Captain America: The First Avenger-Review, Discuss, Grade, Sequel, DVD

[Starbreaker]

Fury just says they're not sure how he survived. It actually was really good editing to trim it down. The conversation just goes on for too long.

[Turtletrekker]

Captain Craig wrote:

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^^^^
So there is cut dialogue that explains survival in the ice?!
I for one wouldn't mind hearing that in some spoiler code, please.

Steve: How am I alive?
Fury: Well, to honest with you, we don't really know. Our docs say it was suspended animation. It could be Dr. Erskine's formula, the extreme cold, we don't know.

[Captain Craig]

Thanks!
That was a brief exchange that really answered nothing.
Guess I can see why it was edited, it didn't add or resolve anything.

[Mr. Adventure]

I finally caught this movie over the weekend and it is probably the best of the summer movies so far. The WW2 setting gave it some novelty and Steve's transformation made the hero's journey feel more complete.

Magellan wrote:

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The biggest flaws with the film still has to be Red Skull. he just isn't fleshed out enough ...

Oh the irony....

[A beaker full of death]

Oboro Bishamon wrote:

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I hear Falcon might be in a sequel, who would you guys cast?

Brad Pitt.

What?

[23skidoo]

I never saw this in the theaters in my part of the world because they only showed the 3-D version (and yes that is happening more and more - this past weekend I could have gone see the 2-D version of Puss n' Boots if I wanted to but only the 3-D version of The Three Musketeers is being shown in my city of a million people). But now I'm getting caught up with the 2-D blu-ray I thought it was quite a good film. Some of the points that appealed to me:

- I punched the air when I saw they incorporated the Howling Commandos into the story, though they missed a bit by not including Nick Fury's dad (though already having Stark Sr. that might have been pushing things a bit).

- I liked the interconnection being set up between the movies with the "Repo Man"-style magic package. I've yet to see Thor but I hope they included a similar connection in that film too.

- Two words: Hayley Atwell. I've been a fan of hers since she romanced No. 6 in the Prisoner remake, and she also has additional respect for being a recurring voice artist for Big Finish's Doctor Who series (apparently recording a new one shortly before Captain America was released). And man, she rocks a red dress (if she and Christina Hendricks from Mad Men ever showed up at a party wearing such an outfit they'd have to unpack the defibrillators).

- I was a little less enthused about the violence - I'm in the "superheroes don't kill" camp and am still upset over what David Kelley had Wonder Woman doing in the busted pilot earlier this year - but at the same time this is actually consistent with the early days of Captain America. All those comic book issues in which Cap was indeed shown fighting Nazis in the 1940s, he wasn't using harsh language.

- The world's fair sequence near the beginning was utterly beautiful. Completely unrealistic (in the era of blackouts you didn't do fireworks displays) but beautiful all the same. Sort of makes me sorry the story had to move away from all that. Hopefully someone comes up with a Stark Sr. movie idea that focuses on this "futuristic-retro" aspect.

- Did I mention Hayley Atwell already?

- Hugo Weaving rocked as the Red Skull. I was just reading an interview and it appears that was actually a mask - not some CG trick like they did with Voldemort in the Harry Potter films.

I really wish I'd been able to see this in the theaters, and I would have had they brought in a 2-D version. The studio still got its pound of flesh, and then some - after all, buying a Blu-ray costs more than a movie ticket - but I do bemoan the fact I never got to see "that dress" on the big screen!

Alex

[A beaker full of death]

23skidoo wrote:

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- I punched the air when I saw they incorporated the Howling Commandos into the story, though they missed a bit by not including Nick Fury's dad (though already having Stark Sr. that might have been pushing things a bit).

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of saying for all these characters who existed in WWII that suddenly it was their dad, just because the comics are still being written all these years later. Frankly, I prefer the alternate dimension explanation.

[23skidoo]

A beaker full of death wrote:

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Yeah, I'm not a big fan of saying for all these characters who existed in WWII that suddenly it was their dad, just because the comics are still being written all these years later. Frankly, I prefer the alternate dimension explanation.

The reason I brought that up is of course because the original Howling Commandos had the original Nick Fury as a member, but obviously we can't have Samuel Jackson's version of the character having fought in WWII, so the father angle would be the only way for it to work.

One thing I forgot to mention that did make me sad is the fact the film ends with Cap moving forward in time. I'd have liked to have seen more adventures with him and the Howling Commandos, Tommy Lee Jones' general and, of course, Hayley Atwell. Maybe Dum-Dum and Peggy and the others were so upset at losing Cap they had themselves cryogenically frozen? Naah...

Alex

[Skywalker]

They did set things up for possible flashbacks to Cap's time in World War II (i.e. the montage that basically glosses over Cap and the Howling Commandos taking down HYDRA's various bases).

[Samurai8472]

An article posted a few weeks ago said the second captain america movie will be set in the present day.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/ar...-in-modern-day

"I think it's safe for us to say that it's primarily set in the modern day," says Markus. "That seems to have been the biggest question people have been wondering about regarding the sequel... [W]e've been left with room to explore Cap entering the modern day wondering, 'What is all this? What's happened to the world' and so on."

[Sindatur]

Samurai8472 wrote:

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An article posted a few weeks ago said the second captain america movie will be set in the present day.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/ar...-in-modern-day

Key word may be "Primarily", hence, lots of room in that statement for there to be flashbacks back to WWII to connect events then to now

[captcalhoun]

i want a Howling Commandos movie.

oh, and Ultimate Fury - upon whom MCU Fury is based, however loosely - did serve in WW2, because he was the original recipient for the super-soldier serum during the human testing. he subsequently escaped the project and later served in the US Army under various aliases until circa 1990 when he re-enlisted under his real name and was brought into SHIELD and the continuing efforts to recreate the serum.

the implication clearly being he aged much slower, but still aged, as Cap mentions he would in the movie.

[Turtletrekker]

Captain Craig wrote:

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Thanks!
That was a brief exchange that really answered nothing.
Guess I can see why it was edited, it didn't add or resolve anything.

Well, it did mention "suspended animation" at the very least. I saw the movie with someone who was totally unfamiliar with Cap and it confused the hell out of him that he "slept" for 70 years.

[Trekker4747]

This movie I really liked and would dare say it was the best of this year's super-hero movies. It certainly was better than the 1970s Reb Brown TV series or the 1990 Sallinger movie.

I do think Red Skull's make-up/effects wasn't quite effective. I think that's one area where the 1990 movie was better.

[Admiral James Kirk]

I saw Captain America for the first time on Sunday and
all I have to say is A+. What a delightful and entertaining move. I knew that Joe Johnston knows how to make a great superhero movie-I saw The Rocketeer in sneaks before release and was blown away by it-and he did.

What I loved about Cap was the spirit of idealism the movie embodied. Chris Evans' Steve Rogers was a Capraesque hero. Not a great man but a damned good one. He had the spirit of a hero and the body of a wimp and then science fixed Mother Nature's fuck ups and he became the hero of heroes.

Not since Superman: The Movie have a seen a superhero movie that was patriotic without tons of flag waving and inspiring without being corny. It was a rousing and upbeat film that didn't even remotely try to be dark and depressing. It was a feel good movie that truly made me feel good.

However maybe I'm not the best judge. I'm a comic geek and geared to love this movie. So I'll let the non geeks weigh in.

My five year old daughter hid when Hugo Weaving unmasked and revealed his red skull and she cried when Cap seemingly died. Must have really loved the character to have that kind of reaction and thusly enj9yed the movie.

My wife who is not into superheroes was commenting on every frame of the movie. Surprised from Evans' transformation from zero to hero and wondering how long they had to stop production for him to bulk back up. Don't worry I explained it to her and she was surprised that special effects are that good. Hell even I'm surprised at how far they've come. But beyond that she grooved on the movie and was surprised as hell when Cap woke up in the 21st Century and was sad he didn't get his date with the girl at the end. The true sign that the movie worked for her was: "How long do we have to wait for the next one to come out?"

She was please when I said: "Next summer."

Damn good movie!