Big fans of the Buffy TV show probably think of the film as fans of the modern Marvel filmverse think of the original Captain America movie, i.e., like it is a redheaded stepchild:
And, yes, I posted a clip from this before. So sue me. I love the Cap.
#35: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Confession: Neither of us watched the Buffy TV show. I know, I know, pop culture nerd card revoked. We both kinda sorta watched an episode or two at some point but never got into it. Tonally, its a whole other universe from the movie. In fact, I had no idea Joss Whedon wrote the original movie, since the vibes of the two are so different. That being said, the movie is a damn good time. To be honest, I went into it thinking it would be a pitch-er (this is from Ms. ReViewing Habit's collection). But Kristy Swanson changed my mind.
I'm actually quite serious about that. Swanson is excellent in this movie. She feels like a real person, while her character could have easily fallen into a lazy, gum-popping stereotype. And I can think of less attractive people. Why has she basically been in nothing since?
Anyway, you all know the story at this point, which is set up by an admittedly clunky prologue. Buffy (Swanson) is a Valley girl cheerleader who discovers she is the latest in a long line of vampire slayers. Buffy is trained under the, er, watchful eye of a mysterious stranger named Merrick (Donald Sutherland) and aided by bad boy (you can tell by the soul patch) motorcycle enthusiast Pike (Luke Perry). She faces off with some dudes not at all shy about hamming it up as vampires: Paul Reubens, David Arquette, and Rutger Hauer. There's some mythological thing about how Buffy and Hauer's uber-vamp, Lothos, are connected throughout time or something, which I don't really care about it or get (maybe the TV show gave a clearer explanation) but that's all you really need to know.
The pleasures of Buffy aren't in the plot, though. It's the little details littered throughout. Buffy's barely there parents. A hilariously clueless and new agey basketball coach. The way Swanson says "duh." Perry's befuddled reaction to Arquette floating outside his second story window. Paul Reubens saying: "Kill him a lot." Paul Reubens dying. Paul Reubens, generally.
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| Work. |
It's all total camp, but just the right side of camp.
Also there are some great "is that...?" moments* in this movie: Two-time Oscar winner Hillary Swank as one of Buffy's mall-frequenting girlfriends and Ben Affleck in a non-speaking role as a basketball player on the visiting team, among others.
It's a good time AND something you can pop in around Halloween when The Shining feels like too much of a slog. I have no idea how well it sets up the iconic TV show that followed, but it's good enough for our purposes.
FINAL VERDICT: KEEPER
Captain America, on the other hand, was burdened with setting the table for what would become the biggest superhero movie of all time, The Avengers. Marvel even it made obvious in the title, for god's sake. Not to mention, Captain America has to start in World War II, so it's got to be a period piece and a war movie at the same time. So, yeah, tall order.
Does it succeed? Fitfully, but yes. For the first hour or so, you can feel the creaking machinery of the plot trying to work the Red Skull's efforts to unleash the power of the Tesseract (see: Thor), which will be key to The Avengers plot, into the journey of Steve Rogers from 4-F pipsqueak to supersoldier.
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| Weird, right? |
Also making the first act of the movie a little awkward is that Evans' head is superimposed onto a much smaller body before the experiment that bulks Steve Rogers up into Captain America. It's not quite Uncanny Valley distracting, but I was so fascinated by it the first time I saw the movie it kind of took me out of things.
But when the stories intersect and the Captain (perfectly cast Chris
Evans+), drops the soul-sucking propaganda work he's forced to do (in a
brilliant sequence!) and finally mixes it up with the Red Skull
(perfectly cast Hugo Weaving), the movie hums. A tune I quite enjoy, to
boot.
It's not a giddy amusement park ride like Iron Man, nor does it have the luxury of existing on another universe to excuse any over-the-top comic elements, like Thor. It's a little too reliant on CGI. It's sometimes plodding. But, it's ultimately satisfying in the old school adventure picture tradition. And it has a terrific ending which effectively sets up the Avengers. (By the by, I think ol' Cap works much better in the context of the Avengers than as a solo character - at least on film).
And, yes, Captain America is one of my favorite characters, so I'm pretty much genetically predisposed to like this. Hell, I liked the terrible 1990 B-movie version.
FINAL VERDICT: KEEPER
NEXT UP: CASABLANCA
*That's the best I can do for a phrase capturing the strange pleasure of seeing a famous actor or actress in a movie in which you didn't know/expect them to be.
+He played the Human Torch in the (bad) Fantastic Four movies as well. How is that fair?
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