Politics, Civil War, and How Marvel's Villains are Ruining their Own Movies

I always find it so interesting how much movies reflect the feelings of their time: the Original Star Wars are widely considered far better than the prequels because the prequels were marred in the politics and corruption which gripped America at the time they were made, whereas the original trilogy were influenced by the seventies style of rooting for the little guy, the post-Vietnam era of peace and understanding rather than violence and war and the idea of promoting peace where possible and rising up against tyrannical orders who threaten peaceful ways.

In a way, I find it funny that the prequel trilogy didn't feature so much of that. Created around the rise of terrorism, we see much more of the Bush ideals of forcing democracy on a country in the Clone troopers and the Jedi as generals, something which somehow aptly fitted in with the original trilogy and gave way for that story to be told. Movies are windows into the time they are made, they show us the cultural and political landscape through which they were created and give us a way into the mindset of the people of the time.

With all that said, I suppose I should explain that this isn't just some random article about Star Wars and politics (although you might get something along those lines come Rogue One), but a review on Captain America: Civil War.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We have Hit Peak Marvel!

I believe Marvel's time is coming. The end of the road is fast approaching for them; they've had a run of great movies, really great movies: Thor: The Dark World was fun and light-hearted, Iron Man 3 was surprisingly peppy in between the serious moments dealing with Stark as a human being, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier was one of the most solid spy thrillers I've seen in a long while.

But we're now entering the decline of the Marvel movie. We have peaked. And I can tell you that with complete confidence. No other Marvel movie will ever again be good. Because Avengers: Age of Ultron just set the God damn gold standard.

Movies movies!

Okay, so I have two movies to discuss here, let's get down to business.

You might remember in my post a few months ago that I said I was sick to death of superhero movies. Well I've got news for you: I watched Iron Man 2 not long ago. I thought it was about time, given the proximity of the final film in the trilogy, and it looked pretty interesting. And here's the thing:

I didn't think it was all that great.

New Year, New Movies

So it's the start of another year, and one I've been looking forward to very much. Every year is a new start (because no other day can be, apparently) and right now I want to start watching some new films.

I wrote on my other blog last year about my problems with sequels, but 2013 looks to be pretty good. I liked the Hobbit (apart from a few problems with the whole 3D thing - looks like it's 2D for me this year!) and The Desolation of Smaug ought to be the best of the three; from what I remember of the book, Mirkwood will be one of the most terrifying and action-packed parts of the whole thing.