Captain America: Civil War

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Having recently watched the movie and expecting it to be spectacularly good based on the Facebook posts of contacts who have already seen it ahead of me, I expected a bit of jaw-dropping experience from the entire proceedings. While it obviously ticked off the necessary features in the checklist found in every Marvel blockbuster movie especially The Avengers series, there's something about the entire movie I can't quite pinpoint as I left the cinema that I felt was somewhat lacking. 

The movie was not horrible. Far from it. It was brilliant in the way that it made the audience think about opposing ideas that have equal gravitas and well-taught out arguments. There's no easy way to choose a side considering the very ideas both are espousing are simply two separate parts of a perfect set-up. Tony Stark (Iron Man) argues about the need for some PR gloss by playing along with the UN for a much-needed security initiative to check the movements of a super-powered but dangerous team, and Steve Rogers (Captain America) counters with the notion that having a panel or an agency dictate when they need to move can be disastrous considering the institution they might answer for might be compromised anytime by both deadly threats or simple politics. One goal, different methods. This is the fundamental conflict that drives the entire movie forward. The main villain itself is simply reduced as a catalyst for the final showdown between the two heroes on opposite sides of the argument.

I guess my main objection about it is that I can't help that the movie ended in a cliffhanger that was not the least bit satisfying. I've had my fair share of 'bitin' endings in the past---especially on most European movies---that didn't have me scratching my head out of frustration. Even the thought of a sure installment in the Avengers franchise where you know for sure that the team is gonna be okay anyway, changed the fact that there was something off about the picture. 

I'm just nitpicking on trivialities here but I felt the movie should have been an Iron Man movie instead of Captain America. Near the end of the movie, Stark receives a letter from Rogers about why he did what he did, and all the other lofty ideals Captain America is known to spew out. But the overwhelming sentiment I had about it was that some sort of injustice was done to Stark considering he saw his parents murdered for the first time. Like the idea of them dying from an accident wasn't traumatic enough, his own friend took the side of his parents' murderer, justified or not. And all he got in the end was a letter of apology. That left a stale taste in the mouth. 

Having said all that, it made a good introduction for Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther. 

Still, Team Tony rules.

The Vermillion Skull Grinned

"...but what about the butterflies...?" --U.P.


"...but what about the snakes...?" --T.L.


*Debate between two professors over the issue of clearing the thick vegetation at the back of their dorm. (UP, Miag-ao)


I heard my former professor back in college is now a resident of the very famous institution in the western part of Mandaluyong. No less than my sister confirmed this as she also belongs to the same college as I did--as well as the professor. I guess fate really does catch up with all of us sooner or later.

I heard a lot of horror stories about Ms. Panama (not her real name) when I was still a freshman; about how she conducted lectures that would make the March Hare and The Mad Hatter proud and her natural predisposition for terrorizing unfortunate students who offended her sensibilities. The way she conducted her classes was based on her template that all students on the quest for knowledge should work hard for it. Ergo, you do all the research that you think is vital for this course: If you're taking English I (basic communication skills), then find any books that's related to the subject, then create a --in her own words--"well organized compilation" of what you learned and submit it at the end of the semester. Bibliographic entries/list of no less than 50 books from the library was required during the first week to see if the students knew what they were looking for. I submitted 50 titles of rock albums just to submit something (using the library at UPV was like killing people for the cause of preserving life). i.e: Corgan, William Jr.,Basic Communication. (1993), Smashing Pumpkins Press. See if she can see that.

The way I saw it, however, was that it was an elaborate excuse not to perform actual lectures every meeting so she could indulge in her sadistic hobby of persecuting students she didn't like. She did check the attendance and asked questions related to the subject every now and then, but not to gauge how much her students (subjects, actually) knew, but to humiliate anyone unfortunate enough to be called who doesn't possess any strand of wit or sophistication to answer in kind. Most of whom were gays, the token promdis (country bumpkins) and token kikays (sassy women). She had no tolerance for homosexuals (gays, lesbians, bis) but I found what really made her furious beyond belief were the kikays. One girl she found wearing makeup in class got a taste of the teacher from hell reputation when she was told to wipe all the colors off her face. Natural beauty, she said, needs no artificiality to conceal it. The promdis, she admonishes without mercy but does it in a seemingly helpful way. Mild sarcasm comes to mind, if there is such a term. 


I remember one time she called a timid-looking girl who was obviously not from any city--she looked panicky and nervous everytime, one suspects she's mumbling every prayer just to be ignored by everyone especially her professor. This time, however, the Gods turned a deaf ear. Everything, from her footwear to the way she tied her hair weren't spared. This, the prof did in a "nice way". Simon Cowell from American Idol seemed polite and considerate in comparison.

Ms. Panama belongs to the old-world conservative thinking I'd like to associate with the movie Pleasantville where everyone was expected to behave a certain way to give the viewers a semblance of a normal and happy life. Either that or the uptight and humorless aristocratic Victorian-era highbrow pompousness one can always see in caricatures (i.e. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride) from all sorts of pop culture references. The total lack of tolerance for others who do not fit into the mold of how anyone is supposed to behave and act jumped at me when I was her student.


Back then I already sensed something was slightly off-kilter. It was just a matter of time when the rigidity becomes too much for everything to break.