Sunday Superhero Goodness

Sorry there's no podcast this week.  Wound up getting busy, and I didn't have much worth saying anyway.  However, I feel I at least owe you a blog entry this Sunday, and there's something I need to get down on paper.

So...I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

I saw it back on Wednesday night, actually.  I keep forgetting that I live close enough to the city now that I can conceivably go into the city after work some night and catch a movie.  So, back on Wednesday, a co-worker said, "Hey, I'm going into the city to see Captain America tonight.  Wanna come?"  And I said, "Yes, please!"

So how's Cap been spending his time since the Battle of New York (aka the events depicted in The Avengers)?  Well, Cap decided to stick around with Nick Fury and the Black Widow, and he's now one of SHIELD's top commandos.  However, Cap is starting to feel some unease about what he does and how SHIELD operates.  This comes to a head when Black Widow strikes off on her own on one mission to complete her own separate mission.  This leads to Cap asking questions of Nick Fury, who begins asking questions of his superiors, represented by one Alexander Pierce.  The questions strike a nerve, and before long, there's an attack, and Cap is declared to be a rogue agent.  With the Black Widow helping him, alongside new ally Sam Wilson (the Falcon), Cap soon finds that there's a conspiracy at the heart of SHIELD, and with the mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier on the trail, Cap and his new friends must save the world.

Right of the bat, I'd say my favourite part has to be Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow.  This is, by far, the best Black Widow we've had to date.  She's not just there to tease the Avengers (like in Iron Man 2, and he's not just there to have a couple of cool fight scenes (like The Avengers).  She actually does stuff of importance in this film.  Johansson injects her with a new level of sass, and it all works wonderfully.

Anthony Mackie as the Falcon is good, too.  We've seen the Falcon fly in the trailers and TV commercials, but the first time you see him fly in the film, you will cheer.

The action is good, the humour is good, the plot is good, everything about it is good.  About the only problem I had was when I saw last week's Agents of SHIELD the day before which kind of gave away some plot twists.

Anyway, I've got the complete review of it up at my website, so feel free to go read it. 

Meanwhile, over at DC Comics, they're celebrating Batman's 75th anniversary.  As part of the celebration, DC and Warner Brothers have commissioned 2 new animated Batman short films to celebrate.  The first one, from Batman: The Animated Series legend Bruce Timm, when online this past week, and it's called Batman: Strange Days.




My thoughts?  It's OK....  It doesn't quite have the epic feel as the Superman 75th anniversary short, which told the characters entire history in 2 minutes.  This feels more like a deleted scene from an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.  It's good, but I wanted something more encompasing of the character's history. 

Let's wait to see what the second short brings us.