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Cap2 redux
I have now seen this movie three times in the space of a week. (I didn't have to pay for the second one at least? :D? Ugh, Marvel, just take out a lien on my paycheck, alright? Ya'll already own my soul.)
1) Sam and Steve's meet-cute is still the best meet-cute, but on the rewatch, I noticed that Steve nearly runs away as soon as Sam asks about how he's transitioning. He's all, whelp, gotta go, and only stops because Sam actually manages to connect with him on the mattress thing. And then when Steve rattles off his list of 'things that are great about the future', the smile kind of falls off Sam's face, like he can hear how practiced it is (like Natasha, pegging Steve's lie in the hospital - it's a similar tone of voice) -- and then he immediately stops asking the same questions Steve must get all the time, and recommends Marvin Gaye.
Huge Sam appreciation for that scene, for reading Steve and being just the right combination of empathetic and honest and funny to keep Steve from running away from making another connection that might end up dead and hurt him some more. *cough* Just, you know, as a wild guess.
2) Every time I watch, Steve and Natasha's relationship gets better. I think that -- like I discussed above with Sam -- Steve is having trouble making connections outside of the job (lack of shared life experience, you know, plus the inevitable trauma of losing everyone he knew and loved. You don't visit your dying flame and your own exhibit at the Smithsonian if you're not hung up on the past - even if you have managed to kiss at least one someone in the intervening period.).
Natasha's matchmaking thing is partly from that, I think: seeing that Steve is having problems. But partly I think she's just *testing* him, because she doesn't know what he wants from her. ("What make you happy?" "I don't know." If Steve doesn't know, how can Natasha? But hey, she only pretends like she knows everything, right? ♥) Like that scene in the Camp Lehigh bunker, when she asks about Peggy: she's looking right at him, not at the picture, and there's no way she doesn't know who Peggy Carter is. No way. She wants a reaction, because knowing which way people will jump is her job, it's how she survives. It's not nice or honest, but that's Natasha for you.
That's the root of Fury not trusting her either - because to him, she plays the woman who's comfortable with everything, and that's not the person he trusts when it comes down to it. (I really want to know their backstory, seriously. BLACK WIDOW MOVIE OR BUST.)
3) There are so many fight scenes in this movie that no one seems to talk about Steve's motorcycle vs the Quinjet on the bridge, which I LOVE. I love that Steve wrecks that Quinjet like a BAMF, but I love even more that he does it in a way that ensures the crew will survive. He fights so *smart*, it's amazing.
They do a great job of that throughout, actually. He's a direct person by nature, but not thinking twisty doesn't mean he's not capable of insight. Like Steve spotting the bunker in Camp Lehigh because of regulations, or the flagpole in the first movie.
4) It's heartbreaking how Steve is practically relieved after the confrontation with Zola. Natasha's right: he *is* chipper. You get a real sense of how miserable he must have been, struggling with his doubts over SHIELD. In a weird way, staying with SHIELD is another way of clinging to the past - he even tells Peggy so, that half the reason he stays is because she founded it.
And then it all goes to hell when he finds out that fighting HYDRA means fighting Bucky. WAY TO FUCK WITH HIS MIND, MOVIE. Agh, they're so beautifully awful to him in this.
5) SPEAKING OF AWFUL, let's talk about Bucky. Ye gods, Sebastian Stan's FACE. The whole memory wipe in the bank vault -- which, I think he's actually strapped down? Definitely there are heavy metal restraints that come out when the wipe starts, but before that. He would have broken the strap on the metal arm when he punched that guy, but I thought I saw a strap around his right arm briefly when Pierce came in. And they still have like ten armed guards -- and he's so confused and doesn't even react to getting slapped, but then when Pierce orders the memory wipe, he just looks terrified. *whimpers*
Plus, the look on his face when he's pinned under the beam on the helicarrier and Steve's coming towards him and he clearly expects Steve to kill him. The movie could have knifed me in the heart and it would have been less painful than that expression. BUCKY.
Part of the reason the Winter Soldier's sound cue (that sort of faint electronic shriek) is so disturbing is because I keep hearing as Bucky screaming on the inside. WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF.
6) Paying more attention to the fight choreography this time around made me notice that they have Bucky use his metal arm differently than his flesh arm. He uses his real arm for finesse work like shooting and knife fighting, and then his metal arm for power work like ripping out car doors and punching Steve -- but there's about a half second delay between his ability to grab something with the metal arm and the power stroke, with this really subtle engine-powering-up sound cue to go with it.
The metal arm's lack of precision movement also explains why Bucky only manages to shoot Steve three times on his climb to replace the last targeting card, and only in non-fatal locations: his flesh arm was dislocated, so he's shooting with the metal one.
A+ attention to detail, filmmakers. ♥
7) I have to appreciate their totally canonical devotion to destroying helicarriers in the MCU. Canon + Explosions + Hilarious running joke. What's not to love?
8) Everyone in this movie has an amazing intolerance for monologuing. Sam's "Shut the hell up!" to Rumlow is the most obvious (and gets the best laugh), but Natasha got her "Oh I'm sorry, did I step on your moment?" line, and of course Steve's anti-monologuing tendencies are well established from his previous movies - while fighting Red Skull on the Valkyrie, and Loki in Stuttgart particularly. ♥
And then there's Bucky's "But I knew him" which is the outlier. The heartbreaking, heartbreaking outlier of not-funny-at-all. GAH.
9) I really like the color symbolism with the uniform and the shield - how it was muted for the covert mission at the beginning, and how Steve ends up in the stars & stripes at the end.
(and then DROPS HIS SHIELD because Bucky. Still not over it.)
10) The video I found of Bucky at the Smithsonian has been taken down, alas (there's a gifset here), but for the other people like me who want to know what his display says, here's the part I could read:
11) Rough timeline of the movie for my own reference:
Day 0?:
-dawn run with Sam
-Lemurian Star mission (nighttime India = about midday DC time)
-confrontation with Fury
Day 1:
-Smithsonian
-Peggy visit
-Fury asks Pierce to delay Insight
-SUV attack (day)
-Fury comes to Steve's apartment (night)
-Steve vs Winter Soldier, round 1
Day 2:
-Fury declared dead at 1:03 AM
-Steve talks to Pierce, elevator fight/escape
-Natasha confrontation in hospital
-WSC reactivate Insight
-Apple Store/mall escape
-drive to NJ (approx 3 hours; arrive at dusk)
-Zola's bunker + explosion (after dark)
-Winter Soldier visits Pierce (evening, but not too late since Renata's just leaving?)
Day 3:
-Steve & Natasha show up at Sam's post-run/in time for breakfast
-Fort Meade heist??? wow, guess it really wasn't a problem
-Sitwell kidnapping (after lunch with Senator Stern)
-freeway fight; Natasha specifies 16 hours to Insight launch
-OH NOES ITS BUCKY
-Maria's rescue, Fury's not dead
-Bucky memory wipe (nooooooo Bucky :(( )
-Steve steals Cap uniform from Smithsonian (night)
Day 4:
-Insight launch (morning? say 7 AM if freeway fight started around 3 PM)
-climactic battle
STILL have not seen SHIELD (LINDSEY I'M LOOKING AT YOU), but I'm liking this whole 'I believe in Sitwell'/Sitwell-as-a-double-agent theory that fandom is doing. I'm sure we'll find out more on this week's episode, but when he's talking to Steve and Natasha on the roof, there's the moment where he's describing how the algorithm works and he stops and says "Oh my god, Pierce is gonna kill me." I think you can definitely read that as "shit, even if they buy my cover, the algorithm will probably not." We'll see!
Side crackpot theory about AoS: what if Melinda is working for HYDRA under duress? In the episode with Sif, she has this weird moment of sorrow/empathy when she takes a tranq gun, and says something about not being able to tell who your enemies are.
*shrugs* I am probably already jossed on both of these, but no one tell me yet!
1) Sam and Steve's meet-cute is still the best meet-cute, but on the rewatch, I noticed that Steve nearly runs away as soon as Sam asks about how he's transitioning. He's all, whelp, gotta go, and only stops because Sam actually manages to connect with him on the mattress thing. And then when Steve rattles off his list of 'things that are great about the future', the smile kind of falls off Sam's face, like he can hear how practiced it is (like Natasha, pegging Steve's lie in the hospital - it's a similar tone of voice) -- and then he immediately stops asking the same questions Steve must get all the time, and recommends Marvin Gaye.
Huge Sam appreciation for that scene, for reading Steve and being just the right combination of empathetic and honest and funny to keep Steve from running away from making another connection that might end up dead and hurt him some more. *cough* Just, you know, as a wild guess.
2) Every time I watch, Steve and Natasha's relationship gets better. I think that -- like I discussed above with Sam -- Steve is having trouble making connections outside of the job (lack of shared life experience, you know, plus the inevitable trauma of losing everyone he knew and loved. You don't visit your dying flame and your own exhibit at the Smithsonian if you're not hung up on the past - even if you have managed to kiss at least one someone in the intervening period.).
Natasha's matchmaking thing is partly from that, I think: seeing that Steve is having problems. But partly I think she's just *testing* him, because she doesn't know what he wants from her. ("What make you happy?" "I don't know." If Steve doesn't know, how can Natasha? But hey, she only pretends like she knows everything, right? ♥) Like that scene in the Camp Lehigh bunker, when she asks about Peggy: she's looking right at him, not at the picture, and there's no way she doesn't know who Peggy Carter is. No way. She wants a reaction, because knowing which way people will jump is her job, it's how she survives. It's not nice or honest, but that's Natasha for you.
That's the root of Fury not trusting her either - because to him, she plays the woman who's comfortable with everything, and that's not the person he trusts when it comes down to it. (I really want to know their backstory, seriously. BLACK WIDOW MOVIE OR BUST.)
3) There are so many fight scenes in this movie that no one seems to talk about Steve's motorcycle vs the Quinjet on the bridge, which I LOVE. I love that Steve wrecks that Quinjet like a BAMF, but I love even more that he does it in a way that ensures the crew will survive. He fights so *smart*, it's amazing.
They do a great job of that throughout, actually. He's a direct person by nature, but not thinking twisty doesn't mean he's not capable of insight. Like Steve spotting the bunker in Camp Lehigh because of regulations, or the flagpole in the first movie.
4) It's heartbreaking how Steve is practically relieved after the confrontation with Zola. Natasha's right: he *is* chipper. You get a real sense of how miserable he must have been, struggling with his doubts over SHIELD. In a weird way, staying with SHIELD is another way of clinging to the past - he even tells Peggy so, that half the reason he stays is because she founded it.
And then it all goes to hell when he finds out that fighting HYDRA means fighting Bucky. WAY TO FUCK WITH HIS MIND, MOVIE. Agh, they're so beautifully awful to him in this.
5) SPEAKING OF AWFUL, let's talk about Bucky. Ye gods, Sebastian Stan's FACE. The whole memory wipe in the bank vault -- which, I think he's actually strapped down? Definitely there are heavy metal restraints that come out when the wipe starts, but before that. He would have broken the strap on the metal arm when he punched that guy, but I thought I saw a strap around his right arm briefly when Pierce came in. And they still have like ten armed guards -- and he's so confused and doesn't even react to getting slapped, but then when Pierce orders the memory wipe, he just looks terrified. *whimpers*
Plus, the look on his face when he's pinned under the beam on the helicarrier and Steve's coming towards him and he clearly expects Steve to kill him. The movie could have knifed me in the heart and it would have been less painful than that expression. BUCKY.
Part of the reason the Winter Soldier's sound cue (that sort of faint electronic shriek) is so disturbing is because I keep hearing as Bucky screaming on the inside. WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF.
6) Paying more attention to the fight choreography this time around made me notice that they have Bucky use his metal arm differently than his flesh arm. He uses his real arm for finesse work like shooting and knife fighting, and then his metal arm for power work like ripping out car doors and punching Steve -- but there's about a half second delay between his ability to grab something with the metal arm and the power stroke, with this really subtle engine-powering-up sound cue to go with it.
The metal arm's lack of precision movement also explains why Bucky only manages to shoot Steve three times on his climb to replace the last targeting card, and only in non-fatal locations: his flesh arm was dislocated, so he's shooting with the metal one.
A+ attention to detail, filmmakers. ♥
7) I have to appreciate their totally canonical devotion to destroying helicarriers in the MCU. Canon + Explosions + Hilarious running joke. What's not to love?
8) Everyone in this movie has an amazing intolerance for monologuing. Sam's "Shut the hell up!" to Rumlow is the most obvious (and gets the best laugh), but Natasha got her "Oh I'm sorry, did I step on your moment?" line, and of course Steve's anti-monologuing tendencies are well established from his previous movies - while fighting Red Skull on the Valkyrie, and Loki in Stuttgart particularly. ♥
And then there's Bucky's "But I knew him" which is the outlier. The heartbreaking, heartbreaking outlier of not-funny-at-all. GAH.
9) I really like the color symbolism with the uniform and the shield - how it was muted for the covert mission at the beginning, and how Steve ends up in the stars & stripes at the end.
(and then DROPS HIS SHIELD because Bucky. Still not over it.)
10) The video I found of Bucky at the Smithsonian has been taken down, alas (there's a gifset here), but for the other people like me who want to know what his display says, here's the part I could read:
[...] Pearl Harbor. After winter training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Barnes and the rest of the 107th shipped out to the Italian front. Captured by Hydra troops later that fall, Barnes endured long periods of isolation, depravation[sic], and torture. But his will was strong. In an ironic twist of fate, his prison camp was liberated by none other than his childhood friend, Steve Rogers, now Captain America.
Reunited, Barnes and Rogers led Captain America's newly formed unit, the Howling Commandos. Barnes' marksmanship was invaluable as Rogers and his team destroyed Hydra bases and disrupted Nazi troop movements throughout the European Theater.
Bucky Barnes 1917-1944
11) Rough timeline of the movie for my own reference:
Day 0?:
-dawn run with Sam
-Lemurian Star mission (nighttime India = about midday DC time)
-confrontation with Fury
Day 1:
-Smithsonian
-Peggy visit
-Fury asks Pierce to delay Insight
-SUV attack (day)
-Fury comes to Steve's apartment (night)
-Steve vs Winter Soldier, round 1
Day 2:
-Fury declared dead at 1:03 AM
-Steve talks to Pierce, elevator fight/escape
-Natasha confrontation in hospital
-WSC reactivate Insight
-Apple Store/mall escape
-drive to NJ (approx 3 hours; arrive at dusk)
-Zola's bunker + explosion (after dark)
-Winter Soldier visits Pierce (evening, but not too late since Renata's just leaving?)
Day 3:
-Steve & Natasha show up at Sam's post-run/in time for breakfast
-Fort Meade heist??? wow, guess it really wasn't a problem
-Sitwell kidnapping (after lunch with Senator Stern)
-freeway fight; Natasha specifies 16 hours to Insight launch
-OH NOES ITS BUCKY
-Maria's rescue, Fury's not dead
-Bucky memory wipe (nooooooo Bucky :(( )
-Steve steals Cap uniform from Smithsonian (night)
Day 4:
-Insight launch (morning? say 7 AM if freeway fight started around 3 PM)
-climactic battle
STILL have not seen SHIELD (LINDSEY I'M LOOKING AT YOU), but I'm liking this whole 'I believe in Sitwell'/Sitwell-as-a-double-agent theory that fandom is doing. I'm sure we'll find out more on this week's episode, but when he's talking to Steve and Natasha on the roof, there's the moment where he's describing how the algorithm works and he stops and says "Oh my god, Pierce is gonna kill me." I think you can definitely read that as "shit, even if they buy my cover, the algorithm will probably not." We'll see!
Side crackpot theory about AoS: what if Melinda is working for HYDRA under duress? In the episode with Sif, she has this weird moment of sorrow/empathy when she takes a tranq gun, and says something about not being able to tell who your enemies are.
*shrugs* I am probably already jossed on both of these, but no one tell me yet!
no subject
Yeah, I like that. It's a useful reaction to have in the field - like when Natasha cracks his goggles, and he has this half-moment of being shaken like a normal person before he just *goes* for her even more aggressively than before - but without purpose behind it, the scientists (who are rather lacking in empathy, no doubt) see it as 'instability'.
I kind of doubt there is even an extraction plan for the Winter Soldier when things go to hell. That just doesn't seem to be how any of missions work, that we see. He gets himself out, or nobody does.
Yep. He's the one standing in front of the moving cars and throwing himself in melees with several dozen people (like going after the Quinjet flight crews at the end; there's also this cool moment where he blocks a couple of bullets with his metal arm, which I keep forgetting to mention but it was GREAT). And Pierce does say 'I need you to do it one more time' - because this is their endgame, they won't need an assassin after Insight. They can just take them out from the air.
What I find fascinating about that little post-credits scene is how fucking sad he looks. He doesn't really look angry there.
To me, he looks apprehensive but kind of determined. Like, oh my god, it's true, but I knew it was true deep down, and what am I supposed to do now? I don't remember this, that's my face but am I really? I have to know. I have to find out. (which eventually will turn into "I have to find *him*", imo)
HE NEEDS HUGS AND HAPPINESS. AND STEVE.
no subject
Oooooh, I didn't even think about that. You're so right, though, both Insight and how Pierce phrases it means HYDRA doesn't give a single fuck if the Winter Soldier makes it through this mission or not. He's being sent on a mission to make himself irrelevant. LIKE I NEEDED A REASON TO HATE THEM MORE.
Apprehensive! Yes! That's a good word for it. Like, yes, he already knew what he was going to find, but had to go find it anyway.
...Then of course he walks past that sign for Bucky Barnes and sees the footage of he and Steve cracking up and being adorable happy boys together. I'M JUST SAYING. THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. And maybe has a fleeting moment of thinking, "Who was that Barnes guy that he could make somebody smile like that?"