The Four Color Media Monitor

Forbes reviewed the new sequel to the Captain America film, which, as it turns out, draws from Ed Brubaker's stories from several years ago. Before I get to the eyebrow raisers here, let me point out one history flaw made in the article:

The first is the inclusion of Anthony Mackie as “The Falcon”. While it’s clearly a supporting role, basically a sidekick role this time around, it is the first African-American superhero to be featured in these films aside from “also Iron Man” War Machine. Even in that case, Don Cheadle was basically held hostage or controlled by the bad guys for nearly every moment in which he was in a super-suit. The Falcon arguably counts as Marvel Studios’ first black superhero. The other “added-value element” is arguably the oodles of free publicity that the film received when Disney slotted Captain America 3 on May 6th, 2016, setting the state for a showdown between the third Steve Rogers film and Warner Bros.’ Batman/Superman film.

No, no, no. Black Panther was Marvel's first official black superhero, debuting in Fantastic Four back in 1966. But, is this correct that Falcon's potential is drastically reduced here to the role of a hostage? Well then, that's another detractor in this movie.

...the “more is more” notion extends to its title character. The Winter Soldier pops up during an assassination attempt on Nick Fury, and for most of the film he’s just a silent killing machine who operates as an anti-deus ex machina, appearing when the heroes have an advantage. But the revelation about his origins is unearned. In short, it’s the equivalent of telling The Killing Joke during the Joker’s first appearance. And as the third act goes bigger and bigger, the ineffective emotional fall-out from its title character takes valuable time away from what works in an already lengthy film. The film’s post-9/11 conspiracy plot was enough without dragging Ed Brubaker’s famous arc into it. From a business point-of-view, I know why they brought him in this early, but it doesn’t work from an artistic perspective.

The bit about a conspiracy plot gets me worried this could have Trutherism mixed up in it. And if they drew from Brubaker's tales, I must shake my head. After all, he was the writer who insulted the Tea Parties 4 years ago, and I don't see what makes his writing a great source for moviemaking when there's decades of older, better and simpler stories that could've worked just as well.

[...] It is interesting to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe slowly become what amounts to a defining critique of post-9/11 America with each stand-alone franchise dealing with different respective issues. But Captain America: The Winter Soldier undermines itself both in terms of over-the-top action that eventually bores, a screenplay that undermines its own relevancy, and the premature insertion of a secondary character that distracts from the core narrative and doesn’t work on an emotional level.

If they're alluding to Iron Man 3, I don't think it's interesting so much as it is terrible how they trivialized serious issues.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a film about trust that falters most because it doesn’t trust its audience.

What if it doesn't respect its audience? That's definitely the case surrounding the comics back in the publishing house where they first began. The publishers, editors, writers and artists don't have respect for their audiences any longer, and show it in their output.

Labels: Captain America, marvel comics, moonbat writers, politics