A History of Women in Russia: From Earliest Times to the Present
Book
Synthesizing several decades of scholarship by historians East and West, Barbara Evans Clements...
Awix (3310 KP) rated Dracula Untold (2014) in Movies
Jan 10, 2021
Mildly diverting as an empty spectacle (gasp as Superdrac uses his FIST OF BATS power to squish the Turks!) but essentially useless: the film fails to engage with either the historical Vlad the Impaler or the iconic Dracula. Luke Evans fails to communicate any essential darkness lurking in his character, just coming across as a nice guy who makes a bad decision under pressure. If Dracula's not going to be a properly evil monster, what's the point of him? Good effects and reasonable art direction, but misses the point in every narrative sense.
Women as Public Moralists in Britain - From the Bluestockings to Virginia Woolf: Volume 95
Book
In nineteenth-century Britain, public debates about the nation's moral health and about men's and...
Open Water
9.0
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'A tender and touching love story, beautifully told' Observer 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2021 'A...
Literary fiction Race Cultural Novella British Literature
Norwegian Wood: Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2016
Book
THE BRITISH BOOK INDUSTRY AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK THE OF YEAR 2016 "Every man looks at his wood-pile...
English Cathedral
Martin Barnes and John Goodall
Book
Among the most magnificent buildings of England are its Anglican cathedrals, great symbols of...
Head Gardeners
Ambra Edwards and Charlie Hopkinson
Book
What is Britain's greatest contribution to world culture? Ambra Edwards suggests it is the garden....
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Games
8.0
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Gameplay The Binding of Isaac is a randomly generated action RPG shooter with heavy Rogue-like...
Photography: History and Theory
Book
Photography: History and Theory introduces students to both the history of photography and critical...
Gareth von Kallenbach (965 KP) rated Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
Chris Evans does a fantastic job of introducing us to the wiry little guy with guts who eventually becomes Captain America. Such unashamed, honest virtue is different from the typical superhero movie we’ve come to see over the last few years, and for good reason: internal conflicts often make for dramatic films. However, I don’t think such unwavering idealism would have worked with any other comic-book character than Captain America. Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones add heart to the movie, but the soul of this movie really is the Captain. Hugo Weaving as The Red Skull plays a satisfying villain here, but his motives aren’t clarified enough to warrant his fervor for evil. Hayley Atwell, playing love interest and British agent Peggy Carter does a more convincing job in her role than Hugo Weaving does in his.
The plot of the film was pretty standard fare. Hero battles villain. The ending was more climactic and earnest than I had expected walking into the theater, and it gracefully sets up the Avengers movie. Like many of the other Marvel movies of recent note, there is a decent amount of self-deprecating comic book humor that helps break up the slower parts between action scenes.
The effects of the film were solid. They were pulpy enough to feel like a Marvel universe, rather than our own, but they still carried the action to an exciting level. The art department and cinematographer did a good job recreating the 40’s asthetic throughout the film, though there was enough exotic comic book elements to bring you back into a world where superheroes really do exist.
Despite its own flaws, this is one of the better Marvel films to come out since Iron Man, and count me in to watch The Avengers next year.