#Evil powers strike back movie

He carries a small notebook in which he jots down cultural touchstones to investigate later. The film takes place in the Marvel Universe, where the Avengers recently saved New York City from invading aliens, and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is still adjusting to life in the 21st Century. This makes him uniquely interesting as a symbol and it undergirds his character with a political necessity that cannot be ignored. Though his shield remains his only consistent weapon (doesn’t that, in and of itself, reveal much?), he may as well shoot apple-pie slices out of a hot dog-shaped gun while humming the Star Spangled Banner. He is essentially dressed in a flag every time he suits up, and his World War II origins closely tie him to what we subjectively perceive as our own goodness and decency. He is, more than any other character, a symbol of his nation.

As a political scientist who occasionally dabbles in writing about movies, Captain America is particularly interesting. The rumination is only relevant due to the recent premier of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I sort of went straight from the Hardy Boys into Stephen King, science fiction, and military history. I am not denigrating comics, I just never really cared for them. I don’t care about their fidelity to this or that storyline or to the tone or nature of the books themselves. I therefore do not evaluate the films based on their source material. Though I read a few issues as a kid, I never went through a comic book phase. They are NOT extensions of the comics themselves.

#Evil powers strike back movie

But, in another way, comic book films are especially momentous, with DC and Marvel exercising extreme influence over the current movie marketplace.įor me, comic book films are still films. In some ways, this is like every other genre, so it may seem unfair to pick on comic books. I find it hard to be truly a fan when the cycle swings so dramatically.

There are some that rise to the level of art ( The Dark Knight), while others are less than drivel ( Iron Man 3). My relationship with comic book films is sort of like my relationship with science fiction novels–it’s complicated. Captain America: The Civil Libertarians Strike Back