Captain America and Elrond Too

You can never go wrong with a superhero movie, except when you go wrong with a superhero movie.  Until Jon Favreau convinced me a man could fly in an iron suit I had little hope that anyone in the film-making industry would take the superhero genre seriously.  I enjoyed the first "Fantastic Four" movie but not everyone else did.  "Iron Man" was the first universally hailed film from superheroland.

This year's highly disappointing "Batman vs. Superman" movie left me wondering if we had not seen the best that Hollywood could produce in the superhero genre.  But "Captain America: Civil War" has restored my faith in the Marvel Studios, Disney, and superhero movie makers.  The DC universe is simply cursed with really bad choices for directors and screen writers (much like Star Wars cannot shake Lawrence Kasdan from its shoe).

Here is the thing about superhero movies: too many of them were made by people who thought they were making kiddie movies, or who thought the characters had to be campy, over-the-top, or just plain stupid.  Henry Cavill's career will forever be ruined in my heart because he agreed to play a stupid Superman.  Superman is not supposed to be stupid.  He's smart.  Cavill should have fought for a smart Superman, but in compromising he proved he doesn't get the character.

In "Captain America: Civil War" we have a fine array of actors but the two who stand out best are Robert Downey, Jr. and Chris Evans.  These guys understand their characters.  Sure, Downey took Tony Stark into places the comic books never imagined but he developed the character and made every change meaningful.

Chris Evans, on the other hand, had the unenviable task of playing the ultimate good guy.  Captain America's virtues and faults were magnified by the Super Soldier serum.  That means, for directors, writers, and actor, the character had to be locked into certain mindsets.  Cap always has to do what he thinks is the right thing, and he has to make that decision with his heart.

Chris Evans proved he is the right guy for this character.  Someday, decades from now, Hollywood is going to remake "Captain America" simply because that is what the film industry does.  And whoever is chosen to fill that role will be doing a lot of interviews where he has to confess that he's not sure he can follow in Chris Evans' footsteps.

But what makes these Marvel movies so special is that everyone brings their "A" game to the matchup.  Civil War is nominally a Captain America movie.  The plot is about Steve Rogers' quest to save his best friend, Bucky Barnes, and to justify his place in an ever-changing world.  So in that respect it does focus on Cap.  But it also shows us that even while the story revolves around one main character's conflicts, the other characters are still important.

I wrote more about how much I enjoyed the movie at SF-Fandom in "Michael's Review - Captain America: Civil War".  I don't want to repeat myself here.  It's just a really good movie and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did.

And while I am on that note, I hope you check out "Captain America: Civil War Keeps You on the Edge of Your Seat" at the Comic Book Movies blog (not to be confused with the site of the singular variant of that name).  They don't publish very often there but when they do they put their hearts into the story.  I think you'll enjoy the review there.

And how did Elrond get into the title of this post?  Well, someone asked a question about Elrond that has always been begging for an answer.  I took a shot at providing that answer this week on the Middle-earth Blog in "Of Which Kin was Elrond Accounted?"  I hope you enjoy that one, too.
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