FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER releases today, heck yeah!

Started by JasonPratt, March 19, 2021, 11:02:38 AM

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JasonPratt

Just got finished with Ep 1 "New World Order", 50 minutes including the ridiculously long credits that will now be s-o-p for Marvel shows I suppose.

Some great initial action (especially for the Falcon at the start), Batroc the Leaper is back, tons of great characterizations, new characters (and writing generally) are good to great, shots and lighting are inventive occasionally, all film quality. Impossible to tell yet if the plot is coherent, but not immediately incoherent!  ::) Henry Jackman musical score with callbacks to his Cap2 themes (and Cap themes generally), definitely up to quality, might be the first musical score I buy in what feels like ages! (Naturally feels like First Class, too, since he did that score.)

Not one complaint so far. Trying to avoid spoilers. ;) A couple of minutes of classic Winter Soldier action via flashback which reminds how much he resembled the Marvel version of Halloween/Friday 13th killers.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
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JasonPratt

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#2
Up to Ep 3 now, and we've got a proper Baron Zemo now, aw yeah!!  :D (For example, I don't know that 'barons' count as 'royalty', but it would be Zemoish to casually insist on it.  >:D )

Granted, he's an anti-Hydra spec-ops guy in the MCU, instead of a main Hydra commander, but still. Great writing and acting for his character.

Agent 13 returns, too, and gets a good workout, showing what she's been up to since Civil War. She was rather milquetoast in her two film appearances so far, but has grown into being more worthy of her SHIELD nickname. The actress does some of her own stuntwork, although a little hilariously her first big action shot has her hood up (to hide the stuntwoman, perhaps the same one doubling Mockingbird in Agents of Shield) when it was down before, and still down for the rest of the extended fight! (Possibly there was a reshoot with pickups including that shot and she couldn't be there due to COVID or whatever.)

Speaking of hoods, Zemo has a moment where his iconic purple mask (which makes a suitably dramatic entrance) is yanked off using obvious CGI. GUYS WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE NOW! -- it's actually easier to CGI a purple mask being casually shrugged off than to pull off a real purple mask!  ::) ::) ::) (Worse, in the context of the scene there's less than no reason for Zemo to do it. It's purely to show the actor acting, and not even for anything important.)

Minor stumbles aside, it's a great ep for a great series so far. Big budget (occasionally triple-A) film sequences, but also time for quiet character work. Another character teased constantly in the end credits so far (and by dialogue early in the ep) shows up for a surprise at the end, which I won't spoil, but next week should amp up more!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#3
Finished off the final (6th) episode at lunch (would have watched it sooner but was recovering from 2nd Covid shot), and I was not disappointed!  :bd: :bd: :bd:

It's mostly a Falcon storyline, but that's very understandable since Bucky has had a lot more coverage in at least two movies so far.

I may do a Fraternally Anticipated Question format review later this week. Let me say that despite what you may hear or see on the internet, the script (possibly by accident) is a LOT more centrist, and nuanced, than complainers are making it out to be. Characters on all sides say and do emotional things which can be irrational and unfair to other people and to the situation at hand, but in context those things are both understandable for the characters and criticized by the scripts.

Plenty of flashy and well-produced action scenes (moreso for some eps than others), generally good to great acting across the board (edited for an exception: the Karli Morgenthal actress is more like average to good), some nods to the fandom (in one case, Zemo's mask, a very pointless and brief nod, but still...  ::) ), musical score is very decent. My complaints remain trivially aesthetic (like Zemo's totally pointless fanservice purple mask).
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!