The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
May. 7th, 2021 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI’ve finally finished The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and boy, do I have mixed emotions about it. Some parts of it I loved! Some parts did not come together at all! Really a bit of a mess, but mostly a mess I enjoyed? Although the last episode in particular seemed EXTREMELY rushed and choppy.
First, the things I liked. I loved the way that the show dug into Sam’s backstory, his sister and his nephews, and the way that the show tied his struggle over taking the SHIELD to Isaiah Bradley’s story. (I’ve seen complaints that it would have been a more powerful statement if Sam refused the shield entirely, but look, this is a Marvel movie. “Character decides not to superhero and sticks to it” was never an option and we all know it.)
I also enjoyed Bucky’s scenes, particularly once the show allowed Bucky and Sam to get along. (Not sure we needed to spend quite so much time with them at each other’s throats, but such is life in TVland.) And Zemo was a revelation. I’ve seen Daniel Bruhl in non-Marvel movies (most notably Goodbye, Lenin!) so I knew he could act, but God! Now that Marvel finally gave Zemo some characterization other than VENGEANCE, Bruhl just went to town! Probably my favorite character in this series, which I did NOT expect when I went in.
(I also enormously enjoyed the scene where Zemo is pretending to sell the Winter Soldier, and he sort of wiggles Bucky’s chin with his fingertip as he says, “He will do a-ny-thing you want.” It’s so creepy and I’m here for it.)
My feelings about Sharon’s characterization are more mixed. I like that she’d carved out a badass niche for herself, and I like that the show actually pointed out that she’d just been more or less abandoned to her fate after helping Steve in Civil War (also, WTF, Steve)... but I’m not thrilled that she’s maybe being set up as a big bad for future installments. Although who knows! If it’s well done, that characterization might win me over. Even though her characterization has been a little all over the place, Sharon would still be a more richly characterized villains than most of the MCU’s baddies.
This brings me, of course, to the baddies of this show, the Flag Smashers, and OH BOY. This plotline was not thought through at all, which is unfortunate, given that it’s the A-plot of the whole season. We get a very lightly sketched view of what the Flag Smashers want, an even more thinly sketched view of the governmental body they’re fighting against, and no particular explanation for why they have decided that the best way to achieve their objectives is “blow up innocent people.” Have they considered, say, contacting the ACLU?
Of course they haven’t. That wouldn’t be conducive to thrilling fight scenes.
Really, though, the show could have blown past this problem if Karli Morgenthau, the lead Flag Smasher, had a stronger screen presence - if she had the aura of charismatic leadership that suggests large groups of people really would follow her as she uses questionable means to achieve poorly-defined ends. But she doesn’t.
The show also doesn’t manage to establish a sense of connection between Karli and Sam. In fact, it falls down on this so hard that I didn’t even realize that it was trying until the fight scene in the final episode, when Sam, in classic Captain America style, tells Karli “I’m not going to fight you” (although unlike Steve Rogers, he retains enough sense of self-preservation to at least block her punches).
Obviously this is meant to be a callback to the helicarrier scene in The Winter Soldier. For it to work, the show needed to establish a deep sense of identification between Sam and Karli - deep enough to overcome Sam’s knowledge that Karli has blown up buildings knowing full well that there are people inside, and probably will again if she gets away.
At very least, we needed Sam and Karli’s one scene together before their fight to establish a connection between them as swiftly and strongly as Sam and Steve’s scene at the beginning of The Winter Soldier (although obviously a more antagonistic connection than Steve and Sam’s). But it doesn’t - it can’t; Karli’s characterization is simply too weak to support it.
So in the climactic fight scene, when Sam tells Karli “I’m not going to fight you,” it doesn’t feel organic. The moment exists to call back that earlier iconic moment and establish Sam as the true Captain America, but it makes no sense in-universe. There’s no reason for Sam to do this for a girl he barely knows.
First, the things I liked. I loved the way that the show dug into Sam’s backstory, his sister and his nephews, and the way that the show tied his struggle over taking the SHIELD to Isaiah Bradley’s story. (I’ve seen complaints that it would have been a more powerful statement if Sam refused the shield entirely, but look, this is a Marvel movie. “Character decides not to superhero and sticks to it” was never an option and we all know it.)
I also enjoyed Bucky’s scenes, particularly once the show allowed Bucky and Sam to get along. (Not sure we needed to spend quite so much time with them at each other’s throats, but such is life in TVland.) And Zemo was a revelation. I’ve seen Daniel Bruhl in non-Marvel movies (most notably Goodbye, Lenin!) so I knew he could act, but God! Now that Marvel finally gave Zemo some characterization other than VENGEANCE, Bruhl just went to town! Probably my favorite character in this series, which I did NOT expect when I went in.
(I also enormously enjoyed the scene where Zemo is pretending to sell the Winter Soldier, and he sort of wiggles Bucky’s chin with his fingertip as he says, “He will do a-ny-thing you want.” It’s so creepy and I’m here for it.)
My feelings about Sharon’s characterization are more mixed. I like that she’d carved out a badass niche for herself, and I like that the show actually pointed out that she’d just been more or less abandoned to her fate after helping Steve in Civil War (also, WTF, Steve)... but I’m not thrilled that she’s maybe being set up as a big bad for future installments. Although who knows! If it’s well done, that characterization might win me over. Even though her characterization has been a little all over the place, Sharon would still be a more richly characterized villains than most of the MCU’s baddies.
This brings me, of course, to the baddies of this show, the Flag Smashers, and OH BOY. This plotline was not thought through at all, which is unfortunate, given that it’s the A-plot of the whole season. We get a very lightly sketched view of what the Flag Smashers want, an even more thinly sketched view of the governmental body they’re fighting against, and no particular explanation for why they have decided that the best way to achieve their objectives is “blow up innocent people.” Have they considered, say, contacting the ACLU?
Of course they haven’t. That wouldn’t be conducive to thrilling fight scenes.
Really, though, the show could have blown past this problem if Karli Morgenthau, the lead Flag Smasher, had a stronger screen presence - if she had the aura of charismatic leadership that suggests large groups of people really would follow her as she uses questionable means to achieve poorly-defined ends. But she doesn’t.
The show also doesn’t manage to establish a sense of connection between Karli and Sam. In fact, it falls down on this so hard that I didn’t even realize that it was trying until the fight scene in the final episode, when Sam, in classic Captain America style, tells Karli “I’m not going to fight you” (although unlike Steve Rogers, he retains enough sense of self-preservation to at least block her punches).
Obviously this is meant to be a callback to the helicarrier scene in The Winter Soldier. For it to work, the show needed to establish a deep sense of identification between Sam and Karli - deep enough to overcome Sam’s knowledge that Karli has blown up buildings knowing full well that there are people inside, and probably will again if she gets away.
At very least, we needed Sam and Karli’s one scene together before their fight to establish a connection between them as swiftly and strongly as Sam and Steve’s scene at the beginning of The Winter Soldier (although obviously a more antagonistic connection than Steve and Sam’s). But it doesn’t - it can’t; Karli’s characterization is simply too weak to support it.
So in the climactic fight scene, when Sam tells Karli “I’m not going to fight you,” it doesn’t feel organic. The moment exists to call back that earlier iconic moment and establish Sam as the true Captain America, but it makes no sense in-universe. There’s no reason for Sam to do this for a girl he barely knows.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-08 01:07 am (UTC)It's SUCH a good set-up for Walker to take his eyes off the prize (stop terrorists) and pursue his own selfish agenda (fight Sam for shield RIGHT NOW because it is MINE MINE MINE), and it would have been a much more thematically resonant final battle. Of course, they couldn't have used the "I'm not going to fight you" thing, but sometimes that just doesn't fit in a story, you know? They could do a callback to "I can do this all day" or something if they want to tie Sam to Steve that way.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-08 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-05-08 09:18 pm (UTC)But yes, it would make total sense for Walker, furious at his demotion and convinced he's entitled to the shield, to fight Sam for it. It might be too on the nose to have Sam almost bash Walker's head in with the shield but pull back a mere two episodes after Walker actually did kill someone that way? But certainly a Sam-Walker match-up would have been a much, much better fit for the show's themes than the Flag Smashers.