Treating Myself

My latest improvement around the house is going to be a new garage door opener. Mine is about 30 years old and was a cheap brand to begin with, and it just fizzled on me. I'm treating myself with a fancy one with battery backup, so even if the power's out, I can get in and out of the garage. This is the glamorous life of a semi-famous author. I think I need to work on this treating myself thing, but having been through a few situations without power and having to manually open the door, I'd rather have battery backup for my garage door than jewelry or designer clothes.

In other news, I finally got around to seeing the first Captain America movie. I used to enjoy the occasional superhero move, but the recent glut of them had created an extreme adverse reaction in me, to the point I was actively resisting them. But The Red Hat (it deserves capitals) made me want to watch Agent Carter, and then I felt like I was missing the backstory, so when the movie came on one of the cable channels, I ended up watching it.

And I did enjoy it, which isn't a surprise considering I kind of want to be Agent Carter when I grow up, and I love World War II-related stuff. Plus, Steve is pretty much my ideal man (even when he's scrawny). But I HATED the ending. I knew it was coming because I don't live under a rock and I've been watching the sequel series, and I know this movie was mostly the origin story to set up the character and send him to the present to be in The Avengers, but just looking at this movie, I found myself thinking "this is it?"

I was surprised that Steve and Peggy's relationship amounted to a working friendship with very mild flirting and one kiss, considering in Agent Carter she's going around acting like he's lost the love of her life. I suppose that the sense of lost potential can be as sad as losing someone integral to your life, but it was still a blink-and-you-miss-it relationship. I also felt like there was so much more potential for stories in the WWII setting that they didn't get to. He really only handled one extended, multi-part mission, so is that enough to establish a legend? I don't know how they handled his transition to the present, but I get the sense he's kind of an anachronism in which they contrast his earnest idealism with modern cynicism, and it would have been nice to see a little more of him in his own element before getting that transition. I also loved his team and the mix of all those characters. So yeah, even if that ending was coming, it would have been better if it had been at the end of the third movie in the WWII setting.

I still need a red fedora.