Today they two of us talk over Captain America: Civil War. If you haven’t seen it, be warned: there will be spoilers.
movies
Who’s That Guy?
In the course of my life, I’ve become aware that I experience mild face blindness. It’s nothing I’ve ever been diagnosed with and it isn’t severe enough for me to seek any kind treatment for, I just know that, compared with other people, I have trouble recognizing faces that I haven’t seen a lot of. I mostly identify people by their hair, their clothing and movements, and, especially, their voices. In day-to-day life it’s not much of a problem. (Learning a hundred new students every semester is a challenge, but I have the advantage of getting to take attendance at the start of every class.) When it bothers me the most is in entertainment.
When there are multiple characters with similar appearances, I tend to get them mixed up. (Especially middle-aged white men, since they’re all over the place.) I also have trouble recognizing people we’ve seen before in different settings.
For example, there’s a moment in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when the Winter Soldier’s mask comes off revealing that it’s the Captain’s best friend and fellow soldier Bucky Barnes. It’s a powerful moment and a shocking reveal, but the first time I saw the movie, I had no idea who that guy was. Even having seen the first Captain America movie, and having Bucky reintroduced via the museum exhibit/infodump earlier in Winter Soldier, I didn’t know who I was looking at on screen. As the movie went on, it became clear to me that the Winter Soldier was someone Captain Rogers knew from his past, an old friend, but I still couldn’t connect the character with Bucky. (Cap said his name, but it went by too fast for me to catch.) It wasn’t until I rewatched the movie on DVD that I finally realized who the Winter Soldier was. Even today, looking at the two characters on screen, I can’t visually tell that they’re the same person.
It’s an odd way to watch movies and television, knowing that there is information up there on the screen that I can’t interpret. I’m lucky to have a co-geek to turn to and ask: “Who is that guy?” One of the many pleasures of being married to someone who loves nerdy stuff as much as I do!
We’re off to see Captain America: Civil War on opening night tonight. It looks like there’s going to be a lot of familiar faces in this movie. I might even recognize some of them.
Images: Bucky Barnes via tvtropes; Winter Soldier via playbuzz
In Character is an occasional feature looking at some of our favorite characters from written works and media to see what drives them, what makes them work, and what makes us love them so much.
Five Captain America: Civil War Clips
Marvel UK’s YouTube selection includes these five Captain America: Civil War clips that I hadn’t seen before. The first includes snippets from interviews with the movie’s main actresses (Scarlett Johansson, Emily VanCamp, and Elizabeth Olsen).
Captain America: Civil War – In Good Company by Marvel UK
Yay, Sharon Carter / Agent 13!
The second has interview snippets with Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., and the Russo Brothers.
Captain America: Civil War – Brothers In Arms | HD by Marvel UK
Captain America: Civil War – Right To Choose | HD by Marvel UK
Captain America: Civil War – New Recruit | HD by Marvel UK
Captain America: Civil War – The Team Vs Bucky clip | HD UK by Marvel UK
We’ve been in blackout mode, avoiding anything spoilery like the plague. Alasdair Stuart’s Civil War review for Tor.com doesn’t include spoilers, so I did read that one. After tonight, I don’t have to hold back anymore. 🙂
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Rogue One Trailer
The first trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out!
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY Official Teaser Trailer by Star Wars
I’m delighted to see Felicity Jones cast as a protagonist. I enjoyed her performances as The Unicorn in Doctor Who (season 4, episode 7, “The Unicorn and the Wasp”) and as Catherine Morland in the 2007 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. According to IMDB, also Alan Tudyk, Forest Whitaker, and Mads Mikkelsen are among the cast. Mikkelsen seems to have been busy with genre roles lately – first Doctor Strange and now Rogue One.
Rogue One is the first in a series of spinoffs outside the episodic Star Wars core collectively known as the Star Wars Anthology Series. If this trailer is anything to go by, the series should be a lot of fun.
At this writing, the release date is set to December 16, 2016. Can’t wait!
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Love & Friendship Trailer
A movie version of Jane Austen’s never-before-adapted epistolary novel Lady Susan is coming out in a few weeks (released on May 13), and the trailer is finally here.
Love & Friendship TRAILER 1 (2016) – Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel Movie HD via Movieclips Coming Soon
I’ve been waiting for it for a long time without any real idea of what it’ll be like, as I’ve never even heard of the writer / director Whit Stillman before. It looks absolutely hilarious! Kate Beckinsale as Lady Susan seems perfect in every way; I’m also looking forward to seeing more of Jemma Redgrave, James Fleet, and Stephen Fry. Can’t wait! Fansquee!
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Why White Horus Bothers Me More Than Black Heimdall
In 2011’s Thor, Idris Elba, despite not looking typically Norse, plays the Norse god Heimdall. In 2016’s Gods of Egypt, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, despite not looking typically Egyptian, plays the Egyptian god Horus. The casting of Elba as Heimdall surprised me the first time I saw the movie, but it has never bothered me as a fan or as a historian. Coster-Waldau as Horus really bothers me and I think it’s worth taking a minute to explain why.
I have nothing against Coster-Waldau as an actor. I haven’t seen Gods of Egypt and don’t plan to, so I have nothing to say about his performance in this particular role, but he’s not the problem here. The problem is in the casting of the movie as a whole.
Proud and Prejudiced Zombies
I’m really the wrong person to say anything about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, since I am not a fan of zombie stories to begin with, but having a fondness for Jane Austen I went to the movie hoping for something entertaining. I was not entirely disappointed, but something about the movie bothers me.
It’s not just that it feels like a joke that has gone on too long without getting to a punchline. It is Pride and Prejudice with zombies added, exactly as advertised. The confined and unvarying quality of the movie is a feature, not a bug, and I can live with that. What bothers me about it is what it does to Austen’s characters and in particular the female characters.
Two Historically-Inspired Recipes to Accompany PPZ
Having seen Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last weekend, Regency England is trying to take over my brain. (Braaaain!) Here are two historically-inspired recipes if brains aren’t your favorite dish.
Pea soup
Maria Popova at Brain Pickings shares a recipe for pease soup (pea soup) by Jane Austen’s longtime friend Martha Lloyd. It comes from Dinner with Mr. Darcy by Pen Vogler. Inspired by the food featured in her novels and letters, the cookbook takes recipes from Austen’s period and adapts them for contemporary cooks.
Ingredients and directions
Take two quarts of pease. Boil them to a pulp. Strain them. Put 1/2 lb of butter into a saucepan. Celery, half an onion, and stew them til tender. Then put two anchovies, powdered pepper, salt, mint and parsley (each a small handful) and spinach, and heat of each a small quantity. Half a spoonful of sugar. The soup be boiled as thick as you like it and the whole be ground together, boiled up and dished.
The mint sounds interesting, but anchovies…?! Visit Brain Pickings for Pen’s modern version of Martha Lloyd’s pea soup and two other recipes. Or take a peak at Amazon’s preview, which includes a few photos from the book, among them four recipes.
Cherry bounce
The exact origins of this cherry-infused drink are not known, but it definitely existed towards the end of 18th century, since Martha Washington (1731-1802) had a recipe for it. According to Wikipedia, the village of Frithsden in Hertfordshire claims to have originated it. Since Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is mostly set in Hertfordshire, cherry bounce would make quite a plausible companion to P&P or PPZ.
This recipe is Emily Han’s version, via Design*Sponge:
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds (680 g) sweet cherries, pitted
4 whole allspice berries
2 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground mace or nutmeg
3/4 cup (144 g) turbinado sugar
1 bottle (750 ml, or 3 1/4 cups) bourbon
Directions
Combine the cherries, allspice, cloves, mace, and sugar in a quart (1 L) jar. Pour the bourbon into the jar, making sure the cherries are submerged. Cap the jar tightly. Store it in a cool, dark place for at least 2 months, shaking occasionally. The longer it infuses, the better it will be. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer lined with a coffee filter or flour sack cloth, gently pressing on the cherries with the back of a spoon to squeeze out all the liquid. Discard the cherries, or reserve them for another use. Bottle and store in a cool, dark place for up to 1 year. Yields about 3 1/2 cups (823 ml).
A commenter in the Design*Sponge post suggested trying the discarded cherries on ice cream. That does sound yummy! Visit Design*Sponge for another historically-inspired drink recipe by Emily.
Images: Yellow pea soup by A. Charlotte Riley (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Cherries by Eppu Jensen
Geeks eat, too! Second Breakfast is an occasional feature in which we talk about food with geeky connections and maybe make some of our own. Yum!
Captain America: Civil War Trailer #2
The second trailer big TV spot for Captain America: Civil War dropped during Superbowl this past weekend:
Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War – Big Game Spot by Marvel Entertainment
(Of course, as anyone who can read is be able to tell, this isn’t the second trailer, but a preview. It was aired during Superbowl; hence, “big game spot.” D’oh. Aaanyhow.)
Not much to go on there – it’s only 30 seconds – but we do at least have a clear idea now who’s against who (Captain, Bucky, Falcon, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Ant-Man versus Iron Man, War Machine, Black Widow, Vision, and Black Panther).
Aaaaand the actual second trailer is below:
Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War – Trailer 2 by Marvel Entertainment
This post has been edited.
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Bloody Lovely: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies opens tomorrow!
Now, I don’t typically go for horror or zombies, but I’m actually looking forward to this one: the trailers and clips make PPZ look kick-ass. Check ’em out:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies | official trailer #1 US (2016) Lily James Matt Smith via moviemaniacsDE
“My daughters were trained for battle, sir, not the kitchen.” – Mr. Bennet
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Official Trailer #1 (2016) – Lily James Horror Movie HD via Movieclips Trailers
(There seems to be a bit of perv cam action going on. I hope this is as much as there is.)
I know nothing of the 2009 novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, but I do love some of the movie adaptation’s stars: Lily James as Elizabeth Bennet (James is no stranger to elegance based on her work in Downton Abbey) and Matt Smith (of the 11th Doctor fame) as Mr. Collins, and, finally, Charles Dance and Lena Headey (most lately, in genre interest, of the Game of Thrones excellence) as Mr. Bennet and Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Movie Clip – Admire via Sony Pictures Entertainment
“I do not know what I admire more, Elizabeth Bennet, your skill as a warrior or your resolve as a woman.” – Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Bloody Good Sneak Peek via Sony Pictures Entertainment
Ugh, pretty gruesome. Then again, it is a truth universally acknowledged, that to see and enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, one must be in a suitable frame of mind.
There will be murder and mayhem, surely…
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Movie Clip – Enviable Talent via Sony Pictures Entertainment
…aaand apparently everything ends in a double wedding:
Seems like a combination of very silly and very kick-ass – “hopefully magnificently so,” to quote husband. 🙂
Images: Poster via IMDB. Bennet sisters by CTMG Inc. via Showbizjunkies. Double wedding by Jay Maidment via Entertainment Weekly.
In the Seen on Screen occasional feature, we discuss movies and television shows of interest.
Co-Geeking 