Across the Universe Podcast: Episode 24

Episode 24: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

In this episode, Mette, Sofia and I talk about the newest Marvel offering, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It's a super fun episode as we introduce a new feature, the uber-sophisticated game of "Fuck, Marry, Kill". As you can guess, we giggle the hell out of this episode but it's a fun one. We hope you enjoy it :)

Content: 

00:43: Chick-chatter
03:24: Trailer
03:55: Interesting Movie of the Fortnight
17:03: Main discussion on Captain America: The Winter Soldier
55:40: Fuck, Marry, Kill: Superhero edition
1:10:35: Plugs and Goodbyes

Songs:

David Zippel and Alan Menken "Star Spangled Man"

Marvin Gaye "Trouble Man"

Rufus Wainwright "Across The Universe"

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What was 2011?

       2011 is ending. Great for me personally because it was possibly the worst year of my life and let's hope history doesn't repeat itself. However, this is mostly a film blog and we will focus on all things celluloid. Thus a few things that happened in 2011, film-wise:

1) The Social Network lost to The King's Speech and David "God-like" Fincher lost to bloody Tom Hooper in the Oscars. These Oscars were the first one I properly followed, unlike earlier when I would have seen a few films and performances. I am probably never going to forget it... too much devotion towards TSN.

2) My childhood, along with hundreds of thousands of others from "my generation", ended with the final installment of the Harry Potter film series hitting the theatres. A lot of tears were shed as we said goodbye to the Boy Wizard and his friends and Hogwarts.

3) Pirates of Caribbean 4 came out- honestly who remembers this? Me neither, and I actually liked the film...

4) Loads of superheroes- some were terrible and green, and the others were better than I expected, most notably the film with Fassy in the turtlenecks and the film in which Chris Evans is a scrawny kid from Brooklyn.

5) A few nice surprises like Midnight in Paris and Bridesmaids. Even Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with the ridiculous name, is one of the better reviewed films of the year.

6) Two absolutely stunning films about the cosmos and human life came out- The Tree of Life and Melancholia. One won the Palme D'Or, the other suffered due to the director's big mouth. Still, I'm pretty stoked about Kirsten Dunst winning the award for her brilliant performance.

7) This year will be looked back as the year when Ryan Gosling came on his own, hence it was the Year of the Gos. I for one, was always a fan, even before The Notebook, and it gave me a lot of joy. People were left gobsmacked at his photoshopped-esque beauty in Crazy, Stupid, Love; they felt the thrill of the Driver in Drive; and they were totally won over by his charm in The Ides of March. So much so that the crowning of Bradley Cooper as the Sexiest Man Alive for 2011 led to protests and petitions being signed (I signed one myself). In all of this though, the Gos has remained completely oblivious and awesome- breaking fights and making comedy videos and oh what a lustrous career ahead!

8) The biggest breakthroughs this year was ofcourse Jessica Chastain and Michael Fassbender. Seriously, how many people knew about Chastain existing before 2011? But she was in everything, and was lovely. Fassy fever hit me and many others this year, and this is only the start. Along with them, four other actors, who were quite brilliant this year, I am looking forward to see are Asa Butterfield, Elizabeth Olsen, Ezra Miller and Tom Hiddleston.

9) Quite a malnourished year when it comes to animated films. People really enjoyed Rango, though I was totally won over by The Adventures of Tintin. What this year did have was two very well received films about films,  Hugo and The Artist, which is always great.

10) This year was also when one of the greatest and most beautiful actresses ever, Elizabeth Taylor, died. She will be sorely missed.

(So those were the 10 things that pop into my head when I think 2011. For cutesy purposes I guess, I shall talk about an 11th thing, that isn't film-based so much, but meh- my list!)

11) I discovered the brilliance of Doctor Who (the Eleventh incarnation no less) and Sherlock, and went gaga over the genius that is Steven Moffat. Also since we're taking a personal route here, I finished Quentin Tarantino's filmography, started and finished watching all of P.T. Anderson's films, and started on auteurs like Pedro Almodóvar and David Lynch. Yaay :D

All in all, a pretty decent film year I think. Goodbye 2011, hello 2012!

My Supers List

            I was going to make this list earlier, but had given up on it once I thought it was too late to make it or that I will never watch Green Lantern in order to make a legit list. However, that was my in-flight movie from Calcutta to Dubai, and then I bought the October issue of Total Film magazine later, which has a huge and well, gorgeous pic of Andrew Garfield a.k.a. my future husband, as Spiderman on the cover. So now I am without any excuses, and Spidey does look like some sort of a sign.

My Favourite Superhero Films of 2011

Note- I refuse to include films like I am Number Four or Spy Kids 4 or any such film which might have world-saving or supernatural abilities involved. They are weird and I don't like them. Also there are no superheroes. Just wanted to make that clear.

4) Green Lantern and Green Hornet -

The Green superheroes really sucked balls this year. I knew Green Lantern would be terrible from the trailer itself. There was the stupid purple alien, Blake Lively trying to look smart and Peter Sarsgaard with a Mojo Jojo-esque forehead. And it really was that bad. I got really irritated watching it on the flight. For one thing, everytime anyone called Ryan Reynolds "Hal", I went "Holbrook" in my head. It was very strange. And like someone said in Big Bang Theory, why the hell was yellow the colour of fear and green the colour of will? It all just seemed stupid to me. Though I will say this, Reynolds must have tried his hardest to make this not suck as bad as it did, and I applaud him for his efforts. That's the only good thing about this film (don't even get me started on pairing up purple and green together...somethings should best not be filmed).

In Green Hornet's case, I didn't think it was as awful as Green lantern, but it has to be one of the most disappointing films that I have ever seen. I really thought this one will be super special. Michel Gondry was making it, Seth Rogen was the proper non-superhero-looking superhero, Christoph Waltz was the baddie, Jay Chou looked cool. But then kaput! It was all so pointless and stupid and unnecessary. I just grew sicker and sicker of this film while watching it. It wasn't that funny, Rogen and Chou were annoying, Cameron Diaz was as good as not being there at all, and Waltz tried a bit, but it all just bombed. I thought it would've been like Kick-Ass last year, but it was just a big fat fail.

3) Thor-

I was quite unsure about this one. But it turned out fine. I wrote about it here. As said in my short review, I thought the effects and the story was nice, and what really lifted this film for me was Tom Hiddleston as Loki. I do love supervillains, and Loki was my second favourite this year. It was a fun action movie, an almost perfect summer blockbuster with humour and special effects and a good, relatively simple plot.

2) X-Men: First Class-

That, by the way, was one of the best scenes of the year. I mean not only are James McAvoy, High Jackman and Michael Fassbender sharing the same screen-space, Wolverine just voiced out the thoughts of the many McFassy shippers throughout Tumblr. Anyways, this film was gorgeous. Yes there were too many stories and not everything was tied up properly, but come on, I am a girl and this is a film that makes me think of the quote- "The stuff dreams are made of." The amount of man-candy in this film is preposterous. But even without that, this is an actual good prequel which was able to show the very brilliant relationship between Charles Xaviers and Erik Lehnsherr before they were Professor X and Magneto respectively. It also showed other origin stories of characters like Mystique and Beast before their grown-up blue years. And in case you were wondering, Magneto is my favourite supervillain/more-of-an-anti-hero-really for this year. This has also become my favourite X-Men movie till date, and really truly made me a fan of Matthew Vaughn.

1) Captain America: The First Avenger-

Now I really did not expect to love this film, and the superhero. He was so American and everything, and Hugo Weaving was the bad guy, so I was convinced I cannot possibly root for anyone else. But there was something very earnest and good about the way Chris Evans portrayed Steve Rogers/ Captain America. I think the only superhero I have ever really liked is Ironman, and that too because he is quite a mischievous and fun one. But Steve was such a darling, and so brave and out there to prove himself, without becoming annoying, that my heart went out for him. I thought Captain America was a really good film. The look and the period-setting was spot on, and made very cool with the gadgets and machines and stuff. Also I thought that the 'Star Spangled Man' montage, with the superhero being exploited before he is allowed to go out there and kick Nazi butt, was very novel. And it had enough action for my liking, which was one of the things I thought X-Men lacked. The story was a nice uplifting one and the supporting characters were great. I especially loved Haylee Atwell in this. She was so not a damsel in distress. Rather she was quite sexy and smart and held her own very well. Tommy lee Jones, Stanley Tucci, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper as Papa Stark, and Weaving were all very good too. Ofcourse Evans was the best, and proved my long-standing belief that he was born to play a superhero. It was a thoroughly enjoyable film, and as it surpassed my expectations by a huge margin, I think it really deserves the top spot in this little super list of mine.

         So there you have it. I wish there would have been ten more superhero films this year to truly show how much I hated Green Lantern and Green Hornet, but that's not really a good thing, is it? What do you think about my list? Anything you'd like to be different? How much are you looking forward to next year's superhero flicks (The Amazing Spiderman, Man of Steel, The Dark Knight Rises, Ghost Rider 2 *snort*)? Do you even like superheroes?

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate."- Hugo Weaving as V

      Don't you just love this man? And his voice! Maybe it's because I can't help but love villains and anti-heroes but secretly I have always wanted the Hugo Weaving character to win. 

A look back...

Rex the Male Sheepdog- You and I are descended from the great sheepdogs. We carry the bloodline of the ancient Bahou. We stand for something! And today I watched in shame as all that was betrayed.

Elrond: Strangers from distant lands, friends of old you have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction, none can escape it. You will unite or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate, this one doom. Bring forth the ring, Frodo.

Megatron: I smell you, boy...! MAGGOT!

Noah the Elder: So, you dare come back? 

V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask. 

And finally...

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?

And what is to come...

The Red Skull in Captain America.

      Okay so Elrond isn't really a "bad guy" but he did keep Aragorn and Arwen apart.




      Now I have been meaning to make a favourite villain/ant-hero playing actors list. It was meant to be just a list, but I think this way is better. Little heads up- 3 of the actors are in the Harry Potter series.