Favorite Scene Friday! Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Cap vs. The Winter Soldier

This concludes our month of fight themed FSFs! Thanks for tuning in!

This probably goes without saying, but beware spoilers for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 

You can't really discuss fight scenes these days without including something from a superhero flick. This week, I'd like to (naturally) talk about one of my favorites - the brawl between Captain America and The Winter Soldier in the second installment in the saga of Steve Rogers.   

Paolo Rivera via ComingSoon and Birth.Movies.Death.

The action starts with the fallout from a chase scene where The Winter Soldier (TWS) got the drop on our heroes, ultimately launching Cap (Chris Evans) off the freeway and into a city bus. When we first see TWS he's on the hunt for Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who, along with Cap and Sam "The Falcon" Wilson (Anthony Mackie), is really screwing with his plans (well, not his plans, but we'll get to that later).

TWS easily tosses Black Widow after falling for her phone decoy trick and subsequent attack, but she's able to escape after shorting out his arm. It isn't long before he catches up again, however, but just when you think Black Widow's a goner, Cap shows up. And then it's on. 

Some highlights:

• The Winter Soldier punching Cap’s shield is surely one of the cooler moments from the entire franchise. 
• One thing I noticed is that, every gun that TWS uses in his fight with Cap was seen prominently earlier in the scene. In other words, they're not just window dressing, he actually uses all of his weapons.
• The knife portion of the fight really takes the whole thing up a notch. It's hard not to flinch as that thing's flying around.
• That goddamn Bucky reveal.

That's right, The Winter Soldier is actually Cap's childhood friend and war buddy Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who's been turned into a pawn for the bad guys. I remember when I saw this in the theater a few people in my group were shocked. It's something I knew already and kind of took for granted, but their reactions made it even better. It still gives me goosebumps. The whole Bucky/Winter Soldier thing is, if done true to the comics, setting up Bucky's time as an alternate Captain America. That's why he prominently holds the shield at one point. Alas, TWS doesn't really know his true identity ("Who the hell is Bucky?") having been brainwashed into a killing machine. Suffice to say, Cap's so shocked that his friend is The Winter Soldier, he has to get saved not once, but twice, first by The Falcon and then by Black Widow. Cap gets easily distracted when it comes to Bucky, as we saw earlier this summer in this film's follow up, Civil War. 

What's your favorite scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier?

What's your favorite fight scene in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film? 

Favorite Scene Friday! Obvious Child

I recently caught 2014's Obvious Child for the first time and really enjoyed it. The film follows Jenny Slate's Donna as she deals with an unplanned pregnancy after a drunken romp with Jake Lacy's Max (you may recognize Jake from later seasons of The Office). The two turned in excellent, true-to-life performances, and Slate was particularly strong. I've always loved everything she's done comedy-wise (Kroll Show, Parks and Recreation, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On) and it was nice to see her do something with a serious aspect.

By Source, Fair use, Wikipedia

Weird side note - I'd heard recently she was dating Chris "Captain America" Evans (another reason to love her) and stumbled across the (slightly out of date) news that she might actually be pregnant with his child.

Leading up to this week's scene, Donna - a stand-up comedian - meets Max at a bar, they get really drunk, Max farts in her face while they're both peeing in an alley, and it all culminates in fun, drunken shenanigans set to Paul Simon's "Obvious Child" (what else?). Enjoy!



Bonus! Enjoy the not-what-I-was-expecting-but-pretty-awesome video for Simon's "Obvious Child" below.

What's your favorite Jenny Slate scene?

Would you have Captain America's baby?

Countdown to Avengers: Captain America

It's time for another installment in our Countdown to Avengers series with Nerd Lunch and Cavalcade of Awesome!

Mini Review

In a world of modern superhero films, such as Kickass, The Dark Knight, and Watchmen, Captain America has become the rarity: its hero isn’t complicated or morally ambiguous, and he doesn’t have issues. He is, simply put, a good man. 

Wikipedia

And, simply put, Captain America is a good film. It’s definitely a worthy addition to the Avengers series, combining heart, a tried-and-true adventure story, and an old-fashioned sense of fun. The film itself could be considered “the little guy”, coming last in the line of a series of successful films and boasting a director - Joe Johnston - who had just come off the messy but enjoyable The Wolfman.

The film isn’t perfect. Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America is great for the most part, but there’s something about him that rubs me the wrong way at times (maybe it’s the fact that he had already played The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four series). Other things grated on me as well, such as the dummy grenade scene (Rogers was really that desperate to be a hero?).

The film’s pro column is much larger than its con, however. The supporting cast is great, with Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hugo Weaving turning in fine performances. Another great aspect of the film is Chris Evans’ transformation. The technique used to morph Evans into “skinny Steve” rarely looks bad, and makes me forget I’d hoped the actor portraying Cap would go method and lose and put back on a bunch of weight.

Avengers Connections

Captain America is a treasure trove of Avengers connections. Not only does it have a lot of tie-ins to the rest of the movies, the film also takes place years before the rest of the series, allowing us to see how some of the Avengers backstory came together. Remember, we heard about the super soldier program back in The Incredible Hulk. Captain America shows us that program first hand.

A big character in the film is Howard Stark, father to Tony Stark/Iron Man. We first meet Howard presenting a flying car at the Stark Expo, seen here in its heyday, years before Tony revives it in Iron Man 2. Howard works on the Super Soldier program along with Dr. Erskine (Tucci) and goes on to serve as the Q to Cap’s James Bond, supplying him with the final version of his trademark shield.

Another big element of the film ties into Thor. Captain America begins in Tønsberg, Norway, the same village Odin and his forces protect from the Frost Giants in Thor. Pax from Cavalcade of Awesome points that out and more in his breakdown of Thor. Captain America's nemesis The Red Skull (Weaving) discovers Odin’s tesseract in Tønsberg and uses it to power his doomsday weapons. At the end of the film we see The Red Skull disappear into a rift caused by the tesseract, vanishing into what looks like Thor’s stomping grounds.

Finally, we get to see more of SHIELD and Nick Fury, when Cap wakes up at the organization’s building in New York after being revived in the modern world.

How Will Cap Fit into the Avengers?

Believe it or not, The Avengers will be told through Cap’s perspective. I mentioned that Hulk was an outsider in my breakdown of The Incredible Hulk, and Cap is just as much of a loner in a way.

It’ll definitely be interesting to see how Rogers interacts with Tony Stark. From the trailers it looks like they have an adversarial relationship, which contrasts with the friendly relationship Rogers and Howard Stark seemed to be developing in Captain America.

As I said, Cap is definitely a loner, but expect him to pull the team together at the beginning of The Avengers third act.

Some Thoughts from CT at Nerd Lunch

With great power comes great responsibility and all that...

In general, the Marvel Comics characters are filled with flaws and their origins are a turning point in their lives. Tony Stark and Thor are each flawed characters that must face their past mistakes and attempt to redeem themselves for those mistakes by choosing to use their powers and abilities for an even greater good. Even Incredible Hulk had this to some degree. Stan Lee set out to make comics about characters who were people first and super heroes second. And in recent years, this has translated to Marvel having a wealth of material to base movies on. And every one of them, executed well or not, showed great promise because of its source.

But there is one Marvel character who is different because he pre-dates all that. He comes from an older era, the same era that the original DC characters came from. That character is Captain America. Cap is the most DC-ish character Marvel has. So I wondered how well his movie could be executed without the typical Marvel guilt story at the center of it. Surprisingly, the movie turned out great and should be the model for what DC should look at (DC needs to stop trying to be Marvel and be proud of who they are. Green Lantern is not Iron Man. Make a Green Lantern movie. Stop trying to make DC's Iron Man movie. But I digress...).

Cap is one of my favorite Marvel characters and I felt some trepidation about a movie. In the end, it's one of my favorites of the five pre-Avengers movies and I'm looking forward to seeing how Cap does in The Avengers.

Previous Countdown to Avengers Posts

Countdown to Avengers: Before the Avengers Initiative

Countdown to Avengers: Iron Man

Countdown to Avengers: The Incredible Hulk

Countdown to Avengers: Iron Man 2

Countdown to Avengers:Thor