Captain America: The first Avenger

I remember back in 2011 when Cap was coming to theaters for the 3rd time (1st time being a movie serial back in 1944, the second was a 1990 adventure styled b-movie that, now that I think about, rings too oddly similar to the 2011 which is starting to tell me something).

Thor came out a few mouths earlier on the tails of a decent ad campaign to let you know it was in theaters. I saw the trailer many times as I went to the theaters and watched TV, posters everywhere and herd Chris Hemsworth and Sir Anthony Hopkins talk about the movie.

Thor is not my favorite Marvel superhero by far, so I was not expecting much from the dude I knew then for playing Captain Kirk’s father in the opening scene in the reboot of Star Trek (2009), but the film was really good, going far past my exceptions.

Now it’s Cap’s turn. I did have high hopes for Cap, simply because I am a comic book fan and from the look of the poster they were using the costume design of Ultimate Captain America.

Small explanation: in 2001 Marvel Comics wanted to do something different with the X-men and spider-man stories without changing the most famous continuity of the Marvel Universe, so they created Ultimate X-men, which takes place in a different universe. The success of this comic along with Ultimate Spider-Man lead to the expansion of the universe which included an Ultimate Captain America. Not much difference, between the two Steve Rodgers except the Ultimate comic introduces the concept that steroids were possibly not created in 1941 when Cap made his 1st appearance and they replace the super soldier serum for a concept that more employs the ultimate juice up, which would explains Ultimate Cap’s tendency to punch first and outsmart the enemy never.

I never gave two cents about Cap until this story line, so it sparked interest that they are using the more realistic looking costume from the ultimate marvel universe. Of course when it came to advertising the movie, this is all I saw, a poster that showed Cap front and center (Interestingly played by the guy who played Marvel character the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films for another studio), in the ultimate costume, nothing else. Never saw a trailer, never herd any of the actors promote it. Just posters all over the city that I thank for letting me know when it was coming out or else I would have never known. This is technology a bad sign. For those of you who are thinking maybe I was not paying attention and missed a TV ad or trailer in a movie, I just want to point out that’s not how advertising works, It should reach me if I’m not paying attention cause it wants to reach me to make sure I go see the movie, so indeed this was a bad sign. It met that maybe this movie is not as good as I want to be.

So I went to see the movie. I liked it, and I’m the only person I know who did liked it, cause when I would have conversations with other people about the movie they would be like I didn’t like it. I will say this, with Thor, I went into the movie expecting a rating of 6 but getting a movie I can rate a 9 as Kenneth Branagh made an exceptional film. Wear as with Cap, thanks to the advertisement I was thinking it might be a 4 and hoping it was a 6, and when it actually did turn out to be a 6 I gave it an 8 just because I’m glad it was not a 4. Sometimes that happens to me when I see a movie I think is not going to be good. I think for most of us the best part of the The first Avenger was  the tie ins with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Like When Cap wakes up after a 70 year sleep in the middle of Times Square and Nick Fury drives up next to him and you realize were the title The First Avengers comes from). For me, I’m guessing that deep inside I also did not like the movie as much as I calmed as It took me seven years to see it again.

Especially after the Winter Soldier came out. The Winter Soldier should go down as one of the greatest sequels of all time, simply because of how much better it was than the original film.  Like most superhero franchises telling the origin of a character can really mess shit up. Like Spider-Man back in 2002, which was a great movie but nothing compared to Spider-Man 2, which is a better movie cause we got the whole I was bitten by a (movie adaption of the origin) genetically enhanced spider thing out of the way, and X-Men in 2000, which I was Satisfied with, not blown away. It was just good enough to justify a sequel, X2, which back in 2003 was as impressive as you could get when it comes to superhero movies, and I have to admit being just, Satisfied with X-Men had a lot to do with Hugh Jackman(Ironically as he makes the franchise), though convincing that a 6’2″ actor who I’ve seen do one too many musicals could play a 5’3″ though as nails bad ass like The Wolverine, his rookie performance added to the stumbling of the X-Men origin story in the film,but in all fairness back in 2000, nobody really knew how to get a superhero movie right cause it was not a full fledged genre like it is now.

And as rare as a sequel being better than the original is the third installment, Captain America: The Civil War beating both that came before it. The third flick being better than the first and the second!? Unheard off!! X3 sucked! Spider-man 3 sucked! Even the Dark Knight Rises did not have what it takes to break the trilogy curse, but Cap did do it (Despite cheating by technically being Avengers 3 (or as some of the cast members put it Avengers 2.5).

I’ve seen Winter Soldier a dozen times (literally) as well as seeing Civil War a dozen times (Not as literally but almost) but I have yet seen the First Avenger since I saw it in theaters. I’ve had chances to but I’ve always passed them up without given it a second of regret, but finally I’m watching the movie again. So here it goes.

By this time, it is definitely the weaker of the three movies by far. To me that’s a good thing because a film series should get better and better instead of falling into the sequel curse like most do, that’s why I’ll give the First Avenger an A for effort as it was the start of something that kept getting so much better.

I realized that one of the reasons why I did like this movie is because like most of these Marvel Cinematic Universe joints it is true to the source material, and at the same time capable of  doing the slightest update for the modern audience,

The First Avenger’s first problem is of course having to do an origin story (that’s one curse it did fall into). What I like about Cap’s origin is that it does not have to change because it’s so in rooted in history. During WWII, a German scientist creates a serum that  turns a frail human being named Steve Rodgers into the peak of human capability that would be known as Captain America. The key part to this origin is that it happens in World War II. The Second part of the origin that’s important is that Cap gives his life to save the world from the Red Skull, or so he thought as he ends up being frozen in Ice until the Avengers find him years later. What I love about this part is that it keeps Cap’s origin that same forever, which fascinates  me.

When Cap was first thawed out in the comics he had been gone for only ten years. When he’s thawed out in the movie, seventy years had past since World War 2. Two hundred years from now they can reboot the Marvel Universe and still tell the exact same story of Captain America, the legendary hero form another time. I can see it now. Unlike waking up 70 years later there is not a possibly of anyone he knows still being around after 200 years in Ice to connect with (Unless their able to add Wolverine to that movie adaption). As vastly different technology is now to that of 1944, just imagine the cultural changes he might have to face 200 years from now because of it? For all we know they could have discovered Cap because Tony Stark brought water to a moon city by flying in a Ice glacier Cap happen to be trapped in to that city as Iron Man. I just feel the ironic time limitation of never having to update Cap’s WWII background set up limitless story arcs to come.

But Ironic, this may have been one of the top failures of The First Avenger. I think director Joe Johnston attempts to make The blockbuster look like it could have been maid in the 1940s did not work for some people. It worked for me, as I’m a fan of WWII movies that came out around WWII and First Avenger definitely has that feel. There is a part of the movie in which some military personnel was at the theater watching a newsreel, which is strange as the whole movie feels like a newsreel  with war montages taking up all the battle sequences.

But they may go to far with it. The First Avenger has this sensibility of the time and era the film takes place, which does give it a far more cornier vibe than the other Marvel Cinematic movies have (not saying much as the lightheartedness of these flicks is sometimes pretty corny). It’s possible that the 2011 crowd did not want to see a well done homage of the 1940s in the First Avenger (may have done better as the first 15mins of the Avengers or something)

Going back to the origin, they do spend like an hour of a two hour film going over it. Though interesting to me being a Marvel fan and having the origin be done right and poke fun at what was wrong. For Example: When the Nazi spy kills the man that just created Captain America the US government considered the project a failure because they wanted a army of super soldiers. Not wanting Steve Rodgers to go to waste The Senator in charge of the project made Cap a campaign for the War Effort having him do shows across the Untied States where he wears the original comic book design of his costume as well as dawns the original shield he carries and has him punch out an actor playing Hitler in each show like he iconicly did  in the cover of his first appearance in comic books, which was in-bedded into the movie. That was cool, because Captain America in the cinematic universe is both a real hero and a comic book one (One of which agent Phil Coulson was such a fan he even collected the rare edition cards). The origin takes up too much of the film like this paragraph does and I think that may have hurt it.

I’m mean really hurt it. All origin and no action. Most of the good action like I said before was this old style movie news reel action that was more of a montage of things exploding. The real downfall of the action is that it’s specifically designed for 3D. A lot of Cap punching the screen and tossing the shield at the screen. This was a downer for me.

And I do blame director Joe Johnston for this. Johnston started out his career as a film editor under the mentoring of B-movie God, Rodger Corman (The man responsible for making the never released Fantastic Four film of 1994). Johnston adjustment to 3D was very b-movie cheese. Almost putting this movie down there with the 1990 Captain America I mentioned before (Not a completely bad movie but fun because it’s campy, something I’m sure was not intended for either that or the First Avenger)

Even though Cap’s attitude is more fitting of the core Marvel Universe his aggressive fighting style is more fitting of the Ultimate Marvel version. At least that’s what it will become after this film.

One of the biggest issues I had going back to see this movie again is that I’ve become so found of a fighting style Cap did not start to tap on until The Avengers a year later, that watching him toss a shield at me  when I’m not wearing my 3D glasses seems so stupid. I mean, in the other Cap movies this dude is an unstoppable fighting machine. He makes me believe he can beat anyone. I can’t wait to see if they put into Avengers: infinity war a famous moment in comics in which Cap stood up to Thanos (Whose partially a God) and held his own.

With The Winter Soldier and The Civil War they tried to make up for the weakness of The First Avenger by making Cap lead a team. Technically he leads The Howling Commandos in the First Avenger, but these guys have no personality. Neal McDonough is lucky as he gets to play Dum Dum Duncan who has a very distinctive look form the other Commandos, and I may not have even noticed the one that Kenneth Choi plays if not for Dum Dum’s slightly racist remark about rescuing a Japanese soldier along with the rest of the POW’s  in one scene (Could of sworn Cap said it when I first saw the movie, but I guess I was wrong, or I could be right and they changed it to make Cap look better (but hey, even Superman famously called them Japs during wartime) Speaking of racism, I have to say that even Black American, Derek Luke who was playing the smartest of the Commandos look just like the other two or three who go unmemorable ( I think the rest are one who spoke french and some Brit , I think).

They refer to The Civil War as Avengers 2.5, but Winter Soldier could be called Avengers 1.5. Since Winter Soldier was already planned and they possible could not back out of it, they just decided to see if they could spruce it up to make it better than the First Avengers, by adding Avengers like the Black Widow, which made sense, because the movie was about Cap becoming an Agent of SHIELD, and as a SHIELD agent Cap takes his orders for the big man, Nick Fury (I should mention with Samuel L. Jackson playing the role, their using the Ultimate Marvel version of Fury instead of the original who is white). He has a major part in the film. Then there is future Avenger, the Falcon who makes his cinematic debut  here and becomes a very important part to the universe in general. Last but not lease is a small role for SHIELD Agent Maria Hill who was also in the Avengers movies.

Than of course talking about Avengers 2.5, that basically did what X2 did to make it such a good movie: added more super powers. All the Avengers from both movies (Leaving out Thor, who was too busy doing the follow up to The Dark World, which is another sequel that surpasses the 1st (just not as impressively) and The Incredible Hulk, which is rumored to be with Thor on his quest). Plus they added more super powers with The introduction of The Black Panther and Spider-Man to the mix.

But with all that said, still the best part of the Cap movies is watching the Star spangled Avengers get down. For me I think it has a lot to do with his powers. I once read a book Called the Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios, which reinforced the idea that the Ultimate Marvel universe was only really hinting at. That Cap’s powers can be done with the right type of steroids, and that the super soldier serum is more like the…Ultimate steroid that permanently last in  Steve Rodgers’ body and makes that invisibility roid ragers feel on the juice more physical than mental. What I’m getting at is that this puts Cap on the level of Batman when it comes to Superpowers because it makes the source of his powers a little realer.  If you read up of Captain America’s powers more legit info will start by saying Cap has no superpowers. What the serum did for him was bring out the peak level of what a human can do. They say the top speed a human is capable of is about 15mph and that’s what Cap can do. They say a human could be capable of lifting a ton and that’s what Cap can do. The Ultimate human being and this is what the Ultimate Captain America help me understand, and with that understanding he became cool. So combine that with some of the cool fighting skills that he showed off in Winter Soldier and Civil War, Cap has quickly moved up my list of fav super heroes.

Getting back to the First Avenger, I don’t want to say the movie is all bad, it’s just that I now have a fuller understanding of why others did not like it as much. The Cap in this movie, like most other origin movies is underdeveloped. The 1940s corn combined with the 3D adjusted cheese helped this underdevelopment, but it had it’s highlights:

Like the Red Skull. Watching this the second time around is a bit Ironic. These Marvel Superhero movies are major blockbuster hits with one complaint all around is that the villains are weak, but interestingly enough in a weak movie like the First Avenger they had a pretty good Villain in Red Skull. I’m a little bias because even though, I’m just starting to really like Captain America , I’ve always been a fan of the Red Skull. Why? because of the realness of the character. Super villains like  him exist in real life. I mean the fictional character was actually working the non fictional Super Villain Adolf Hitler, so that tells you something. Hugo Weaving did a good job with a well crafted arch nemesis who could have used more screen time to put more depth into it.

I like Bucky better than I like the Winter Soldier. Once again it’s a character that could have used more screen time (And a better death scene than what he got), but he was a solid soldier. I think this on screen persona suffered from  his comic book’s long standing duty of being Cap’s young sidekick, which he was not in this film, yet treated as such in a lot of ways.

Cap’s love of Bucky is so consistent in each and every movie. Straight out of the comics, it’s a love that all manly superheroes have for their 13 year boy wonders they like to put in small shorts and terrible danger just to get their rocks off.

You notice that Bucky is a sharp shooter in this film, a nod on what he’s about to become.

Peggy Carter. I’m not going to lie to you Hayley Atwell is super hot. She made a great Commanding Officer in the film (along with Tommy Lee Jones who looked like he was having a ball), and she may have been a far better more developed character in the short live ABC series Agent Carter (but it was canceled so maybe not), but here, I cannot help it, she filled out that uniform better that Chris Evans (Well maybe not but I’m not feeling Evans the way I was feeling Atwell). I know woman in Hollywood want to be more than eye candy, but she was good eye candy that makes me want to see the movie again.

I also like Dominic Copper as Howard Stark. In this case, I remember his part being bigger, but seeing it again I realize it was not that big just important and memorable, so it was just enough with no need to add or subtract.

The movie was also shot very well. Very dark and gloomy but amazing visuals. Like when Cap and The Red Skull have their first encounter on a bridge inside an exploding building. Very neat.

So that was my second thought on Captain America: The First Avenger. Not the best of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and lucky for it The incredible Hulk was the worse Technically. It’s being out done by it’s follow ups, but that only makes the film series look better as a whole.