Some thoughts about the Captain America movie that I posted as a comment elsewhere (put in alt text too but cant fit it all sadly cause of character limit).
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
this movie has made me double down on my "Agents of SHIELD was always the better live action Marvel series" take. season 4 (early 2017) did a "what if Hydra had won?" story that explicitly says that yes, Hydra are Nazis, and then repeatedly has them directly quote Republicans repeatedly.
AoS also explicitly pointed out that Hydra ARE Nazis, something Marvel in both movies and comics are pretending are two completely different entities. It's not a perfect series, but having Skye explicitly say Ward is "a big fat freaking Nazi" was more of a stance than any of the recent films.
like the show just outright says "we are living in the world where the Nazis won right now — here's how to stand up against injustice." it's maybe a bit hokey to have a villain torture a character and then say "nevertheless, she persisted" when she doesn't give up info, but it's *about something.*
I'm in the middle of my first AoS rewatch, and so far I'm astounded at how well it's held up. This may very well be one of my absolute favorite sci-fi shows of all time.
The "secret empire" effect. Hydra = Nazi's, but Marvel wants to promote them as just BADGUYS with no Nazi links to sell hydra merch. Hydra-cap kills red skull in comics to "establish" hydra = not-nazis. Hydra in comics still act like Nazis, but "market friendly Nazis". Messaging completely lost.
I haven't seen it yet but sounds right for how Disney produces marvel. Winter Soldier could have been real impactful but then they went the soft route. May just wait to see it online later.
Honestly? I feel like Sam Wilson gets treated much like a Supporting Character even in his own Leading Role Stories. Like all he is a mouthpiece or a tag-a-long kid for others to do stuff and he just gets a participation trophy or something.
I feel honestly embarrassed at this group of "Avengers".
In all seriousness, as a designer, I’m routinely forced to explain the distinction between art and design. When I see franchises get airbrushed to within an inch of their life, I honestly have a hard time treating them as art. They’re design for hire.
The corporate tip-toeing reminded me, sadly, of how the execs approached Voyager--reshooting the entire pilot bc of her hair, never allowing the Captain to have a real romance, or be LGBTQ+, & having her characterization be so wildly inconsistent. I expected this exact behavior from Marvel.
Hollywood’s part in creating the learned helplessness of Americans in the face of a violent foreign coup that we’re seeing right now is something that deserves an expose all its own.
Idk about the right saw Ross as Biden and the left saw it as Trump. I’m very left tbh and I still see this as some kind of Biden’s apologia based on when it was written, when it was originally supposed to be released, and Biden and Ross has way more similar than Trump (which is just Red/Orange).
Tbh, Ross doesn't come across as very much like Trump or Biden. If anything, I'd say he's intentionally not like a President has been for either party in decades.
This is why I saw Ross more like Biden than Trump (which a lot of people only saying that because of Red and Orange).
This was written in like 21-22, and was supposed to be released last year, the election year. So it read to me a lot like some kind of Biden's apologia
Trump has honestly had more troubled relationships with his children. Neither his nor Biden's are remotely like what we see in the movie though.
And Trump supporters believe Trump is trying to unify the country. Objectively not true, sure, but doesn't matter if the movie is trying to be 'neutral'
Ultimately, any similarities to Trump or Biden are really superficial. Ross is just too drastically different in temperment and history. I'm sure that was intentional.
Hey Jessie, while I may not be the biggest superhero fan out there, (I'm very much a casual one), I do wish we had an adaptation of this leftist, anti-cop comic by Aubrey Sitterson. That is, an indie adaptation of this particular superhero book called Beef Bros: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aubreysitterson/beef-bros
These are all extremely unsurprising - and what I was expecting.
Given the era we’re in, and the powder keg we’re standing on, now? Maybe it’s best this one stayed milquetoast. A “No, you move” type of moment on a big platform right now could have very serious implications.
I heard a lot of people just make an image with text that says "alt text part 2" with an explaination at the top before continuing the alt text description.
This is something I felt about Marvel as far back as BLACK PANTHER, because it danced around racism the entire movie and dressed it up as "economic inequality." Wakanda's isolationism means they ignored Apartheid and that's never brought up once, despite an Afrikaaner being one of the villains.
Both of Sam’s movies frustrate me for all of this and due to the vibe that they SEEM to want to be spicier and say more than they are: imagery like the President as an orange monster, or Cap’s shield decapitating an anti-nationalist speak so much on their own…and then get kneecapped by the material.
Like the vibe that these things got ironed over to within an inch of their lives just emanates from them - Disney/Marvel doesn’t seem to be the venue to be honest with what these stories can be capable of.
Kind of like how they indicated him being a government agent wasn't great but they didn't really do anything with it.
A lot of themes that could have been embraced but were just sort of nodded at a few times. Which is a step or two better than Quantamania, but a bigger missed opportunity here.
This avoidance of really going into themes even applies to the crimes of the President. A lot of it is really vague and mentioned or alluded to once and not quite brought up again.
The movie implies Sterns was wrongly locked up but he was guilty of the Abomination attack in the original movie.
I wonder if they thought Ross wouldn't be a sympathetic character if they really went over his self-serving crimes more or how he allowed innocent people to be jailed during the movie to hide those crimes.
The biggest realized theme in the movie is probably forgiveness, but it's a poor message in the current climate where Fascists are trying to take over the government.
What makes this movie's decision to be politically neutral even more baffling is that Captain America is an inherently political character. Cap was specifically created by two Jewish men as a response to Nazi Germany, a very ballsy move because this was months before America officially joined WWII.
You're telling me you can't think of any kind of story to tell about the current state of America other than President Han Solo hulking out thanks to heart medication?
Say what you will about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but it at least ended with Sam sorta calling out a politician.
I think this is a very fair critique and an apt summation of what I've read and felt. I don't *hate* this movie, and there are moment I actually really like, but it is quite the mess. A real shame, because I actually really dug FatWS.
Very good points. The only slight thing I also noticed was having a giant red monster angrily destroying the White House. Interesting imagery, but not enough to counter your points
I've been picking at a superman fanfic idea off and on for a few years and there's a line where he says "I've seen enough to know that the world is never made better by strong man imposing his will on other people".
Comments
I feel honestly embarrassed at this group of "Avengers".
In all seriousness, as a designer, I’m routinely forced to explain the distinction between art and design. When I see franchises get airbrushed to within an inch of their life, I honestly have a hard time treating them as art. They’re design for hire.
This was written in like 21-22, and was supposed to be released last year, the election year. So it read to me a lot like some kind of Biden's apologia
https://bsky.app/profile/snparker.bsky.social/post/3lidhgphpm225
And Trump supporters believe Trump is trying to unify the country. Objectively not true, sure, but doesn't matter if the movie is trying to be 'neutral'
Given the era we’re in, and the powder keg we’re standing on, now? Maybe it’s best this one stayed milquetoast. A “No, you move” type of moment on a big platform right now could have very serious implications.
Though at least he was in the right mind to say he wasn't fit for office and step down, unlike you know who.
I thought they tried to have Sam indicate racism was something he dealt with as Cap without quite saying or doing anything with that.
A lot of themes that could have been embraced but were just sort of nodded at a few times. Which is a step or two better than Quantamania, but a bigger missed opportunity here.
The movie implies Sterns was wrongly locked up but he was guilty of the Abomination attack in the original movie.
Say what you will about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but it at least ended with Sam sorta calling out a politician.
At least the new one knows what a terrorist is.