked superhero, but one that
worked). They threw in an annoying kid who, shockingly, wasn’t annoying. Shane
Black was allowed to come in and shake things up a bit, and he did so in a
wholly good way.
One might expect Edgar Wright’s Ant Man to work on similar lines, as it is informed by (relatively)
auteurist instincts. Who knows what Guardians
of the Galaxy will turn out like (I’m hesitant as James Gunn has yet to
really “wow” me). But Thor and Captain America have an uphill struggle
to make themselves distinctive and attractive as solo properties, particularly
as both were approached in a (then) rather half-arsed budget-sensitive manner.
I was extremely sceptical of Kenneth Branagh tackling a big Hollywood movie. I
well remember the unintentional hilarity of Kenneth
Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. He couldn’t even keep that steadicam
from overacting in his big screen version of Hamlet. But he delivered an entertaining, undemanding movie. It may
have owed a little too much to Masters of
the Universe, and it played everything very safe, but it was okay. The
sequel comes with the promise of more of the Asgard Marvel head honcho Kevin
Feige and co were reluctant to indulge too much first time out (lest it
alienate). It also ropes in Game of
Thrones director Alan Taylor, as if to say, “This will be a grittier
fantasy epic”. But I’ve seen the trailer a couple of times and I can’t remember
anything distinctive about it. Not the plot (Loki must team up with Thor; well
no one could have seen that coming), not the action (there are some big
battles, surprisingly), not the performances (Chris Eccleston is in there,
under a pile of prosthetics and pointy ears). It might well be very good (but
my expectations are middling), I’m sure it will at least be entertaining. But
it sells nothing but formula. There’s nothing to make you think they’ve come up
with something different. More than bigger, better, (possibly) more boring.
Which brings me to Captain
America: The Winter Soldier. If I had some good will towards Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger left me mostly indifferent. It
was all rather underwhelming. I had little familiarity with the character,
other than that his name was not the most advisable one for a superhero in the
current global environment. Fish out of water, or time, stories are a reliable
standard, from Adam Adamant Lives! To…
Thor. The problem was at least partly
Joe Johnston, one of those safe-pair-of-hands journeymen who can be trusted not
to mess up a Jurassic Park movie but who
will also be in no danger of pulling off something more impressive than
Spielberg. He’s bland and, true to course, he made a bland Captain America movie. It never built up a head of steam, failed to
make the action involving. It just kind of sat there.
And Chris Evans is a charismatic guy; pretty much everything
he did previously showed this (including the best part of the poxy Fantastic Four duology, Johnny Storm).
But as Cap he becomes a block of wood. He even looks pallid and anaemic. Aside from Downey, Evans represents
Marvel’s most obviously crowd-pleasing pick for a franchise king. But they put
him in a vehicle that works against all his best qualities. Evans should be
quick, sparky and irreverent. Cap is slow, bulky and staid. You can see Evans
having to work against giving the character’s (few) witty lines a bounce. His
personality fizzles out in the role.
I’m not sure that has really changed in the sequel. But, on
the evidence of the new trailer, other aspects appear to have been given the
kick in the pants that Thor: The Dark
World lacks. Screenplay writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus
contributed both the previous Cap and
The Dark World screenplays. They also
adapted all three Narnia movies.
Perhaps not the most illustrious of CVs, although my understanding is that the Winter Soldier plot they’re basing their
script on is a good one. What is most arresting (and of course a trailer can be
cut to suggest qualities that are not in the finished movie; The Counselor appears to be the latest
example of just such a let-down) is the flourish directors Anthony and Joe
Russo have brought to the table. Known for their work on comedies, including Arrested Development and Community on TV, they had an early “up
and coming” vibe with well-cast heist flick Welcome
to Collinwood about a decade ago, but nothing suggesting a facility for
massive mayhem. So this looks like one of those cost-effective chances that has
paid off for Marvel (just as plumping for Jon Favreau paid of with the first Iron Man). The images suggest a keen grasp
of framing and staging, from the lift fight to the car flip, to the crash and
burn hellicarrier to the final shot of the Winter Soldier catching Cap’s
shield.
I’m less than sold on Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow. This
may just be sour grapes at Emily Blunt losing out on the part, or it may just
be that nothing has been done to make the character distinctive or interesting
(other than put Johnansson in tight-fitting catsuits).
But the rest of the trailer content struck a chord, as it
echoes the Russos’ previous comments that they wanted to combine the Captain
with the trappings of a ‘70s conspiracy thriller. The vibe of the trailer
suggests Cap’s traditional American values are pitted against a world where
threats are neutralised before they even happen, and where “to
build a better world sometimes means tearing the old one down”. The
Captain’s response is a head butt to a USA where pre-emptive strikes and drone
attacks are an integral to the modern military machine. “I though the punishment usually came after the crime” he chastises.
Appropriately, and picking up from the uneasy authoritarian vibe of their
previous depiction(s), SHIELD is a force not to be trusted, an encapsulation of
governmental propensity to act unmonitored and unanswerable to higher
authorities. Might this be the first Marvel movie with a serious and graspable commentary?
Well, Robert Redford shows up, Condor himself, so you’d have though some kind
of carrot attracted him (I doubt that it was the thought he would once have
been an ideal Captain). I expect the whole thing will devolve into unfettered
explosiveness during the final act, but this looks like it might also have some
bite.