lizbee | Captain America: Angry Frisbee

I paid $50 to see an advance screening, which netted me:

- Cap-themed 3D glasses (also available: Winter Soldier, Falcon and Black Widow themed glasses -- alas, the bags were given out at random);
- a limited edition Captain America poster which I haven't unrolled yet;
- a small Guardians of the Galaxy poster;
- a Cap bobblehead, or maybe one of those vinyl figurines that look like bobbleheads but without the bobble;
- a large popcorn;
- oh, and a movie ticket.

Note that there was free popcorn, but no free drinks. CUNNING. Also thrown in was being shouted at by security guards to turn off our phones for piracy resents.

suburbannoir was stopped and made to pull her phone out of her bag and switch it off in front of them, which was strange, since no one else got that treatment, and it created a bit of a bottleneck. Later, coming back from the bathrooms, I had some trouble explaining that my (switched off) phone was in my bag in the cinema, and not on my person at that moment.

There was also a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long wait for the movie to start. FINALLY -- followed by a warning that security guards EQUIPPED WITH NIGHT VISION GOGGLES (entire cinema laughed) would be watching us.

Trailers: Uhhhhm, there's apparently another Spiderman movie? Is that a thing? And an interesting bit of sci-fi called Edge of Tomorrow, which totally would have intrigued me if it hadn't starred Tom Cruise. LUCKILY, then I found out it's a whitewashed adaptation of a Japanese novel -- well, partially whitewashed; the heroine is an American woman in the book. It's been translated into English, so stay tuned.

Amusing bit: a trailer for a chick flick starring Cameron Diaz and Jaime Lannister was followed by a suggestion that ladies could make it the centrepiece of girls' night out. The majority-female audience for the superhero movie laughed quite loudly.

Finally, the movie.

Now, when I say this left me pretty lukewarm, please keep in mind: (a) 3D gives me headaches; (b) I was kind of cross at the reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long wait; (c) the people around me were just loud enough that it was very much like seeing a movie with Tumblr, and I don't mean that in a good way. You're not two years old, you can keep your goddamn feels to yourself.

(In a way, this was self-inflicted -- when I saw Avengers for the first time, someone shouted, "Fuck you, Joss Whedon, you asshole" at the screen when Coulson died, and I just ... you know, a cinema is not your living room. And after that I swore I'd never see a movie with geeks again. But then the Continuum outings were so pleasant and devoid of people shouting at the screen, I was lulled into a false sense of security. I guess it's just MCU fans who are terrible.)

ANYWAY. Kevin Feige said we don't really need a Black Widow movie because we have this, and as much as I eyerolled, I guess that kind of raised my expectations a bit. Which was a bad idea, because she was absolutely a supporting character -- she had more screentime and arc than in previous movies, but it was very much a movie about Steve. Which is fine, it's named after him and all, but I'm like, this is like crumbs from a feast.

I also have some feelings about giving her date of birth as 1984, even though it's HIGHLY unlikely that she could have worked for the KGB in childhood. I mean, probably. And for me, the most interesting thing about Natasha is her age, and that she has all these decades of experience that even Steve and Bucky missed out on, and she's constantly remaking herself -- or being remade. That, for me, is what makes Natasha stand out from all the other characters.

HAVING SAID THAT, I think it's likely -- or at least, would not be a significant retcon -- that she was lying about her first experience with the Winter Soldier, because the various insinuations about her past are pretty significant, I think, and she rewrites her own history as the situation demands. She leaves the Bucky subplot basically as soon as Steve has realised who the Winter Solder is, so we don't really see how she feels about this, or if it means anything to her.

(I'm also kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind of concerned, because there are rumours of a Joss Whedon style SHOCKING DEATH in Avengers 2, and ScarJo is pregnant, and remember that time he fired Charisma Carpenter because she was preggers? And Elizabeth Olsen looked SO MUCH like River Tam in the post-credits bit here that I actually thought it was Summer Glau at first. Brings back bad memories.)

Otherwise, there were dudes doing dude things, and a rather good spy thriller behind all the explosions, which was nifty. I do appreciate a bit of plot with my eye candy, you know? But it turns out all my Steve and Bucky feels only exist inasmuch as they revolve around Natasha.

Agent 13 was pretty great, though, and I'm glad she's being eased in as an interesting supporting character in her own right, not just LOVE INTEREST FOR STEVE. Falcon was even better. But, you know, he was a dude, so of course he gets attention. I enjoyed having Fury becoming more than a cypher, and the way Natasha's loyalty was to him first. I don't find Hill especially interesting, but I always enjoy watching her in action.

I kind of want to watch Agents of SHIELD again, to see what the fallout is? But only if it turns out the McHero was Hydra all along. I'd be okay with that. (I got as far as the first episode. WOW, that was terrible.)

Anyway, I'm seeing it again on Thursday, this time in a 2D session with people who know how to behave in public, so hopefully I'll be feeling a bit better about it. I'm mostly annoyed with myself, because usually, when people are complaining there are too many dicks on the Marvel dance floor, I'm like, "What did you expect?" But this time I had expectations. Bad move.