major spoilers for ca:cw under the cut.
Oh man it was cathartic just reading this. I genuinely enjoyed the movie, but it left me stressed out. The people I’ve talked to about this movie have said to me “as such a huge Marvel fan, that’s really strange.” They wonder why am I not gushing about this movie.
Like… I hold Marvel to high standards and don’t want to blindly love everything they throw at me? I left the movie stressed out because all the characters had their stress dialed up to 11 and there was no moment to come down from that.
We get that Bucky feels guilty. We get that Steve is fighting for Bucky’s freedom. Why did we only get in depth explanation on Tony’s actions? I know the point of this movie is that it was adhering to an actual plot driven timeline so it was hard to fit moments of quiet into this already super packed movie, but literally 2 more minutes of MEN EXPRESSING EMOTION wouldn’t have killed anyone.
I left this movie stressed out because it winded me up and then just let me hang there with no wiggle room. Just me and my stress because nothing that happened was talked about? Or shown the grief that this is putting on these characters?
During Peggy’s funeral, this wonderful woman who has taken such a stance as a force of nature and a gentle place in Steve’s life, she becomes a prop for Steve to connect with Sharon? Like the funeral is a jumping off place for them to start something. During Sharon’s speech, yeah it was Peggy’s words, but it was shot and framed in such a way that Sharon was basically a newer model of Peggy and it really fucking irked me out. We literally just saw Steve barely holding it together as he was carrying Peggy to the front. That emotion is gone in literally seconds as his sadness converts to confusion and surprise and that’s the emotion we are left with on Steve’s last interaction with Peggy. That was it.
That scene could have been shot a thousand different ways and I would have come to terms with Peggy’s passing but this… this was all about introducing Sharon, not paying respects to Peggy, and that is one reason why I am disappointed in the use of Sharon’s character. We barely have any time to grieve even though there was ample time and space to do so.
What about Steve and Bucky though? Yes their actions on behalf of each other are admirable, but it’s usually in the form of fighting people. Their meeting was cut short, and I get it. Here the lack of a heartfelt reunion is actually kind of endearing because they trust each other off the bat without much being passed between them so this short interaction given the circumstance I can understand.
But after this, what about Steve’s headspace? What about Bucky’s? Bucky is heavy with guilt about what he’s been forced to do and we have a few clips of him acknowledging so… but what does that mean to those who don’t yet see Bucky as a victim? He tells Steve as much on the quinjet, and yeah ok that was a lovely line, but where’s Bucky’s headspace during this? Isn’t he fucking scared out of his mind that he’s going back to this hell hole??
Yeah the movie is fast paced but they are literally on this thing for hours so couldn’t they have gone a little more in depth about what they are feeling? There is so much regret in their eyes and yet that’s all the actors, not the actual script. They arrive in Siberia and there’s definitely some tension there, but not enough to fully convey what this actually means to Steve or Bucky.
The very first scene of the movie shows that the Siberian lab is essentially Bucky’s torture chamber, where he was imprisoned in ice, was wiped of his humanity, and had to watch, train, and get beaten up by other soldiers who were stripped of personhood just like he was. For the fans who already understood Bucky to be a victim of circumstance, the significance of going back is monumental. Bucky has every reason to sit this out, let Steve take the reigns. But Bucky swallows his fear and marches forward because if he can stop what happened to him happen to other people, he’s going to do it.
But let’s be real, not everyone is going to put that together. Sure we see them walking in the labs, but when do we ever really get the importance of this to Bucky? Some indicator of Bucky being scared to walk into this place, or Steve’s unbridled anger upon seeing the chair that Bucky was tortured in? Something other than a few flashes of Bucky (and thank god for Sebastian for conveying as much unease and fear as he could with his limited screen time).
For Bucky sympathizers, this scene is awful because we understand how horrible this much be for Bucky. But those who come out of there saying Bucky is a villain? it’s because they never blatantly saw Bucky’s humanity. He didn’t show fear, so the audience didn’t feel fear for him.
Where is his humanity? Where is Steve’s sympathy? They are stepping into Bucky’s hell, then Zemo uses Bucky as a pawn once again. Bucky isn’t causing the conflict; he is the one that conflict storms around.
When the Steve, Bucky, and Tony watch the clip of Tony’s parents’ death, the majority of the emotions are given to Tony. I get it, it’s his parents, but for just as much anger that Tony has about this, Bucky feels just as much guilt and self hatred. He gets one flash and a quick shot of watery eyes, but the focus is on Tony and the rest is left lacking.
From here, anger is the only thing fueling this fight. It stresses me out because the fight itself is so emotionally driven, and it’s not from anger. The brawl is one of tossing around masculinity and the lines do not match up with why this is happening. Well, other than “I remember everyone” by Bucky, but that is a throwaway line to Tony so it becomes a throwaway line to the general audience. When Bucky loses his arm and collapses, where is Steve hurting for his friend? Where is his reaction? Instead he “shows” this by wailing on Tony, but concern for Bucky would cause concern from the audience, but for some reason it gets glossed over.
I want to hope that by only capitalizing on the anger aspect of grief, this can cause awful things to happen. T’Challa is in a similar position as Tony in this story arc, and he manages to wrangle his anger and becomes one of the most empathetic and likable characters because of it. He does acknowledge that this behavior is damaging, but does Tony ever learn this?
This movie was fun and I did enjoy it, but it made me anxious and confused when I walked out. The audience takes cues on what they should feel from the characters, and by not giving the characters time to think, the audience didn’t have time to either, and left a lot of interpretations at face value.
vvinterdumpling.home.blog 