P.S. I have seen it 4 times in theaters. Has anybody here beaten me? :p

Nope...I am watching it for the 3rd time on Sunday and will watch it once again, but you will probably be on showing #10 by that point.

I wish. I'm just glad I managed to see it at all. I went back and forth about going to see it last Thursday when it opened because I was tired and had a headache. But I went. And then came down with the flu the next day. Really dodged a bullet there. Today is the first day I've been out of bed. Going to see it again tomorrow. And hopefully a bunch more after that.

Seen it twice. But engineered a stopover in the UK (en route home from Europe) to see it opening day in London. That's dedication, right? ;-)

And then I saw it again with kidlet after it opened in Canada.

Not even close, but I am going to watch it second time in theater next week. So excited!!

Planning on going for a third time next week. =D

Nope, seen it twice, would love to see it again :D

Only 2 times.

But it was the first time that I watched a movie twice in cinema in 2 different languages. ;o)

OMG I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS DISCUSSION ALL MY LIFE!!!!! Well, part of my life. But an important part of my life.

I KNOW RIGHT? I FEEL LIKE IT WAS ABOUT FIVE MINUTES AGO THAT WE HAD PICTURES OF THEM FILMING.

I loved it.

One of my favorite parts(besides everything with Tasha) was that when Cap had his speech they showed that there was good Shield Agents there too. To often everything is black and white and everyone is always working on the bad side for no reason. They showed the true in Shield.

I was so surprised when the old lady started kicking ass... then it mad more sense when it was Tasha, but being unspoiled it was an awesome WTF moment.

Still wish for a vague Hawkeye mention, but loved the necklace.

I was kinda dissapionted that the older lady turned out to be Natasha...it was cool on her part but I thought there was just an awesome kickass World Council Member. I wonder where she is and if we will be seeing her again.

SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM.

....

MARIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

And NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!

That's really all I have to say.

PRETTY MUCH

One part that I really loved was the control room...that guy scared shitless but bravely standing his ground about not launching the ships. And Sharon, who is an agent but obviously nowhere in the league of some of the others, standing up to Remlow too. I didn't notice until the second viewing that she tried shooting at him as he escaped but totally made sense that she would be at target practice afterwards. I just loved loved loved that scene. These are the non-glorified heroes IMO.

Also that guy who would't launch the ships...reminded me of Nat at the end as she published all of SHIELD/HYDRAs secrets, including her own. True bravery for a bigger cause.

One of my favorite reviews pointed out how many people besides Steve made heroic sacrifices, and I love that element. :)

1. On a shipper note, I'm glad they didn't give Bucky and Natasha a history or many scenes together.

2. Natasha was awesome. She's a BAMF. I loved her friendship with Steve (and, again on a shipper note, if Steve's her best friend then Clint can be her lover :) ). Still hate the wig, but in every other way she was perfection.

3. I didn't expect to love Steve as much as I did. He isn't my favorite character, but I really loved him in this movie.

4. I actually think this may be my favorite Marvel movie, which surprised me.

5. I had a lot of Bucky feels that I wasn't expecting. And now ship Steve/Bucky. Steve can have Bucky and Natasha can have Clint. It works.

6. I loved the plot and the HYDRA twist. Getting rid of SHIELD was a bold, smart move. And the plot was very timely and well thought out, at least in my opinion.

7. Nick Fury is also a BAMF.

8. Maria Hill is awesome as always. And should get more scenes. Now that Cobie isn't tied down with HIMYM, i hope she's given more to do.

9. Sam was awesome too.

8. Uh, so, yes, basically I loved it. All of it. Going to see it again in IMAX tomorrow morning. And I need icons now.

Edited 2014-04-11 05:43 pm (UTC)

I think I was sad they totally cut it out. I was hoping for just a little background. They also changed her birthdate. Really besides Clint, those were the only things that bothered me.

I loved Maria. So cool and calm when she shot that guy in the control room.

I really liked Sam.

Fury is really going to have to thank Stark for the improvements on his car.

Speaking of Tony is it wrong to want him to crash Tasha's senate hearing.

The Hydra thing was very creepy.

I AM PRETTY SURE THIS MOVIE RUINED MY SOUL. There are really only two things I wish they would've done, which is have a little bit of background on Bucky/Nat (yes, that's my other ship and I love it okay no one judge) but I understand why the MCU is probably not going this route because it would be hella complicated. And like everyone, I wish that they would've at least had one throwaway line about Clint, if only because they managed to do that for every other Avengers. But, then again, ARROW NECKLACE SPEAKING VOLUMES and also I like that there's so much headcanon now to play with on that front :)

ANYWAY I just loved everything about this film. My favorite scene in life was the whole Steve/Nat roadtrip and the bunker and the scene in Sam's bedroom because FEELINGS. And just so many feelings about Sam and Maria and Steve and Bucky in general and I'm going a third time this weekend and maybe I can compose my feelings beyond FLAIL SQUEE.

And I need new WS icons...

Its totally okay to have conflicting ships. I ship Nat with other people sometimes myself, though I don't personally ship her with Bucky.

Let's make a thread to rec or list your Winter Soldier related fics. :) They don't have to be specifically Clint/Nat fics, as long as they relate to the movie.

The day after I saw it for the second time, I wrote Safe House (http://archiveofourown.org/works/1428697). (Rated PG 13, no warnings apply).

It features Clint and Maria (background Clint/Natasha) and kind of plays into what I've heard from the writers about Clint and Bruce being MIA, which to me means they might be together given that Hawkeye according to the comics -- or so I've read -- is the one guy who can take down the Hulk, with a special arrow.

Ok, can someone explain to me what the goal of Hydra was...were they just trying to wipe out anyone that would oppose them? Sorry, I'm a bit slow on plot sometimes.

I think the goal was "Hydra was up in your business secretly running the planet." But honestly, it seemed to me, from the credits scene, that Hydra was the first layer of deception? Like, Hydra was the flash part of the flashbang to distract from the real goals, which seems to be using science to further humanity, if what we saw with the twins was any indication. It kind of felt like a long con or a poison within an organization: while all of these people are fighting each other and being silly, we're over here performing illegal experiments and creating the Scarlet Witch.

One thing I noticed with this movie is Natasha seemed to be more "sexy" all around than in her previous movies. In Iron Man 2, yeah she was the hot little secretary but more demure (of course it was a cover), and then once she was herself she was all business. I think she was all business in Avengers...of course she had other things occupying her thoughts. But here she was sauntering around, making suggestive comments/expressions. The scene in the car with Steve was great..."Who do you want me to be?" I feel like there is more to say about her character but I just don't know how to say it...except that she is adorable and complicated and I just want a whole lot more of her.

I thinks he was trolling him a bit there (loved that scene too!) And Steve, OH STEVE, he says he wants her for a friend. Just like that. because that's Steve Rogers to you, he is just a good, decent man, and I'm glad Nat knows him. I think they can both learn something from each other.

Loved it, loved it, loved it.

And clearly I need to finish my Reasons to Join Hydra PowerPoint...

YES and AMEN to that.

Starting with "speaks with faintly German accent" "no need to take medical ethics course", and "deals firmly and decisively with people who come in without knocking".

I loved the film and a very realistic, present day commentary of current political situations in the world, issues with security, with the paranoia that has spread through the world during latest decade - for a superhero movie, it was an awesome touch on very relevant things going on right now. And they did it without feeding us any kind of hate or patriotism or anything like that. It's a film I've been looking forward for over a year, for huge number of reasons and it delivered in every sense. Darker than previous Marvel movies, with amazing sense for characters; everyone who was in it had just enough time and spotlight.

Onto the topic of this bar - I loved the development Natasha got. They showed her like a person not just a kickass character - and while a kickass character is fun, a rounded person is so much more enjoyable. We got to see her make jokes, smile, be concerned, sad, be a friend, be awesomely smart, do all the right things. Finally, as someone put it, she made a superhero sacrifice by throwing all those files on line and into open sight, because she exposed her own secrets. You know, all those secrets she is not so proud of ("I've got red in my ledger") which speaks a lot about her integrity. I loved Steve who was wonderful human being as always, I adored Sam who seems to know the right things to say (how much do I love that he works with veterans? SO MUCH. So many things that can be done with that, considering Steve's past and current issues, and also Sam is someone who understands things). But my favorite thing about the movie, and the thing I was looking for the most was Bucky and I think movie treated him perfectly. Also Nick Fury, Maria Hill, all the juicy character moments and excitement and action - it was glorious.

I agree with everyone's comments about the film. It was a cinematic feat on multiple levels that have been covered already on this post so I won't rehash. What I have to comment on is my reaction to the HYDRA reveal. I knew nothing about that twist and was literally sitting with my jaw hanging open for quite some time. My husband and I speculated about Red Skull, but never the far-reaching tentacles of HYDRA. And just when I would recover, they'd hit again even harder. Brilliant. I was so hoping for a glimpse of how Clint got the news, but this leaves the door open for a whole year of fic. Let the writing begin! ;)

I was thinking about you and how you felt about everything changing in this movie from the good ol' days of shwarama! I read your other comment up above too, hahahaha.

I am still trying to put all my thoughts together on this film! There's just so much packed in there :D Luckily I have friends that I when flailed at them just patted me on the head and took me to see it a second time. Mind you, one verdict was also that this was the best Marvel movie to date! Right, I will put some thoughts together for this ATTF. In the meantime:

I made Winter Sodier icons

And

Has everyone heard of the Hail Hydra meme? I point in particular to THIS ONE *grins*. THIS also amuses me greatly.

I've seen the second one before but not the first one. I snorted so hard at work!

So for all your icons...first of all, AWESOME. Second of all, are they free for us to use?

I loved it. I like Steve a lot and although I had no expectations for Sam I thought he was a great character.
I admit I'm torn about the way they played Natasha and Bucky's relationship. On the one hand Natasha/Clint are my OTP so I'm glad there was no romance with her and Bucky. But on the other hand they seem to be going in a direction away from the Red Room as back story for Natasha and for me personally that's such an intrinsic part of her character. That said I think her reveal about how she knew the Winter Soldier was played in such a way that she could have been lying. And of course there's always brainwashing to explain her not remembering if they chose to go there in the future.
There was so much character development for Natasha throughout the movie (and taking into account her arc in MCU generally). But I realised how much fanon I have absorbed as cannon. For example when she was talking about not knowing who she is when she's not playing the role I felt that jarred with 'my' Natasha who had worked all of that out for herself long before we ever saw her in Ironman. Not that this is a bad thing, but it made me rethink some things about her.
I also found myself imagining that Clint was in the movie just out of sight - when Sitwell had a laser sight pointed at his chest - Clint was clearly the marksman. And then later when Natasha was talking about going off to find herself - I was convinced there'd be a shot of her getting to a car with Clint at the wheel. Alas it was not to be!
Clearly I came away from it with a lot of thinky thoughts. My main one is that I need all the fic about Natasha on her road trip of self discovery and awesome. So if anyone has any recs or feels the urge to write it....

Also I came away thinking that Natasha was so brave in doing what she did. By releasing all the info and then going before the committee she is completely exposed and compromised like never before. She has no where to hide now; her face and life are all over the media.
I also find myself wondering how she will cope with the HYDRA in SHIELD reveal, given that she thought she was atoning for her past and now finds that she was working for the monster (in part at least).
I basically have a lot of Natasha feels!

Okay, I went and wrote a pile of thinky thoughts on winter soldier, phew. I hadn't been able to put them in any kind of coherency, and they still kind of aren't, but at least ATTF kicked me into doing it :D

Specifically my Clint/Natasha thoughts:

I see this in a similar vein to Avengers in that Natasha may very well be with Clint, but it's not thrown in our faces, it's not what defines these characters, and it's not something that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. And I like that :) This film actually made me more convinced that our assasins are a couple. Let me count the ways:

1) the necklace that Natasha wears all the way through the film. Jewellery has significance and the fact that Scarlett chose that for her costumer has significance. And this is her off duty clothing, this isn't a cover, this is choice. (I have a thing about Natasha and choices.)

2) How Steve and Natasha treat each other. She's constantly asking Steve about girls, joking about setting him up, and Steve is happy to joke with her, but never suggests guys. This is set two years after The Avengers. Does he by this point know that she's already with someone? Is this just something that people who know Natasha know?

3) I read most of Steve being uncomfortable with kissing her whilst on the run is because she's just a friend and also being in public, but the follow up to that rule out Steve as a love interest.

4) Bucky. They seem to have heavily edited Natasha's past with Bucky and stripped it down. From a film point of view I can understand why, because that's a whole lot of past to throw at people. However, it seems ti be a case of us being given the Steven and Bucky show, and then Natasha, Nick, Maria, SHIELD show. Or teams. Or whatever.

Anyone else spot anything or have thinky thoughts on this?

Something that I wanted to see as soon as the film stopped rolling was a conversation between Natasha and Clint along the lines of: "You nearly destroyed a helicarier. We took down three." I warn you, if this doesn't appear I may have to write ;P

WRITE IT PLEASE!!!!!

Ok, my thinky thoughts...when she said, "Who do you want me to be?" to Steve...is she "being" someone for Clint? Did she do that in the beginning? Is she 100% Nat right now with him? Someone (I think AlwaysLera?) just wrote a fantastic fic where she is talking on the phone to him, and...well I don't want to give it away. But its very very interesting.

The "no more bikinis line"...when she was talking about Bucky at first I was wondering if they were going to "go there" with their history from the comics, but seems like no, their history is basically he shot through her to get to a target...but just made me think, Clint probably was there for her after this injury. Of course he wouldn't care about the scar (like Steve said, I'm sure she looks awful in them now, not :P), but just her being ok. Fic about her healing from this, anyone?

What else, what else...is Natasha going to be wearing the necklace in Avengers 2???