Absolutely. I must confess I don't understand the lack of emotional involvement complaints either. It must take a lot to stir these folks emotions is all I can say.
I don't necessarily think it's
a lot per se, but some folks just respond well to dramatic scenes, regardless of the context or buildup. There's nothing wrong with this in and of itself (everyone has their preferences), but a lot of people either fail to realize or simply can't discern the difference between well conceived, appropriate drama and run-of-the-mill, heavy handed sentimentality. To me, it's similar to the difference between clever, nuanced humor vs overdone slapstick. Both elicit the same response, but one is certainly more indulgent and shallow than the other. I can't help but think of the latter when I see people clamoring for more emotion in movies like TWS, and all I can ask is...where, and in what context? More importantly,
which emotions are we talking about here, and are they appropriate for the character(s) in a given moment? How would it serve the story without feeling forced or contrived? Reflecting on TWS, I saw Cap, along with the rest of the cast, display a whole range of emotions, the most prevalent being confusion, doubt, uncertainty, and frustration. I don't see how much more emotional the film could have been unless the intent is to make it more like a soap opera (despair, anger, heartbreak, etc.).
The movies that draw the most frequent comparisons when it comes to drama/emotion, TASM and MoS, do indeed possess quite a bit of drama, but it's all very flat and superficial, with no rhyme or reason for it in many cases. Those movies rarely, if ever, earn their dramatic moments, they often feel very obligatory and are instead cobbled together and thrown on the screen without a proper buildup. This is why I compare it to slapstick comedy, because when I see a random scene with some character I'm apparently supposed to care about, moping around or bawling his/her eyes out without sufficient context or plot, I picture Will Ferrell just acting like a buffoon in front of a camera for cheap laughs. Both scenarios have about the same amount of thought and effort put into them, but for a lot of people, melodrama and hamfisted emotion somehow elevate a movie, regardless of how appropriate it is. The scene in MoS where Zod was gearing up to roast that family towards the end is a good example of this. Even DoFP, for as excellent and superlative as it was, hammed it up with the melodrama in quite a few scenes ("You poor, poor man; I don't want your FUTURE!!!!"). Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't, but I think it's worth considering how certain types of drama fit a particular movie, and at what points as well. I also don't think it's very constructive to suggest "I enjoy and respond well to this, therefore it needs to be in this movie", and it seems like that's what some folks tend to do when they criticize these movies in that respect.
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