Re: Captain America: The First Avenger-Review, Discuss, Grade, Sequel,
Bucky fell into the river. you shuold've seen the splash. there was definitely a splash.
My eyes ain't that good.
The action just lies there and never really takes off and becomes truly thrilling and exciting like I want it to.
I found my attention wandering a bit during the action scenes, but I attributed that to the fact that Cap's arc had already been completed, when he went from 99 lb weakling to USO clown to finally achieving what he wanted to, when he rescued the Howling Commandos et al.
After that, the movie was all about satisfying conventions of an action movie by showing more action leading to the defeat of the villain du jour, so it was bound to be pretty pointless up till Cap's final act of sacrifice when he crashed the Hydra plane into an iceberg. Any action scenes, good, bad or indifferent, would have been superfluous to the theme, between the original rescue and the crash (Bucky's rescue and "death" being a plot point set up for a future movie but not an extension of the theme.)
And that's why they can't do another WWII era movie. As it was, the movie had to contain a fair bit of padding that was irrelevant to Cap's arc. Another WWII movie would be 100% padding. But transport him to the 21st C, where he is once again the underdog, because initially he won't understand this new world and how he fits in, and the arc continues from where it left off.
Up to this point, Cap was a hero but also an obedient follower. He has no need to question the war, why they're fighting, or really to think for himself. So the next step in his evolution is to truly become a leader, adapt to his new time, and realize that being a man out of time doesn't put him at a disadvantage to the others. In fact, it gives him a better, wiser perspective.
Cap should come into some conflict with some of the Avengers, maybe not in the first Avengers movie, but in the second anyway, and realize that he needs to stop being the follower and actually step forward as a leader, in a way that has nothing to do with throwing a punch or flinging his shield around. His arc should lead to the realization that he must step up as the Avengers' leader because they need him to.
If Marvel does all that with the Avengers movies, it hardly matters what else they contain or what else the characters do (with the caveat that Iron Man in particular could play a key role in Cap's story as his foil). They will have a great story.
