The Apprentice (2024)

"Have you no decency?"

"Oh, I've heard that before..."

The more my thoughts dwell on this film, the more I come to appreciate it. It is, I suppose, a tale of two monsters- ultra-reactionary, homophobic, gay, anti-Semitic, Jewish, sadistic, loyal, charismatic fixer Roy Cohn and the utterly amoral Donald Trump. It isn't quite the making of a monster- we only really hint at the sheer nightmarishness of having Fred Trump as a father- but Cohn was, shall we say, a bad influence on the boy. As for Cohn's own demons, well...

Ali Abbasi does a superb job of evoking the New York of the 1970s and '80s, with the fashions, soundtrack and mores truly evoking a time that is longer ago than some of us like to imagine. From the exclusive New York clubs to the cocaine-fuelled orgies to the emergence of AIDS... it was a different time.

Sebastian Stan is perfect as Trump, inhabiting the entitled, soulless, empty man without crossing the line into doing an impression. He showcases the charm and charisma, but also makes it clear what a truly horrible orange monster the boy was and is. That scene with poor Ivana is truly horrific. Alas, if only she'd stayed with her boyfriend.

Yet the film truly belongs to Jeremy Strong, who truly inhabits both the mannerisms and the deep darkness of Roy Cohn, a truly evil man who, uniquely among the many tragic victims of AIDS, deserves no sympathy. We follow the power balance between these two men, Cohn as alpha male and mentor and Trump as supplicant at first... until the orange monster, having learned what he needs, has no further time for this pathetic, weak old man, happily claiming credit for Cohn's methods as his own.

That final, tragic, birthday party for a very frail Cohn, though... remind you of anyone?

What If... the Red Guardian Stopped the Winter Soldier?

 "Horseradish! I am no fool!"

This week the blog will be a little different as Little Miss Llamastrangler is with me. I don't usually blog the same show night after night, but I'll be blogging What If? between now and Friday as the episodes are short and it works logistically. 

After that I'll try and get back to some sort of "normal" schedule. And somehow fit in Squid Game Season Two...

Anywayy, this is a nice, light-hearted little romp, and a real joy. Yes, the "What If" is straightforward... but the episode is really about showcasing the Red Guardian as the truly fun character than he is- a bit of a blowhard, yes, but straightforward and honest. And while he's a communist, at least he has a genuine ethical system, although surely he's the only true, non-cynical Soviet communist left by 1991.

Of course, it helps that he's played by David Harbour, a rather prominent actor these days, hence the prominence for the character. But this episode, by giving him a real bond with the brainwashed Bucky, really humanises him. And it's great that the other main hero here is Bill Foster, or Goliath, another obscure hero even if Laurence Fishburne is hardly an obscure actotr.

This kind of thing, exploring small scale eventualities with underused characters, is exactly what this series ought to be doing more of.

What If... the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?

 "Of course, issues left unresolved rarely stay buried for long."

One episode a day over the Christmas period, is it? With Mark Gatiss dropping a new Ghost Story for Christmas tomorrow and Doctor Who the day after? I'm so going to fall behind with this...

It's a fun way to start, though. Mechs and "Gamma Beasts" that owe a lot to Japanese tropes that I suspect I'd understand more if I was more deeply into Manga and the like as opposed to just the retro Godzilla films and of course Transformers with its Japanese roots. But we all know what mechs are and this is a fun take on the tropes from the MCU, exactly the sort of thing that What If? should be doing. I rather enjoyed this.

And yes, there's a very obvious subtext- the whole thing is a giant metaphor, a macrocosm, for what's going on inside Bruce Banner's head.

But there's something else going on too, I think. I've long seen the constant talk of the MCU's decline as overblown, but that's not to say there's nothing to the criticisms. Individual films and series have usually been good, but there's no denying that there's less of a feelof a cohesive gang of heroes as used to be the case, with the MCU spread much more thinly.

So is this episode trying to push a viable team of new "main" protagonists, including Sam Wilson's Cap, Monica Rambeau, Shang-Chi, Bucky and Moon Knight? If so, this could be interesting...

What If... the Avengers Assembled in 1602?

 "We never get our happy ending..."

I read Neil Gaiman's limited series of 1602 a couple of decades ago, but I fear I remember little. I recall the throwback from the future being the same as here, but the 1602 of the limited series was much more rooted in real history, Old Queen Bess with her old rotting teeth and all that. This is a very different beast, but fun just the same.

We have rifts in time causing this universe to end. We have a very ungrateful King Thor- he's had Wanda Maximoff kidnap Peggy from her own reality (and her own Steve Rgers) to help save their universe... only to exile her when she initially fails, still exiled to a doomed world. Yet Peggy is truly a hero, refusing the Watcher's offer to take her "home."

Indeed, I love the metatextuality with Peggy being very much aware of the Watcher's presence and the two ofvthem interacting. But then, of course, this is an episode which opens with Tom Hiddleston playing Hamlet (a recent play by some lad from Warwickshire) and which is delightfully crammed with deliberately absurd olde worlde insults.

The character stuff is cool too, though. Once again, Happy Hogan becomes the Freak. Yet, at the core of things, behind all the fun, is the deep, tragic heartbreak of Peggy and Steve never getting to be together. Here's hoping that the finale puts a stop to that...

What if... Captain Carter fought the Hydra Stomper

 "I don't do sequels... normally."

And I thought last episode was good.

This one is simply outstanding. It helps, of course, that it's a sequel to one of last season's standout episodes and benefits from the powerfully tragic love story where Peggy and Steve, although deeply in love, can never be together on account of the small problem of him being the Hydra Stomper, never helpful to true love.

This gives the episode a nice bit of depth and character, but the whole thing oozes class, with excellent characterisation. The close friendshop between Peggy and Natasha Romanov feels real and nuanced. It's great seeing Peggy as out-of-time in the present day, just like the Steve of "our" world. It's nice to see a Bucky Barnes who has remained living and grown old. And, yeah, that ersatz American town in Sokovia is magnificent nightmare fuel.

Also, what an ending. Is this a version of Neil Gaiman's 1602 graphic novel? I look forward to it. The finale, I assume?

What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

 "Bummer. I thought you were the dude from Van Halen."

Yes, I know. I'm doing so much telly at the moment, and it's a struggle to keep up. I blame all the new telly. There's this, there's Fool Me Once, there's Echo after this. I fear that Twin Peaks and the Batman movie serial may have to take a very temporary back seat, but they're very much ongoing. Same with Robin of Sherwood.

Anyway, I enjoyed this. There's character stuff with PeterQuill as a kid with Ego as the main threat. There is, perhaps, an overly neat resolution. But it's fun seeing an Avengers team form in 1988. We get a young Hank Pym, Bill Foster, and the fortysomethings are represented by T'Chaka... and both Peggy and Howard must be nearing retirement age. Peggy isn't aging bad. The Winter Soldier is well handled, though, and Thor is fun. 

One complaint, though: the United States has many fine ales and a proud brewing traditiob. But its bottled "light beers" are unfit for human consumption. Thor and T'Chaka endorsing "light beer" is the most unrealistic thing in this episode.

What If... Zombies?"

 "Do you guys just not have horror movies in Wakanda?"

"We don't need them. We have American reality shows."

Bear with me with Sandman; technical difficulties with Netflix. The Marvel stuff will continue on schedule. I may choose to alternate it with something else for the duration, but anyway...

After last episode's seriousness, here we get a load of fun. It's nt very complicated plot-wise, just taking all the zombie tropes and running with them. I stopped reading comics all but completely n '93-94ish, with the odd exception, after being a pretty much full-on True Believer at that point: I discovered rock music. Hence I know little of the whole "Marvel Zombies" thing.

But this is enormous fun. The Point of Departure is simple, but makes sense: Janet Van Dyne was a zombie who infected Hank Pym in the Quantum Zone, and so on. We have superhero zombies. We have a crew of random motley surviving superheroes. We have the requisite heroic sacrifice from a heroic hero, in this case the Wasp. We have a mini-sanctuary with the Vision, rather cleverly, as being an android he's "not on the menu", but it turns out he's not to be trusted due to his love for Zombie Wanda. Nice twist. And nice use of the Hulk.

And of course we have a, well, maxi-sanctuary in the form of Wakanda, humanity's last hope, where the survivors head, hoping to cure zombie-ism...

After which zombie Thanos is waiting to snap. Nice twist, again.

This is fun, not too serious but that makes it no less witty nor clever.

What if... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?

 "Who needs a plan? I have shield!"

So Loki has unleashed the Multiverse. Branches now proliferate. So here's the first.

In alternate history (Google the fourm; it's an interest of mine) we have a phrase, the "POD" or point of divergence. Here, it's Peggy choosing to stay, and so becoming the Super Soldier instead of Steve... hence the Captain Carter in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness.

This is huge fun. Captain America: The First Avenger plays out with Peggy as the hero- allowed to display the Union Flag, for some reason, by Americans of 1943, who would have been somewhat more ambiguous about us.

And it's wonderful. The romance between strong Peggy and War Machine weaking Steve, with a character that wins her heart. The Lovecraftian horror. I love this.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: One World, One People

 "I'm Captain America!"

In the end, I think this series has been good but not great. The concept works well, bt the chracterisation (despite superb acting) falls a little short. It's only in the final two episodes that the series catches fire. Still, this makes for a strong finale.

In theory this is about Sam and co finally defeating the Flag Smashers, with Karli getting the death she probably deserves after such fanatcal willingness for so many others to die for her beiefs. It's about Bucky learning how to truly atone for his past misdeeds. It's about the shocking revelation that Sharon is the Power Broker, a proper baddie- and, with the newly restored Agent Carter, the US Government has a cuckoo in its nest. It's about John Walker finding some small redemption, and a new costume ("It's the same, but black(!)" as the US Agent, courtesy of the splenid Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra La Fontaine.

But mostly this is about Captaim America, and what it means for him to be black. Sam's entrance, with his new costume, and announcing himself, is a huge moment. So is Bucky calling him Cap, and the nod from Walker. So is his rather awesome speech about idealism and not being dicks to refugees, words that certain British politocoans, some of whom bully their civil servants, would do well to heed.

And the moment with Isaiah is sentimental, yes, but just about earned. There's a hell of a big history of racial oppression behind all this, and not only in the United States. In the end, I think, the script tries hard to address this enormous subtext but doesn't quit hae the eloquence. But, as Isaiah sort of says to Sam, not everyone can be Martin Luther King.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Truth

 "There will never be a Black man be Captain America."

So far this series has been consistently good, but has never reached greatness. Its been enjoyable, well-structured and well made with a great cast but, I think, the dialogue has never quite taken flight. That changes here: this penultimate episode, at least, whatever happens in the finale, achieves greatness.

The whole thing is, of course, a meditation on what it means for Sam to be, quite transparently, on the cusp of being the first Black man to be Captain America. The meeting with Isaiah is necessary: Isaiah stands for the many crimes against Black Americans over the centuries, the burning crosses, the Jim Crow laws, the unspeakableness of slavery and its lasting scars, the continuing unspeakableness of voter suppression and mass incarceration- although we non-Americans cannot smugly assume that we do not have similar sins of our own, particularly after the Windrush scandals and the racist attacks we've seen in the last couple of days aimed at three brave young men. It is not only in America that racism is institutional and has tendrils that get everywhere, no doubt including my own subconscious.

That said, I like the handling of John Walker here. Yes, he has done a terrible thing, but it was the disturbingly military-worshipping culture of the USA that made him a monster, and seems to betray this damaged man who has only become what they made him. So it's intriguing to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus, with an outageous accent, approaching him as Valentina Allegra La Fontaine, a very retro character from the days of Jim Steranko. It seems, from the closing credits, that US Agent will be appearing soon.

However, this is about Sam, about his family, his sister, and their boat- all symbolising their heritage. There's a lovely bit of flirting between Bucky and Sarah, but an equally lovely scene between the two friends as Bucky admits he failed to appreciate what he was asking Sam to do in being the first Black man to take the shield, and taking some good advice. But the groundwork is laid as Sam prepares for his new role. 

We end with the Flag Smashers about to strike for the finale. But, quite rightly, this episode was not about such things. A superb piece of drama.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The Whole World Is Watching

 "Being Cap is the first time I've had the chance to do something that actually feels right."

This is still no WandaVision, but it's a complex and nuanced action drama with actual subtext and proper characterisation. There are echoes of Mark Gruenwald's John Walker storyline in Captain America, most obviously at the shocking final scene, but this is very much its own thing.

It's to the writers' credit that the plot is bloody complex at this point- we have Sam and Bucky, who are not quite on the same time as Walker and Lemar, let alone the compelling Zemo; we have Karli Morganthau and her Flag Smashers; we have the Wakandans, who just want Zemo; and, of course, we have the mysterious Power Broker (probably not quite as Gruenwald originally wrote him). Some of these want justice, but not all of them agree on what this is. Some want power, very literally symbolised by the Super Soldier Serum.  And evryone is an individual with their own motives. There are nice character touches, too, like the flashback to Bucky's "unbrainwashing" in Wakanda.

But there are, I think, two themes here. One is the ethics of terrorism. Karli is a genuine idealist, whose ideology appeals to Sam, yet her methods are murderous: the ends justify the means, however vague her ideology (Socialism? Anti-Nationalism?) may be. Yet Walker simply accepts the US government line, while Zemo simply says that "The desire to become a superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideas". He may be a cynic, but this works on more than one level. Altruistic aims can subtly shift, and if one's peers are super soldiers...

This segues into power. Karli has some further vials, most of them destroyed by Zemo (giving Karli a problem; the Power Broker ants those vials or else), but one secretly pocketed by Walker, who spends most of the episode losing fights. But would you take one if you could? Sam has no hestitation: no. Afte all, he refused the shield. Lemar, asked by John, is an instant yes. Given how the episode ends, I think we all know what he's going to do.

But, given how the episode ends... this man is a damaged war veteran and as much a victim as anyone. But John Walker is no Captain America. And, while this may be no WandaVision, it's very good telly.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Power Broker

 "I can't run in these heels!"

I have to admire the way this episode is constructed. On the face of it the plot is a load of fairly obvious padding, as Sam and Bucky look for clues on how the Super Soldier Serum has been recreated, in the form of a kind of treasure hunt. Also, John Walker and Lemar Hoskins are getting jealous of them, while it's established that the only twenty vials of the Serum in existence are held by Kari Morgenthau, with the mysterious Power Broker in pursuit. That's it.

And yet we also have strong characters, good dialogue and lots of globe trotting between Bavara, Latvia and... Madripoor. There may be no sign of a certain eyepatch wearing Canadian mutant, but I think this is the first appearance in the MCU of something which was once part of the X-Men bunch of characters and concepts formerly owned by Fox before Disney ate it. Am I right?

Of course, we also have Bucky springing the ever-entertaining Baron Zemo, who makes for a splendid triple act with Bucky and an exasperated Sam. We also meet Sharon Carter again, on the run- not pardoned, like Sam and Bucky- and dealing in stolen Monets. Her situation is a massive rebuke to Sam, who has never stopped to consider the present condition of thise who sacrificed everything for him and Cap in Civil War.

There's also a nicely played scene where Kari's friend and underling is shocked that she is now willing so set off bombs in situations where there are likely to be casualties. And John Walker is turning out to be more and more of a massive dick.

This is good stuff. Not WandaVision good, but good.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The Star-Spangled Man

 "Time to go to work..."

An impressive, and very different, second episode here in which Sam and Bucky finally meet up again and immediately, action sequences or not- and the action sequences are good- have great comic chemistry as the kinds of friends who constantly insult each other. I particularly love the extended riff on Sam's theory about "androids, aliens or wizards", and Bucky's boast about having read The Hobbit... in 1937.

This episode also gives us our first look at this version of John Walker- from Custer's Grove, Georgia as Mark Gruenwald originally wrote him but this time less of an obvious redneck, although he's still something of a jock and naive square jawed conformist type. It's notable how this version of Lemar Hoskins is considerably brighter than this John Walker.

There's lots of tension between all of these characters. As we find out at the end, Bucky resents Sam for spurning the shield as Steve Rogers' hand-picked successor and, of course, both of them are wary of the initially friendly new Captain America and Battle Star. The subtleties of this awkwardness are well handled. There's some nice political subtext, too, in the context of American racism- Sam is only not abused by racist cops because of who he is, and we meet Isaiah, a black super soldier from the Korean War who seems to have been treated abominably by his country.

And the learn more about the Flag Smashers- this time most certainly not a bloke but an organisation much less organic, and its leader is a young woman (with a nice bit of misdirection as we meet her) called Kari Morganthau. Her "imagine there's no countries" ideology is channelled through "the Blip" here, and the whole gang appear to be super soldiers. This is very interesting, as is the mention of Gruenwald perennial baddie the Power Broker.

This isn't quite up there with WandaVision, or indeed Gruenwald's splendid run on the Cap comic. But it is, nevertheless, very good.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: New World Order

 "Every time something gets better for one group, it gets bad for another."

This may not be as high concept as Wandaision and, I'm guessing, won't have been as popular. From this first episode is looks like fairly standard Marvel superheroics fearuring several Captain America supporting characters in Stee's absence with a few nice fan touches- it's nice to see Georges Batroc, although sadly there's neither any leaping nor any facial hair on this upper lip. We'll have to satisfy ourselves with the outrageous accent.

I haven't read a Captain America comic since 1994, so there may be allusions to more recent runs that go above my head, but so far it looks as though there's going to be an exciting amount of linkage with the late Mark Gruenwald's seminal yet underappreciated run on Captain America from 1985 to '94. We have Flag Smasher, presumably (so far shown as a group, although perhaps with a super strong leader) and we end with a new Captain America- presumably John Walker?

This is a good first episode, though, giving us a lot of introductory exposition and showing us Sam (with his nifty robotic Redwing) and a pardoned Bucky in a world six months after the "blip". Sam is clearly the star, bequested the shield by Steve: we begin the episode (after an awesome Falcon action set piece) with his declining to be Cap and returning the shield to the US government- only for th episode to end with someone ese being appointed Cap. But we also get to see his family, and his sister's financial struggles, as well as facing both the question of just how Avengers support themselves and what dying in the "blip" does to one's credit rating.

For Bucky we get both his coming to terms with his past actions and the weirdness of living in the present day at the age of 106 with a young body: his only apparent friend is a man close to his own generation, and he struggles with both relationships and friendships. But Sam is very much the focus.

It's a promising start, although this was pretty much a busy first episode full of exposition. But I bet the series ends with John Walker anding over the shield to Sam after failing in a similar way to Cap #350?

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

“Congratulations, cap. You're a criminal."

I saw this film at the cinema in 2016, at the Silverlink up near Newcastle, with Mrs Llamastrangler. It was years ago, yes, but I hadn't blogged the prequels and wanted to do them all in order, so it hasn't been until this rewatching of the film that I've blogged it. Technicaliies and that.

Anyway, this is a film that is awesome in all the usual Marvel ways. We have top notch exciting action scenes. We somehow have a large cast where every character is well characterised and the dialogue is awesome. We have loads of nods to the fans, hence Crossbones and Zeno, even if the character is a little wasted here.

But at the heart of the film is a massive ideological fault line that divides all the heroes- and it’s easy for me, as a liberal and a Liberal, to emphasise with both sides. My civil libertarian instincts make me want to side with Cap, especially as the argument that heroes are to be castigated for those sad in innocent deaths that occur while they are saving many more lives, as in Sokovia. This is a silly argument. And yet... should not those with power be held to account, as we should do for those we allow to wield political power? Is it not important that potential tyrants not be allowed free rein? Even here, where the Sokovia Accords have the appearance of a bad compromise, I’d hesitate to disagree with Tony Stark here, even if many of his actual arguments are bad ones.

This film has depth. It has comedy- and not all of it with Ant-Man. It has drama. It has tragedy. It has the introduction of both a charismatic Black Panther and a new, young Spider-Man with a hot Aunt May. Marvel films are generally awesome, but this is one of the very finest.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

"This isn't freedom.This is fear."

HERE BE SPOILERS

This was an extraordinary film when I first saw it at the cinema on my honeymoon and, even with the main twist spoiled, it's an extraordinary film today. The Russo brothers have done a superb job with what is effectively the spy genre of the Marvel superhero films, but Chris Evans is extraordinary too as a World War II Roosevelt New Dealer out of time, struggling to adapt to a time where nobody cares about civil liberties and the military-industrial complex has grown to monstrous proportions.

We begin as Cap bonds with Sam Wilson, another military veteran with similarly invisible scars, and we get a glimpse of Cap's notepad filled with things he needs to catch up on such phenomena as Star Wars, Nirvana (yay!) and the Berlin Wall, "up and down". It isn't long until his first exciting mission, a hostage crisis perpetrated by Cap's old for from the comics, - moustache-free George Batroc. But cracks begin to show between our SHIELD comrades as Cap and Black Widow are given markedly different mission objectives. Cap's complaint to Nick Fury leads to his being shown Operation Insight-a massive and, in Cap's view, disproportionate armoury. How can this be synonymous with freedom?

It can't, or so it seems, as there is a cancer within SHIELD, one that disdains Cap as much as it disdains liberty: HYDRA. And the revelation of this, and that Cap is suddenly hunted prey, is the most shocking and exciting part of the film.

There's so much more, though; Cap's heartbreaking meeting with the elderly Peggy, the nice bit of exposition in the bunker as Arnim Zola spends his last moments as an uploaded AI life form expositing on how HYDRA's takeover of SHIELD came to be, Natasha's general awesomeness, capped by a kick-ass session at a Senate hearing, the whole sequence with Nick Fury under pursuit in the car that leads him to fake his death. But the film is ultimately about the Winter Soldier; Bucky, Cap's oldest friend. Behind the explosions and the awesomeness the film always has a heart.

There's a lot of Marvel life here- HYDRA's targets include "Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange"- but the film is about two things: civil liberties vs. security and friendship. Hence Cap's new yet strong friendship with the Falcon. Hence Bucky being unable, when the moment comes, to kill Cap. It's an incredible film, but it ends with Bucky still at large...

Captain America: The First Avenger (2012)

"I finally got everything I wanted- and I'm wearing tights."

Yes, I'm finally starting to go back to the Marvel films that I've seen but never blogged. Captain America: The First Avenger may not be among the very best of Marvel's recent efforts but it's a damn fine film, with a proper and well-thought through usage of Cap's origin to tell a good story while remaining faithful to the spirit of Simon and Kirby's original. It's usually a bad idea for superhero films to begin with the origin story but this is an exception.

Oh, and there are also a couple of fun cameos from Jenna Coleman and Natalie Dormer.

We begin, after a brief establishing scene of something found in the ice in the present day, in Nazi occupied Norway, with a nice scene involving David Bradley, the Red Skull and some dialogue that firmly ties the Cosmic Cube (as it isn't called here) to Norse mythology as a nod to the recent Thor. We then move on to establishing the personality and, importantly, the heroic character, there already, of the 90 pound weakling version of Steve Rogers, rattling through the origin and the super soldier serum stuff while also establishing the excellent Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, here shown as a sexy ice maiden frustrated by the glass ceiling. She really ought to get her own series.

We also, interestingly, get the origin of HYDRA: a faction of Nazi scientists led by the Red Skull that, in an interesting twist, "declares independence" from Nazi Germany. That's a departure from the source material which shores up HYDRA much better as a long-term antagonist.

It's a nice touch to have Cap initially reduced to a performing monkey selling war bonds, giving a credible reason for the costume and also allowing us to see the actual original costume from Captain America Comics #1, a copy of which is actually seen in-universe!

It's nice that the Red Skull's, er, red skull only gets revealed halfway through, to dramatic effect. And interesting that Cap's shield is pure vibranium here: it seems that adamantium belongs to Fox.

This is a brilliant film: it has the script, the characters, the action sequences and the pathos to be, if anything, a slightly underappreciated gem. Cheeky of them to give Samuel L Jackson such billing for such a tiny cameo, mind.