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

[Samurai8472]

clint g wrote:

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I'm giving it a b-.....bordering on a c +. It was fun. It was entertaining. But it also felt rushed as hell. It certainly felt more like a set up movie than anything else. I will say this though, it has me very excited for the avengers

Hmm could this be like Iron Man 2 where Iron Man took a back seat for setting up the Avenger's movie?

[Agenda]

I haven't seen this one yet, but I dislike how everything is taking a back seat to the 'shared universe'. Iron Man 2 would've been better without Shield or Fury. They should just concentrate on the individual characters, and worry about their stories. Don't worry about the stories of other characters or about trying to 'connect' everything. They didn't even have to mention Fury or Coulson until the Avengers movie. In Thor they got away with it. Maybe in this movie they don't.

[Captain Craig]

I disagree on peoples complaints with IM2 but that is neither here nor there.
I've read several critics who think it works fine on it's own and others who think it's too Avengers crowded. I think it's just a hollow point of complaint. An easy target when one doesn't want to look at the story but yet get invested on the sidebar.

Captain America is working it's way up the RT score and was at 54% last I looked, up from 33% off the bat this morning. Metacritic was 59% not too long ago.

[davejames]

Looks like the common complaint so far is that it's just another generic, by-the-numbers superhero flick. It might be better executed than GL, but apparently it's still about as thin and simplistic.

If that's the case, then fine by me. I don't need every superhero movie to be some epic, profound Dark Knight kind of thing.

[davejames]

Captain Craig wrote:

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I disagree on peoples complaints with IM2 but that is neither here nor there.
I've read several critics who think it works fine on it's own and others who think it's too Avengers crowded. I think it's just a hollow point of complaint. An easy target when one doesn't want to look at the story but yet get invested on the sidebar.

Yeah, for me the biggest issues were the lame and uninteresting villains, and a distinct lack of action. Neither one of those had anything to do with the Avengers scenes.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

davejames wrote:

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Looks like the common complaint so far is that it's just another generic, by-the-numbers superhero flick.

I loved Green Lantern, and I've seen no reason so far not to expect Captain America to be just as enjoyable.

Wish I could see it this weekend, but I'm finishing up a big project that's going to leave no time or energy for other things. Well, maybe Sunday evening, if I'm real lucky...

[Captain Craig]

With 14 reviews in it's score is up to 57% on RT so far.
Over at Metacritic it's gone up to 62%

[Captain Craig]

The RT score is now up to 63%

Who's doing a midnight show? I'm tempted to do so cause I have Friday off but I'm seeing it for sure Friday night with a group of friends. What they don't know won't hurt them right?

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Ebert gives it three stars and likes it a good deal better than Green Lantern or Thor. Maybe the fanboisie will refrain from bombing his mailbox this time.

Loved this bit:

Young Steve's Army confidante both before and after his transformation is the sultry Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), whose full red lips make her resemble a classic military pin-up of the period. He narrates their tour of the Brooklyn neighborhoods where he was picked on, and they grow close, but only PG-13 close, because Marvel has apparently determined that fanboys find sex to be icky.

[Goliath]

Roger Ebert wrote:

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He adopts a costume and a stars-and-stripes shield, which serve primarily to make him highly visible

I think I'll see this one. It's getting decent reviews so far.

[Captain Craig]

So who liked it at outlets known to most?
Ebert
NY Daily News
Chicago Truibune
NY Times
Boston Herald
Hollywood.com
Entertainment Weekly
MSN Movies
Orlando Sentinel
Rolling Stone Magazine

NYT
With a dusty color scheme that evokes newsprint and cheap ink, and a production design that captures the Deco-inflected futurism of an earlier time, the movie is nostalgic without making a big fuss about it. ...There is enough energy and imagination packed into “Captain America” to make you a bit sorry to see it all evaporate at the end. It might have been nice to be able to look forward to a few more sequels in the old, cheap, Saturday matinee style that the movie, at its best, pays tribute to, instead of another slick blockbuster. But progress is relentless, and superheroes can stay current only by changing with the times and synergizing their commercial powers.

Well then who at known mass outlets didn't like it?
Variety
Metromix.com
Slant Magazine
The Hollywood Reporter

Variety
Red, white and bland, "Captain America: The First Avenger" plays like a by-the-numbers prequel for Marvel Studios' forthcoming "The Avengers" movie, the proper teaser for which lies buried after the words "Captain America will return" in the end credits. While that 2012 tentpole will lump Cap in with Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and various other superheroes, this one focuses on constructing a blockbuster origin story for one of Marvel's most iconic creations. Although Joe Johnston earnestly attempts to resurrect the WWII-era action figure, with 3D conversion boosting the glossy pic's B.O. potential, his debut adventure comes across as remarkably flat.

It's currently at Fresh with 67% and 45 reviews in but it's been bouncing around. Not yet made it up to 70%, been in the 60's and the film will get at least 1/2 as many more reviews to come in so where it'll land is still undetermined. Hope it stays Fresh though for the sake of people who will use RT as a decision point.

[davejames]

After they ditched their long-time critic, I don't put much stock in Variety's opinion anymore.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It's odd that the trade outlets like THR and Variety aren't sold on it; it's not like they exactly have biases against praising commercial crowd-pleasers.

Although I laughed at this remark in THR's review:

It’s run by the mad scientist Red Skull (go-to villain guy Hugo Weaving), whose red face may be the result of an experiment gone horribly wrong or just pain embarrassment at the Nazi clichés he is forced to play. He even listens to the soothing strains of Richard Wagner. Yes, he does.

I guess that goes along with the "you and I are alike" dialogue. Sometimes the hoariest of cliches work for the material.

Nor is the review an real pan of the movie - it's a bit more mixed than that:

Director Joe Johnston makes certain that amid all the retro-futuristic nonsense, his nucleus of actors playing SSR heroes fits well together. Evans nicely underplays the role, giving a Gary Cooper-ish air to the young hero who just wants to do the right thing. Atwell is a perfect throwback to that era: Darkly gorgeous yet tough as nails, she would look just at home painted on a bomber fuselage as she is slugging a solider who gives her lip.

Jones knows how to make every moment of screen time count with these grumpy and gruff characters he now plays, but Stan and Cooper aren’t so lucky: Their characters came out a little too thin in Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely‘s screenplay. Meanwhile, Weaving is very one-notish as the villain, which leaves it to Toby Jones, as his sidekick, to add a little nuance to Nazi villainy.

The tech team brilliantly supports the comic book action without any single department showing off or adding unnecessary flourishes. A special tip of the hat to Anna B. Sheppard’s costumes and Rick Heinrichs’ production design for maintaining enough period flavor so the production doesn’t go too overboard.

[davejames]

I wouldn't be surprised if many critics are just burnt out on superhero movies. You can sense that most of them don't think much of the genre to BEGIN with, and now Captain America is the fourth such film coming out this year.

[Captain Craig]

It's at it's highest RT score so far of 69%, hope the next reviews to hit are positive and it gets pushed into the 70th percentile.