Captain America:Perverse Criticism

It’s fair to say that the reviews I’ve read of Captain America have been mixed. They have ranged from abusive vilification to implausible eulogy. Something has niggled at me as I have read them though. While some of the criticisms may be fair others seem distinctly unfair. It’s a metaphor I have used before in other contexts but some of them seem to be kicking the dog because it barks.

For example to criticize the movie's top-and-tailing with present day scenes  on the grounds that they are there to tie it to the forthcoming Avengers movie is to miss the point that I made in my review. Captain America IS about two different versions of the character: the war hero and the modern day superhero. It’s true that those scenes will link it to the Avengers but they are also, to my mind, a crucial part of the character and it was far better to do it in framing sequences than trying to tell both stories. And together they are around five minutes long. Hardly a major intrusion.

To criticise it for having too many forgettable characters , by which I can only assume we are talking about the commando team, is to ignore the fact that this isn’t any old commando team - it’s Sergeant Fury’s Howling Commandos – as much an essential part of the WWII Captain mythos as his shield is.

And criticising the patriotic tone of a movie that is a fairly faithful retelling of a tale that was by its very nature designed to be nothing but patriotic seems as perverse as what amounts to a criticism of a comic book movie for being, well, comic-book-like

Captain America

*** WARNING - MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

Walking back from the Cinema it occurred to me that the four most recent films I've seen have all been superhero adaptations - X-Men: First Class, Thor, Green Lantern and now Captain America. All those other films were to some degree or other flawed. X-Men had some serious plot holes and some unnecessary historical exposition, Thor was spectacular in the true sense of the word and very enjoyable but suffered from sequences that were clearly there solely to set up the connection to the forthcoming Avengers movie and Green Lantern was an object lesson in how to make a very bad superhero film.

So what about Captain America?

Well it isn't the first attempt to bring it to the screen, not even the first live action attempt. None of the previous versions were successful so why should this one be different? The problem lies in the very nature of Captain America's story- not the one in the comic books but the one in the real world. It isn't really one character but two. The character was originally conceived as a super-patriotic strip in 1940 to rally the folks back home during the war. He fought alongside such characters as the Submariner,  the Human Torch and Sergeant Fury's Howling Commandos, and together they took on the evil might of the Third Reich. That incarnation was cancelled in 1954.

The character was revived in 1964 —  having been frozen in the ice since defeating the Red Skull — and started his more modern lease of life, The problem the movie makers have always had is that they try to tell both stories in a single movie. And it doesn't work. One version I saw on TV collapsed the entire WWII story into a single mission where he was created, fought the Red Skull and got frozen, begging question of how he is such a well-known and recognisable icon when he eventually gets thawed out if no one had ever heard of him in the 1940s.

The new version boldly sets everything —  apart from two very short framing sequences —  during the war, allowing time for the character to be drawn in rather bolder strokes than any previous version, and it's all the better for it. In fact it's extremely faithful not just to the original concept of the character but to the style, look and atmosphere of the original comic books. The plot is straight-forward, action-filled and even the inevitable (given the character and setting) triumphalism is tongue-in-cheek and self mocking. It may not be thought-provoking or intellectual fare but it's a jolly good romp. If you're a comics fan then you may enjoy it just a shade more, but most people should enjoy it anyway.

So of the four recent superhero movies, I'd say it's the clear winner.

And now can we please have some movies that aren't based on comics?

The Evil Empire

They used to refer to Microsoft as "The Evil Empire" but nowadays I'm pretty sure Google has taken the crown. The King is Dead, Long Live the King.

I've been on a bit of an anti-Google trip for the last couple of weeks, ever since I discovered that while I am here in Harrow using my gmail account is about as secure as posting all my private correspondence as full page adverts in a national newspaper.

The problem is straightforward but, as far as I've been able to determine, has no solution. I am teaching in a school where all the academic staff have a single common logon user and password. When I log on to use Gmail anyone else who logs on can see what I'm doing.

Worse than that is that if I forget to explicitly log out of every single site that uses my Google account password - which, incidentally includes all of my blogs - then my login remains active and even though I may have shut down the computer and gone for a walk anyone subsequently logging in still gets to see my emails.

This, I am told, is a feature to save me the trivial inconvenience of having to log in again when I get back.

Common login details are standard in all sorts of organisations. The lack of security beggars belief.

Why post now though?

I just watched the video about Google+ in this link and am truly appalled by the arrogance of it. The idea that everyone who uses any Google product will find themselves forced into being part of Google+ is monstrous.

Here's a quote "Google plus is in its early phases. Expect all of Google's many apps to continue to merge into their social network over time."

And here's another.

"You don't need to choose Google plus. Sooner or later you're going to end up using it."

I am very seriously considering switching my blogs, my RSS feeds and my email to other providers. The lack of security on the email horrifies me and the idea that when I log into ANYTHING that lack of security will carry through horrifies me even more.

Who's running this show? The Mekon?

Redundant naming