11 replies to this topic

[jason a]

Many people have probably just read the title and are angrily yelling at their monitors and forming their rage but let me explain.
SPOILERS
. This movie should be called exploding equipment because every computer, science instrument, or tool explodes!
. Captain America after rescuing the soldiers is allowed to get a team, the main leader of the science thing tells him that they will give him a team to which he responds "I got that covered" cue 5 random guys he rescued and his friend being the team, including a guy who doesn't speak English!
. Later you see him and these dive soldiers do a team style stuff with no explanation or even dialogue culminating in the Asian guy HACKING into the enemy code communications network.
. There is zero bonding with any of the xharacters to the point where u want to cheer for the bad guy because u know more about him.
. At one point captain America is caught in a huge explosion, next scene no damage and no explanation
. God crystal?!?!?!??!?!??!??!
Respond if u agree with me, hell cowboys and aliens made more sense!

[daniel tompkins]

I wholly disagree with you although I respect your opinions, but if you tell me you hated CA but not First Class I will just lose my shit all over you.

[jason a]

Lol I haven't seen first class but I heard it's batshit crazy.

[Johnny Unusual]

I don't think either of them are HDTGM material. I like them both. They have flaws, sure, but I don't think flaws make a movie inherently bad. But even if I didn't care for it, I think that the complaints you have are small common things. It has to be more than just jumping ahead or small stuff, a good HDTGM movie needs something that makes it bad or bizarre at it's core.

[Elitist Prick]

Captain America's director, Joe Johnston, is a fucking hack (he also did the Wolf Man remake) and anything he does is worth mocking. I mean, Captain America isn't a bad movie, but it could have been about 12.4 times better if helmed by a decent director.

[Johnny Unusual]

I must politely disagree. Joe Johnston has done a lot of work I don't care for, but hack? I don't think so. Keep in mind, I feel "hack" is a misused well. To me, a hack isn't just a bad or incompetent artist, but one who is cynically and artlessly just tries to make something in the lowest common denominator. No sense of self-awareness or awareness of the art as a whole and no real mastery of the art. The podcast Battleship Pretension had a great discussion about Michael Bay, and while they agree he's a bad director they also suggested that he is an auter because he works very hard to make his vision come to light and is able to do what he wants with his films. Unfortunately, he seems to value fetishizing machines in his works and uses them to make awful story.

I guess what I'm saying that a hack is a special kind of bad in a way that is ugly and without spcirit and that doesn't describe Joe Johnston to me. Joe has a voice (looking at his movies, he clearly has a fondness for recreating the films of yesteryear) and I think a genuine love for films. I'm not saying he isn't a bad director (I personally feel that he is... just OK), but I feel the term hack belongs to someone who's art is without art, rather than someone who is incompetent about it.

Sorry, but I hate seeing the word thrown around. There are directors I don't like, but I try not to dismiss most of them out of hand. (My ire really got up one time I heard David Lynch called a hack. I can understand not liking him or even feeling that he's terrible at his art, but if you call someone like that a hack, then you either don't know what the word hack means or an unpleasantly dismissive person)

[Elitist Prick]

Johnny Unusual, on 18 February 2013 - 06:00 PM, said:

I must politely disagree. Joe Johnston has done a lot of work I don't care for, but hack? I don't think so. Keep in mind, I feel "hack" is a misused well. To me, a hack isn't just a bad or incompetent artist, but one who is cynically and artlessly just tries to make something in the lowest common denominator. No sense of self-awareness or awareness of the art as a whole and no real mastery of the art.

To me, this is EXACTLY what Joe Johnston does. His movies, especially his action sequences, lack any sense of identity, visual dynamics, or, especially, fun. Everything is interchangeable with everything else and nothing seems distinctive at all, it's just two hours of... blah. His movies, with the possible exception of October Sky, all seem like feature length car commercials, with all the excitement that possibility brings. Yes, there are worse directors, and it's not like he's technically terrible the way imbecilic filmmakers like Tommy Wiseau are, but that seems worse to me. He's a guy with enough merit to land an enormous franchise like Captain America or get Benicio Del Toro and Rick Baker involved in a werewolf movie, but still manages to put something that ranges from unremarkable to sleep-inducing on screen. In short, fuck that guy.

[jimkiler]

I agree with the OP but this movie is not bad enough to be on HDTGM. It is simply boring. Hugo Weaving is a great actor and even he is flat in this movie. I remember people saying this was better than Thor but as least Thor was entertaining even if it was not good. Captain America is boring.

[Lando]

The character of Captain America was soooooo 1-dimensional. He was never scared, even when he was a little guy and always motivated to do the right thing. It was so boring to see him get into a tense situation and not see the most remote glint of human emotion show through.

[Tron83]

The fact that he is never scared, even when he is small, is the exact reason they picked him to try the super soldier serum. The serum enhances all physical and mental capabilities, they wanted someone who was fearless so when they gave him the serum it would increase exponentially. They didn't want guys with huge egos bc the serum would boost that or guys who were pussys bc it would boost that feeling.

[Lando]

Yeah, I get that it's why they chose him, but it makes for a boring character. I'm sure that Seal Team Six members are leagues more complex than that portrayal of Captain America.

[seanotron]

Captain America is actually one of the best of the Marvel films. Definitely not HDTGM material.