Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) 2013

This past weekend I saw some movies at the 14th annual Jeonju International Film Festival. (JIFF). I’d been to this once years ago, I forget which year.

Friday night I saw Searching for Bill, a 2012 film out of Denmark. Here a man named Bill has swindled a lot of people out of money, and the car of a New Orleans man named Bob. Bob’s car turns up in Detroit, with Bill’s notebook still in it. This prompts Bob to stay on the road longer to find the culprit. A long the way the narrative crosses with other people on the road and other people that have been swindled by Bill. It has a documentary style feel to it, and while the various characters are traveling we hear snippets of news reports about the economic hardships of the day. It has a unresolved, if not realistic ending.

After that was Shahid, a 2012 Indian film that hasn’t been commercially released yet. It tells the tragic true story of the title characters journey to become a lawyer where he defends people falsely accused of terrorist attacks. He struggles with balancing family life as well as threats to his personal safety.

Saturday was the 2012 film Baby Keep Smiling, about beauty pageant contestants in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. What makes this pageant different is all the contestants are mothers. The various characters include someone that was a war refugee, the wife of a diplomat, two rival neighbors, and a mother who’s family is about to be evicted. There were many other characters, in fact there were too many.

The 2012 Canadian film Behind Closed Doors is a series of intersecting narratives about girls of various ages in different foster homes and juvenile detention and treatment centers. The finale is a party   with all the characters present. It is a tense scene as the audience is expecting some shocking revelation that doesn’t exactly come.

Saturday night was last years American film The Master, about a post WWII self help guru whose techniques involve hypnosis and past life regression. The characters were interesting but overall this one didn’t grab me as much.

On Sunday I saw the best movie at this festival. Last year’s Japanese movie Blindly in Love is about a cripplingly shy 35 year old man who falls and his relationship with a blind woman. The guy still lives with his parents, and has worked the same civil service job for 13 years. The girls father is rich and doesn’t approve of the relationship, but the girls mother helps them to see each other. It is both humorous and extremely moving. It was also fun to watch with the Korean audience as they laughed and cheered throughout. They could relate to the similar culture of Japan with being older and still living with your parents and the pressure of getting married and parents setting you up. It does not have a typical ending, rather an unresolved one (There was also a un-finished sub-plot about an attempt for promotion). However it unfortunately repeats a plot device at the very end. I’d never seen a movie I loved so much get everything write and then mess up at the very end. 

This was followed by another American film from last year, John Dies at the End. It reminded me of Naked Lunch mixed with the goofy horror style of Evil Dead. These two guys fight monsters from another dimension with the help of a self help guru. Funny and scary at times, but overall I wasn’t into it.

The final movie was last years Canadian documentary Lunarcy. It’s about various people that have an obsession with the moon. One man uses a legal loophole from the United Nations to sell property on the moon as well as other planets. It largely focuses on a man with Aspergers syndrome who has a genuine desire to colonize moon, and travels across the country earnestly seeking support for his cause. During one high point he meets an astronaut who was on the moon who now makes moon paintings. As much as one might label the various people here as being strange etc. the question is raised of why in fact did we stop going to the moon? Why have the moon and the various planets not been colonized in this post 2000 world?

Good festival overall. 

http://eng.jiff.or.kr/

Marvel Cinematic Universes, Other Possibilities.

During almost every year of the last decade there was at least one, and often three, movies based on Marvel Comics characters. As I’ve detailed here, this was because Marvel licensed out their characters to multiple studios, hence multiple projects were developed at once. Then of course Marvel started making their own movies, starting with Iron Man in 2008, but this time it was different, as their other movies like Hulk, Thor, and Captain America were all set in the same world and led up to Avengers. What if, before 2000, other studios had the same idea with Marvel characters? What could they have done? Here are three possibilities, plus one that’s kind of already happening.

1. The Marvel Horror Movie-verse.

Potential Characters;

Blade, Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, Dr. Strange, Hellstorm, Man-Thing, Moon Knight.

While most point to 2000’s X-men as the beginning of the Marvel Age of movies, Blade came out in 1998, and was actually the first Marvel character to have a successful film. If a studio could have had the rights to Blade, along with other horror based characters like Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange etc., the characters could have teamed up for a Midnight Sons movie ala Avengers. It would have been interesting to see a Marvel film-verse with hard R rated characters. If they went that route, imagine if the same studio also had the rights to other horror characters and threw them in the mix, such as Hellraiser, and slasher films like Friday the 13^th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A truly horrifying universe.

1. Fantastic Four plus cosmic/space based characters.

Potential Characters;

Fantastic Four, Namor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Inhumans, Guardians of the Galaxy, Adam Warlock, Nova, Silver Surfer.

Imagine an epic Fantastic Four movie with Dr. Doom as the big bad, whose plan involves an artifact from Atlantis and Vibranium from Wakanda. This introduces Namor and the Black Panther, who could spin off into their own movies. This would be the reverse method of Avengers, with the big movie first then spin-offs later. They could team up again for an Atlantis Attacks movie. Namor and Black Panther movies could explore Earth while the Fantastic Four could go off into space to meet the Inhumans, Captain Marvel, maybe even Guardians of the Galaxy. Eventually bring big g Galactus in, and we can finally get a Silver Surfer movie. Even crazier would be if Paramount Pictures was at the helm of this Marvel Cosmic movie-verse, and decided to cross Fantastic Four with Star Trek.

1. Spiderman and street level/New York based heroes.

Potential Characters,

Spiderman, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Punisher, Master of Kung Fu, Silver Sable, Venom, Black Cat.

It would be fun to see Spiderman team with some NY heroes to fight the Kingpin and the Sinister Six. Throw in Silver Sable for some international adventures and you’ve got some fun stuff here.

I mention this one last because it’s sort of happening already and that’s X-men. At the time of this writing, a Wolverine sequel as well as a First Class sequel is coming soon. Who knows what future installments will bring, but I’d often thought what if they planned to branch out from the beginning. The first trilogy could have set up Days of Future Past; the dark alternate future where sentinels rule the earth (Like Terminator, but this was first. Crossover anyone?). Whole films could have spun out of that starring Bishop, etc., while simultaneously starting the First Class prequels, the Wolverine series, etc.

Consequently I always thought setting the X-men films in the near future was a big mistake. It wasn’t necessary, and given that Magneto’s WWII ties were kept intact, that would mean that, depending on how far ahead you mean by the near future, Magneto could be 100 years old in those movies. Anyway, the First Class spinoff was great, and I hope it’s sequel as well as the new Wolverine is too. If this series wanted to it could even go into space with a Starjammers picture.

Interestingly enough, while Fox continues this franchise, it is also rebooting their Fantastic Four series so they don’t lose the rights to Marvel. At the time of this writing I have no idea if this is a standalone film, or if it will indeed be part of the X-men’s film world. I assume it will be its own thing, but the possibility is there. If Fox Studios would combine the two franchises (and they both have outer-space characters), they could indeed have their own Marvel Cinematic Universe to rival the one Marvel is making in house.  

It’s also interesting to consider the possibilities for tie in products; in continuity comics, video games (The Captain America video game is in canon with the MCU), TV shows, etc. Would it have been confusing for fans? I don’t know if it would have, there were several separate movie worlds as it was, most of them just had one or a small set of heroes. What would have made it work is what makes it work now; they’re similar but not exactly the same. One set could have been straight horror, the other hard science fiction, another more street level stories, and the last a mix of several things.

It would have been fun, but oh well. What do you think?

G. I. Joe Retaliation Review

G. I. Joe Retaliation has been described as a sequel/reboot. It is tied to its predecessor Rise of Cobra, but also introduces a few new Joes and a new Cobra member or two. However this makes perfect sense in a franchise with large numbers of characters and no one specific star. (The upcoming Transformers sequel is reportedly taking the same route.)

Picking up from the last movie, Cobra member and master of disguise Zartan poses as the U.S. President, accuses the Joes of a crime and has a bunch of them killed in the beginning of the movie. Unbeknownst to Cobra, Roadblock (played by WWE star the Rock), Flint, and Lady Jay have survived. Later they join up with Snake eyes and Jinx, and ultimately the original G. I. Joe, General Joe Colton, played by Bruce Willis. Together they fight returning Cobra members Storm Shadow, and Cobra Commander. Cobra member Firefly is introduced, played by Ray Stevenson. (While he fought Roadblock I imagined the Rock fighting the Punisher)

This is the type of movie that is dumb but dumb in the right way. People may complain that it’s stupid, but when you look at the source material you could argue that it’s just as stupid as the cartoon. You could even say it’s less so. The movie didn’t have scenes of people jumping out of airplanes and tanks just before they exploded, and there weren’t blatant on screen shots of two people directly shooting at each other with no consequence. Members of both Joe and Cobra have definitive on screen deaths.

G. I. Joe retaliation does not go without complaint however. While many Joes died in the beginning, most of them were faceless. Only one specific character from the last movie was killed, which attempted to provide some emotional weight for the Roadblock and others. Since they were killing Joe’s off anyway they should have been specific characters from the last movie like Scarlett, Ripcord, etc. to add to the tragedy.

Other faceless characters that definitely should not have been faceless were people that Joe/Bruce Willis recruited. He brings his own team in to help with the final battle but they are mostly inconsequential and a missed opportunity to bring a few more actual characters in. (Though in the universe inside my own mind I imagine them being the Expendables; Stallone, Arnold, Coutre, Lundgren, Li, Stathem, etc Which reminds me Ray Stevenson needs to be in an Expendables movie.)

Speaking of Willis’ character it’s not really explained too much that he was the first G. I. Joe. (Before the 1980s G. I. Joe/Real American Hero cartoon G. I. Joe was one specific person)

Still it gets the job done of entertaining us. The 4D effects, seats moving, water mist, air blasts as shots are fired helped. There are cheesecake shots for both men and women to enjoy. Lady Jae dons a stunning red dress during a party scene, and the ladies get to look at the Rock and Storm Shadow. One laugh out loud moment had Storm Shadow rip his shirt off in the middle of combat for no reason.

If you wanted to you could read political overtones in the movie. Democratic strategist James Carville appears as himself speaking alongside the President who of course is secretly Zartan. Lady Jay in the aforementioned party scene poses as a Fox news reporter. So if you wanted to you could interpret this as the Democrats are terrorists and Fox news is fighting for freedom wherever there’s trouble. Also Cobra’s plan is pretty much unilateral nuclear disbarment. Personally I’m not going to read too much politics into a movie based on a line of action figures, but there it is.

However, speaking of politics one thing that irked me about the first movie which made me refuse to see it in theaters was that G. I. Joe was not an American military unit. Instead it was out of the U.N. and was an acronym meaning Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity. Not only that but if I remember right one of the actors was openly saying he was hesitant to do the movie at first because he didn’t want to do something pro-military and the first Joe movie was actually being described as being like X-men. None of this made any sense to me. G. I. Joe Retaliation makes no mention of this U. N. business (or of it taking place in the future). As far as we know from this movie, G. I. Joe is once again America’s daring highly trained special mission force.

In closing G. I. Joe is a fairly faithful adaption of its source material. It captures both the coolness and goofiness of the original toyline/80s cartoon. If I were to grade it I’d give it a C+

Yo Joe.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit novel takes place before the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and this film is apparently the first of 3 movies to adapt that specific novel. Here we actually see Bilbo Baggins decide to write the story of the adventure of his youth for the benefit of his nephew Frodo, the hero of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I presume that he is writing this after the events of the trilogy have taken place, and I enjoyed seeing him decide to record this narrative.

60 years prior the Wizard Gandalf recruited a reluctant Bilbo to accompany a group of dwarfs on a quest to regain their lost home from a dragon. The most interesting parts of the narrative involve Bilbo’s reluctance to join the quest, and his eventual reasoning to want to help, along with the dwarfs reluctance to accept Bilbo.

Naturally the imagery looks great and actually makes decent use of 3D effects, unlike almost all other 3D films I saw. The character interactions were more interesting. One character seeks revenge for something, but fails to get his revenge. I thought that was really different and appreciated that.

It does have that trope in the third act of a small group of people fighting this huge army without taking a single casualty and no one (save one character) even gets hurt. During that sequence there was a lot of jumping from platform to platform and lots of spots with ladders and such, and while it was entertaining to watch it almost came off as kind of goofy. It looked like Lord of the Rings meets Looney Tunes. While entertaining it killed the suspense.

I cannot comment on how faithful this movie was to the books. I read the Hobbit once when I was a kid. I will say that, as far as just this one movie goes, there’s one specific character I really think should have died.  

Either way I actually found this film to be more entertaining and in some ways more interesting than the other three. I’ll probably want to check out the next one next year.

Skyfall review.

Skyfall is the third entry into the new Bond franchise starring Daniel Craig. It can be thought of as the end of the first act for the new Bond. The villain is revealed (fit’s not Blofeld) to have very personal reasons for attacking Britain and Bond. It may be the most personal motivation of all the Bond villains. Bond himself is taken to a place never seen before, as someone that is older and past their prime. I liked that touch a lot. It is also flat out stated that he has a drinking problem and psychological issues. Much more about his past is revealed than any previous film. We hear a bit about his childhood and where he grew up, which the title Skyfall relates too. It’s finally revealed that M does indeed stand for mother. Q is also introduced, who is a young hip computer whiz, reversing the generation gap of the old Bond series. At first I wasn’t enjoying this movie as much but toward the middle and ending it got a lot better.

The new Bond series often slightly removed him from the traditional Bond elements (there’s a nice nod to the old gadget filled Bond cars) of the previous series. This entry ends with those traditional elements put in place, and gets us ready for the next Bond act.

Skyfall is better than it’s predecessor Quantam Solace but still not as good as Casino Royal. Nice end to the first act though.

Paranormal Activity 3

Paranormal Activity 3 is a prequel to #2, which itself was a prequel to #1. It opens with an adult Kati and Kristi, from the first two films, talking about old video tapes that were found in a box. These tapes apparently disappeared in the burglary from #2, though I don’t recall if those tapes were mentioned in #2.

So in this one there’s no story about how we get to see this footage, we just see it.

Anyway apparently in 1988, when Kati and Kristi were kids, they lived with their mom Julie and her live in boyfriend Dennis, who by accident captures something strange on film, and decides to set up cameras around the house. Dennis tapes weddings for a living, hence he has video equipment to analyse his tapes.

One thing he adds is a moving camera in the living room/kitchen, which is a nice touch. Another element I liked was in the girls room there were times when Kristi gets up at night and goes to the lower left corner of the screen, and talks to someone off camera. That was a nice creepy touch. Also we actually get to see the entity this time, albeit very briefly. Like the other two films we get the very slow building scares, along with story beats involving how kids have imaginary friends, sibling conflict, and growing tension between Dennis and Julie. Dennis also feels pressure from Julie’s mom, who doesn’t think he has a real job.

There’s also light moments, 80s references like Teddy Ruxpin, McGyver, and Dennis argues with his friend about the title of the film Back to the Future.

The climax features a light twist and moves us to a different location, which was refreshing. The ending is not as scary as it could be. It’s maybe not as good and 1 and 2, (see my http://jemurr.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/curse-of-the-3/ but it keeps the franchise strong. I don’t know of any franchise that keeps moving backwards in time. I’d have to say it’s now officially my favorite horror series.

Shark Night 3D: Short Review

Shark Night 3D is about a group of college kids who go to party one weekend in a secluded lake area (where cell phones conveniently don’t work) only to find there are sharks in said lake. The rest of the minimal plot involves how the sharks got there.

For this type of movie you don’t expect much. We get to know the characters a little bit, they’re mostly stock characters, the black athlete, the racist local, the pretty boy, the nerdy med student, etc, but they’re not so bad to watch. I do have to say the lead female’s back story/motivation is really dumb.

Shark Night does deliver on some scares, and actually makes effective use of its 3D, which is a pleasant surprise. We see Shark teeth coming at us, and flinch as some debris flies our way. That alone is noteworthy, making it a bite a above other 3D shlock like Transformers, or even actual better movies such as Thor and Captain America.

Unlike Piranha, it doesn’t go all out with the gore, and while it teases at times, doesn’t have nudity. Some might bemoan this as holding out for a PG-13 rating, but I think they were trying as best they could to make a serious horror film, as opposed to Piranha which was dumb on purpose.

This will probably be the last movie I see in Korea. There’s worse ways to go out. 3/5 stars.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a reboot of the 5 film series of the 1960s/70s, which in turn was based off the 1963 French Novel. This film sets out to tell the very beginnings of the Ape revolt.

It starts with San Fransisco scientist Will Rodman researching a cure for Alzheimers, which has stricken his father (John Lithgow). He tests a drug on apes made to repair brain cells. Through a series of circumstances Will ends up raising a baby monkey at home who displays heightened intelligence. Will’s father, who was a cultured man in life, names the monkey Caesar.

Years later, the course of events lead Caesar to being kept in a shelter with other monkeys, where he is not accepted at first. He’s very depressed and lonely, until he comes to attain leadership among the captive apes.

Unlike what’s considered “typical” summer franchise flair, Apes is primarily a character piece. We follow Will and his despair over his ailing father, who Lithgow plays wonderfully. We also see his ethical struggles and the conflicts that come from the business side of medicine.

The strongest part of the movie is Caesar himself. We follow him through his joys and his despair, share his concern when he wonders to Will if he’s a pet, and ultimately cheer for the Apes as they revolt against, well us. Rise of the Apes is perhaps the only movie with a CGI character (not counting full CGI movies like Toy Story or Shrek) that I truly cared about. He was definitely a better character than say, any of the Transformers or Star Wars characters of the last ten years.

Action comes at the end as we see the Apes outsmart the humans on the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a great scene that shows in one shot why Caesar will become a mythical hero to be remembered by the Apes for all time. It’s interesting to see that the Apes don’t intend to rule the planet, (In fact even in combat Caesar is purposefully non-lethal) and that it’s not necessarily the Apes that wipe humanity out.

For Easter egg specialists one of the humans who mistreats the Apes says that line “Get your hands off me you dam dirty Ape,” which is what Charlten Heston said in the original film. Also there’s passing reference to the Icarus space ship, which is from the films and original novel. Apparently in this movie it had a manned mission to Mars and gets lost. That’s all I know of as I haven’t seen the old films.

Rise of the Apes is one of the better reboots made, which hopefully will lead to a great film series. 9.8/10.

Cowboys and Aliens: Brief Review

Cowboys and Aliens is a cross genre film based off a graphic novel, starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.  Craig’s character wakes up not knowing who he is, or how he got a strange metal object attached to his wrist. He soon gets captured and learns he was a wanted outlaw. As he’s about to be taken away spaceships fly through the night sky and start attacking the town and abducting people. At this point he realizes the device on his hand can fight the aliens, and joins the townspeople in trying to get their loved ones back.

The neat thing about this movie is it’s a cowboy movie first, and a science fiction film second. It has all the tropes of a western, Cowboys, Indians, bandits, saloon brawls, etc. It also has the beats of the UFO phenomenon, alien abduction, lost memories, cattle mutilations, but also the aliens methods (they basically lasso people to abduct them) and their overall plot fit in perfectly with western mythology.

Along the way there are nice character beats for the various townspeople, including the dorky saloon owner and his search for respect. Despite the somewhat goofy title the premise is played completely straight. My sole complain is that, while it has some suspense, it should have/could have been outright scary.

One really interesting thing to me was that, unlike most movies of this type, it left no room for a sequel. It has a definitive ending, and is a neat experiment in cross genre film. 8.5 out of ten.

Captain America: The First Avenger Review

Captain America: The First Avenger, amusingly only called First Avenger in South Korea, is in some ways the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It almost could have been the first film, telling the titular heroes story while setting up the later Iron Man and Thor installments, and of course leading into next years Avengers.

It opens with a strange ship found in the arctic, inside of which is the frozen Captain America. Hence, any non-comic fans immediately know that this hero’s story ends in tragedy.

Flashback t0 1941, where Johann Schmidt A.K.A. the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) is introduced. Schmidt is the head of Hydra, the Nazi deep science division. Hydra raids a town in Norway in search of a Tesseract, a cube (in the comics called the cosmic cube) of immense power, apparently tied to Viking mythology. This item allows for fantastic weapons and vehicles later seen in the film. This scene is reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and even has a backhanded reference to it as Schmidt mocks Hitler for looking for “trinkets in the desert.” His final fate is also reminiscent of Indy films.

Cut to New York, where through some interesting special effects, actor Chris Evans plays 90 pound weakling Steve Rogers. Due to his size and a score of health problems he is rejected by 5 different recruiting stations. Steve has strong moral convictions and desperately wants to join the war effort. He sees the Nazis as nothing more than bullies that need to be stopped. He’s also upset that his friend James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes not only has joined the Army, but is in the 107, which Roger’s father was in when he died during World War One.

His moral courage gets the attention of escaped German scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine, who gets him into a secret super soldier project. There he meets later love interest agent Peggy Carter, who is British for some reason, and Colonel Phillips played by Tommy Lee Jones. Phillips is naturally skeptical of Rogers and doesn’t respect him, but Erskine realizes that Rogers is the correct choice because he is “a good man.”

Rogers is selected and, with the help of Howard Stark, Tony Stark’s/Iron Man’s father, goes through an experiment that transforms him into a muscular semi-superhuman specimen. He’s not invulnerable and not as strong and fast as ,say Superman, but he’s more athletic than any human, able to throw people good distances, is fast, can jump fairly high etc.

Rogers is intended to be the first of many super soldiers, but a Nazi spy blows up the lab and kills Erskine, leading to Rogers first action scene. It’s not really explained why the formula can’t be replicated, but in the comics Erksine memorized much of it, hence didn’t leave notes. The film drops the ball on that though.

Much to his humiliation Rogers is turned into a propaganda tool to sell war bonds across the country, accompanied by songs and USO showgirls. Here he gets the name Captain America, with a goofy looking outfit reminiscent of the actual serial film made of Captain America in 1944,  and the triangular shaped shield he had in that era. Ironically he also films a few movies. We also actually see first issue of the Captain America comic book, which also appeared in Iron Man 2. Interestingly the comic was first published in 1941, 7 months before Pearl Harbor. In this world it was apparently published afterwards.

After a show in Italy before an uninterested audience of battle weary G. I.s, Rogers learns is friend Barnes is behind enemy lines. He goes out on his own to rescue him and other soldiers, and has a great first encounter with the Red Skull.

From here he leads Barnes and other soldiers in a special unit specifically made to fight Hydra. One of the interesting features of this movie is we don’t see all of his adventures. It’s understood that he went on many missions but we don’t see them all. This leaves room for more sequels and other tie in items set in this period, like the video game Captain America: Super Soldier for instance.

The crux of this film is Rogers morality and determination. This plays into his recruitment, his conviction to go through the painful experiment, and his desire to lead men in battle. Even his final fate in the war is not so much an accident as in the comics, but another example of his moral courage.

Naturally there’s plenty of action, probably more than the Iron Man’s, Hulk and Thor actually. It does capture it’s period very well. Some of the CGI background effects looked obvious, but I think it led to a certain feel that they were purposely trying for.

One point of contention among fans is the lack of Nazi symbols. The swastika appears real big in a scene in a movie theater, but aside from that it’s hidden. A few Nazi officers have tiny Swastika pins, and they have the armband, but the swastika on their arm band is never in view. It makes sense story wise that Schmidt uses Hydra to strike out on his own, even one upping the Nazi salute with a “Hail Hydra” accompanied by two fists in the air (as opposed to the Nazis salute of one open hand raised). Hydra has it’s own symbol and the uniform for their troops is reminiscent of Star Wars storm troopers, who in turn were designed after Nazi soldiers. Still, to go so far out of the way to hide Nazi symbols is a testament to the strange sensibilities of our day. The Indiana Jones series, which this film sought to emulate, took no qualms about showing the swastika in all it’s evil glory.

Howard Stark is fun to watch, clearly the predecessor of his son, and also Roger’s weapons man A.K.A. the Q to Evans’ Bond. I would have liked to have seen more of the soldiers, but there simply wasn’t enough time. Rogers relationship with Carter is even more light than the romance in Thor, and based around the fact that she’s the first girl that bothered to talk with Rogers, who has no idea how to talk to women.

Captain America covers a lot of ground in it’s two hours, maybe more so than it’s predecessors, but it’s a fun ride.  8/10.

Minor Marvel Movie-verse Spoilers.

The tesseract is hidden in a carving of the world tree from Viking mythology, and is said to be the jewel of Odin’s treasure room. In the comics, I always thought it was awkward that Thor, a Viking God, had such prominence in the Marvel Universe, especially given the amount of mythological heroes available. In the Cinematic Universe it actually makes more sense. Captain America connects us to the Nazis, who in real life were into Viking mythology. A whole sub genre of science fiction is based around Nazi super science/Nazi occultism (Like Indy). So in a superhero world it would make sense to have Viking mythology be real/the superheroes/villains of their time. So I really liked that.

Rogers and Barnes have a double date to the Worlds Fair, which is similar in design to the Stark Expo in Iron Man 2, and has similar music too. At one exhibit Professor Horton’s synthetic man is in full display. This was the original Human Torch from the comics. (Not the later Fantastic 4 Human Torch, ironically played by Evans)

Cap’s circular shield is made of the fictional metal Vibranium, but it’s not said where it came from.

We don’t hear the name but the men Rogers leads are the Howling Commandos, led by Nick Fury in the comics. One addition they have is James Falsworth, who in the comics becomes British hero Union Jack.

Howard Stark tries and fails to find Rogers in the arctic. He does find the cube, which presumably will be the basis for Arc Reactor technology.

Barnes dies and that scene comes really fast.

At the very end Captain America is told that he was asleep for nearly 70 years. I wish they just said “a long time” or something like that. As the movies continue, they will always be presumed to be set in the present, that will get dated fast.

There’s not really an extra scene after the credits but instead an actual trailer for next years Avengers, which is filming right now.