Jasonic's Favorites: Captain America: The First Avenger
Hello, and good evening, Internet!
This is yet another movie I reviewed in my prior blog, "Jasonic Reviews Favorite Movies", but that was prior to Avengers: Endgame coming out. Now that Endgame has been out for five years and given more meaning/closure to Cap's story, I figured it was worth a revist -- Captain America is also one of my most favorite characters of all time, so it makes sense that I would bring him to this blog.
Released in 2011, Captain America: The First Avenger brought the character of Captain America to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it was still forming after the success of films like the first two Iron Man films as well as the first Thor movie. Interestingly enough, this was not the first Captain America movie in existence; by this point in time, it had actually been years after the character starred in bad/mediocre films during the last century -- the last one being in about 1990. Fortunately, they never continued that version of Captain America and the character's film rights reverted back to Marvel -- following a few lawsuits, mind you -- in time for the creation of Marvel Studios before they got to work on the MCU. The film was succesful commercially and was generally well-received by the fans and general public as it introduced Captain America to a wider, more modern audience. Any criticisms people may have had with this film at the time of its release were rather underplayed since this whole concept of a shared film universe was relatively new and hardly anyone knew what to expect of the overall story at the time. Anyone who did complain about this film, however, have most likely since found their criticisms steamrolled by the intelligent payoffs later in the MCU's story that this film effectively set up. As a diehard fan of Marvel and the MCU, I always found Cap to be my favorite hero within the MCU since, at least up until Endgame, he was a key player among other factors that make the character work. While Spider-Man may be my favorite Marvel superhero and superhero in general, this movie started me on track for a better appreciation of Captain America for years to come. That said, I do believe that most, if not all of Cap's films are worth a revisit starting with this one.
*SPOILERS* (though maybe you've seen this film along with the majority of the MCU at this point)
Captain America's origin is generally common knowledge at this point, although he may need more of an introduction than heroes like Spider-Man or Batman. This film is set in 1942-43 and is about a frail man named Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) who tries numerous times with falsified enlistment backgrounds to get into the U.S. Army and fight in World War II. While his best friend, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan), enjoys being recruited into the 107th, Steve is soon approached by a former German scientist Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who finally allows him to enlist, particularly in the Strategic Scientific Reserve as part of the "super-soldier" experiment. When Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and British MI6 agent, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), put Rogers through various test to prove not his physical strength, but rather the strength of his heart. When Steve passes those tests, he becomes the most worthy candidate to undergo the super-soldier augmentation, which completely beefs up his size and strength and enhances his entire functions. Unfortunately, a Hydra agent kills Erskine in the process of stealing a vial of super-soldier serum, leading Rogers to pursue only for the agent to kill himself to avoid interrogation. Despite the stakes at hand, U.S. Senator Brandt (Michael Brandon) has Rogers tour America as the costumed "Captain America" to promote war bonds, Rogers being uncontent with this lifestyle and wanting something more. Opportunity strikes, however, when Rogers, hearing reports of Bucky going missing and fearing him KIA, goes behind Hydra's enemy lines to rescue Bucky and his unit, but not without confronting the disfigured head of Hydra, Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Erskine's previous super-soldier subject who was injected with an incomplete formula. In the process, Rogers learns of Hydra's plans and starts a unit in order to strike at Hydra's weapons factories and put an end to their operation to use the mysterious relic known as the "Tesseract" to dominate the world with.
As an early MCU movie that lays the groundwork for the world and story prior to modern times, the plot of The First Avenger gets the job done pretty well. The morality of the war at hand is a pretty basic good vs. evil dynamic that has often been seen in WWII films involving anything related to American soldiers fighting the Nazis -- or, in this case, the Nazi's Marvel universe research division, Hydra. Captain America himself is your standard boy scout hero who wants more than anything to fight in the war and serve his country yet he can't get enlisted due to his size and physical ailments among other things. It is shown early on that he, according to Bucky, is "too dumb to wanna run away from a fight", this film establishing twice his later reused catchphrase of, "I can do this all day." He takes it a step further during the training segment of the super-soldier program by both thinking efficiently to retrieve a flag by tipping the pole over and later jumping on a seemingly live grenade that turns out to be a dummy, the latter foreshadowing his will to sacrifice himself in order to save the world. Some have criticized this film for Cap's lack of any real arc in this movie, especially compared to the DCEU's equivalent of Wonder Woman, but, in my opinion, he doesn't exactly need one in order for this film to work. The film does an excellent job of setting up Cap's ideals within his own time period in order to prepare him for his arcs of adjusting to modern times and the moral decay that comes with it in later films like The Winter Soldier. Many plot points that appear in this film are also given major payoffs later such as Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) giving the captain more support than Tony -- his future son -- Bucky being experimented on before he seemingly dies fighting alongside Cap, and, the big one that fans waited until Endgame for, Cap and Peggy sharing a dance with one another. As much as I have enjoyed that aspect of this movie with time, it was interesting going back to the chronological beginning once more to see where it all began.
The acting of this movie is along with much of the MCU is truly something to marvel at -- no pun intended. Having previously come off of playing Johnny Storm/Human Torch in the 2000s Fantastic Four movies, Chris Evans returns to acting as a Marvel superhero in the role that ultimately propelled his career. He has that Captain America charisma many have come to love, is convincingly humble in explaining who he is (i.e.: explaining to Red Skull that he's "just a kid from Brooklyn), and gets off to a great start with his snarky one-liners that I quoted for many years during his MCU tenure. When his face isn't placed on the skinny body they created to portray an unpowered Steve, Evans also looks the part with his ripped physique that would most likely leave the ladies swooning and the guys wanting to achieve his body. Ultimately, Chris Evans is what carries this film and the MCU going forward from this film up until Endgame and they picked the best actor for the job. Sebastian Stan was also an excellent choice for Bucky as he delivers a convincing best friend persona who gives sarcastic remarks to Steve at every turn. While he isn't as much of a character here compared to later projects, his and Cap's dynamic makes you care about their relationship in time for his supposed demise 2/3 of the way through this film. As good of an actor as he is, Hugo Weaving was a good pick for Red Skull; he manages to be taunting and intimidating as any Nazi-related bad guy should be and while that may make him seem generic, it gives fans of the comics an accurate portrayal of the Red Skull who's, no doubt, the perfect antithesis to Cap. Hayley Atwell portrays a very no-nonsense, loyal to Cap Agent Carter whose demeanor, despite her beautiful appearance, is enough to rock male recruits to their core -- case and point, when she punches a recruit in the program for calling her "Queen Victoria". An underrated part of this film is also the dynamics Cap and Carter have with Tommy Lee Jones' Colonel Phillips since, while the latter is the standard faithless, no bullcrap higher up to those two, it was a decent use of Tommy Lee Jones. Even the various guys that Cap recruits into his unit have a few moments to shine as characters (i.e.: Gabe Jones (Derek Luke) knowing how to speak French with a fellow comrade).
Unlike most other films I have reviewed on my blogs, the music of this and most other MCU movies are not exactly standout -- save for the Guardians of the Galaxy films -- though composer, Alan Silvestri, does quite well with what he's given. The one song that really stands out, however, is the song created specifically for this film "Star Spangled Man"; it sincerely fits the 1940s time period in which Cap exists and portrays the patriotic spirit that a figure like Captain America would have especially with the chorus line of girls dressed in red, white, and blue following him around. While music isn't a standout of this or any of the Cap movies, the one thing that helps the film stand out from most other MCU movies is the fact that it's a convincing period piece. While I'm not quite sure how many of the New York/Brooklyn backdrops are just small sets or CGI images, they do a fine job of looking like how the city looked in that time period, contrasting heavily with the modern New York Cap finds himself woken up in at the end when being recovered from the ice. An intentional design choice in making the film look authentically like the forties was the decision to incorporate designs for unmade Nazi vehicle designs, giving things like the huge tank Cap blows up during the Hydra raid montage and the smaller Hydra tanks an authentic WWII flare -- Red Skulls car in the opening 1942 scene was also a combination of a couple 1930s Mercedes-Benz models. Similar to sci fi spy flicks like early James Bond films, the various Tesseract and other Hydra technologies were made with 1940s designs in mind -- the heavy tanks they carry to power their vaporizing Tesseract weapons and flamethrowers being one of them. Hydra's massive bombing plane, the Valkyrie -- the main setpiece for the climax -- in my opinion, also resembles a massive version of German WWII bombers and its design is made all the more intimidating by the fact that it has a round front as opposed to something more angular. Simply put, the designers committed to selling the period piece in order to make the 1940s come to life in a modern movie.
The biggest distinction between this movie and the previous MCU Phase One movies is its action and action setpieces. In the Iron Man films, you had a guy flying in a suit of armor battling in the sky or on the ground against other humans or other robots/suits of armor whereas in Cap, it's a boots on the ground super-soldier against technologically enhanced Hydra troops who easily go down with bullets, neck snaps, or just Cap's super strength. The Incredible Hulk had CGI Hulk beating up/killing live action soldiers and one other CGI monstrocity unlike Cap who's actually there and engages extra actors in hand-to-hand battles. While Thor was a mix of both CG and actors faces in its action scenes, the actors are pretty much all there in Cap's fight scenes whether with other Hydra soldiers or the Red Skull himself. Pretty much the main sources of CGI in any of the battles are the Hydra troops firing Tesseract phasers that vaporize people and the Tesseract itself igniting during the final battle before Red Skull holds it and the portal that opens warps him into space. That said, for its time, The First Avenger was undoubtedly the most authentic and grounded MCU movie for its action alone and a lot of the battles Cap engages in feel real and kinetic. There's even a fair use of practical effects in the opening chase sequence following Cap's augmentation in the sense that when he hops across the cars in pursuit of Erskine's assassin, you can tell it's actually Chris Evans on strings. Some may say this makes the film look dated by today's standards, though if I'm to be honest, it fits the 1940s aesthetic where being on strings was a common thing for flying/jumping in films moreso than it is nowadays. Though we did get some authentic action with Black Widow in Iron Man 2 prior to this film, Cap and many of the later films' action scenes with unpowered characters such as Black Widow would ultimately set the basis for practical action in the more grounded MCU films for years to come.
For those who weren't here when I first reviewed this movie on my other blog, I will say now that my opinions on this film, while heavily reworded from before, remained largely unchanged save for the addition of a few observations I hadn't noticed before. Between setting up various MCU story threads from this film to Endgame, the competent to brilliant actors, a few snippets of the music, the period time piece elements, and the authentic action with little use of CGI, this film is now an underrated MCU classic compared to how it may have originally been perceived. Before I somewhat thought that the use of montages unnecessarily sped up the story too much and rushed things just so that Cap could sacrifice himself in time to appear in The Avengers a year later. Given how brilliant and full of characters The Avengers ultimately became, it most likely would have felt cliche and a bit rushed if, say, Cap triumphantly ended WWII without seemingly dying and then his sacrifice was the prologue of The Avengers. While some may see that as a better approach to that story, I personally have learned to enjoy the MCU for what it is despite its flaws and will enjoy each film to my heart's content. All in all, I give this film a B+ and will recommend it as a good starting point for the MCU both thematically and chronologically.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
This is yet another movie I reviewed in my prior blog, "Jasonic Reviews Favorite Movies", but that was prior to Avengers: Endgame coming out. Now that Endgame has been out for five years and given more meaning/closure to Cap's story, I figured it was worth a revist -- Captain America is also one of my most favorite characters of all time, so it makes sense that I would bring him to this blog.
Released in 2011, Captain America: The First Avenger brought the character of Captain America to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it was still forming after the success of films like the first two Iron Man films as well as the first Thor movie. Interestingly enough, this was not the first Captain America movie in existence; by this point in time, it had actually been years after the character starred in bad/mediocre films during the last century -- the last one being in about 1990. Fortunately, they never continued that version of Captain America and the character's film rights reverted back to Marvel -- following a few lawsuits, mind you -- in time for the creation of Marvel Studios before they got to work on the MCU. The film was succesful commercially and was generally well-received by the fans and general public as it introduced Captain America to a wider, more modern audience. Any criticisms people may have had with this film at the time of its release were rather underplayed since this whole concept of a shared film universe was relatively new and hardly anyone knew what to expect of the overall story at the time. Anyone who did complain about this film, however, have most likely since found their criticisms steamrolled by the intelligent payoffs later in the MCU's story that this film effectively set up. As a diehard fan of Marvel and the MCU, I always found Cap to be my favorite hero within the MCU since, at least up until Endgame, he was a key player among other factors that make the character work. While Spider-Man may be my favorite Marvel superhero and superhero in general, this movie started me on track for a better appreciation of Captain America for years to come. That said, I do believe that most, if not all of Cap's films are worth a revisit starting with this one.
*SPOILERS* (though maybe you've seen this film along with the majority of the MCU at this point)
Captain America's origin is generally common knowledge at this point, although he may need more of an introduction than heroes like Spider-Man or Batman. This film is set in 1942-43 and is about a frail man named Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) who tries numerous times with falsified enlistment backgrounds to get into the U.S. Army and fight in World War II. While his best friend, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan), enjoys being recruited into the 107th, Steve is soon approached by a former German scientist Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who finally allows him to enlist, particularly in the Strategic Scientific Reserve as part of the "super-soldier" experiment. When Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and British MI6 agent, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), put Rogers through various test to prove not his physical strength, but rather the strength of his heart. When Steve passes those tests, he becomes the most worthy candidate to undergo the super-soldier augmentation, which completely beefs up his size and strength and enhances his entire functions. Unfortunately, a Hydra agent kills Erskine in the process of stealing a vial of super-soldier serum, leading Rogers to pursue only for the agent to kill himself to avoid interrogation. Despite the stakes at hand, U.S. Senator Brandt (Michael Brandon) has Rogers tour America as the costumed "Captain America" to promote war bonds, Rogers being uncontent with this lifestyle and wanting something more. Opportunity strikes, however, when Rogers, hearing reports of Bucky going missing and fearing him KIA, goes behind Hydra's enemy lines to rescue Bucky and his unit, but not without confronting the disfigured head of Hydra, Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Erskine's previous super-soldier subject who was injected with an incomplete formula. In the process, Rogers learns of Hydra's plans and starts a unit in order to strike at Hydra's weapons factories and put an end to their operation to use the mysterious relic known as the "Tesseract" to dominate the world with.
As an early MCU movie that lays the groundwork for the world and story prior to modern times, the plot of The First Avenger gets the job done pretty well. The morality of the war at hand is a pretty basic good vs. evil dynamic that has often been seen in WWII films involving anything related to American soldiers fighting the Nazis -- or, in this case, the Nazi's Marvel universe research division, Hydra. Captain America himself is your standard boy scout hero who wants more than anything to fight in the war and serve his country yet he can't get enlisted due to his size and physical ailments among other things. It is shown early on that he, according to Bucky, is "too dumb to wanna run away from a fight", this film establishing twice his later reused catchphrase of, "I can do this all day." He takes it a step further during the training segment of the super-soldier program by both thinking efficiently to retrieve a flag by tipping the pole over and later jumping on a seemingly live grenade that turns out to be a dummy, the latter foreshadowing his will to sacrifice himself in order to save the world. Some have criticized this film for Cap's lack of any real arc in this movie, especially compared to the DCEU's equivalent of Wonder Woman, but, in my opinion, he doesn't exactly need one in order for this film to work. The film does an excellent job of setting up Cap's ideals within his own time period in order to prepare him for his arcs of adjusting to modern times and the moral decay that comes with it in later films like The Winter Soldier. Many plot points that appear in this film are also given major payoffs later such as Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) giving the captain more support than Tony -- his future son -- Bucky being experimented on before he seemingly dies fighting alongside Cap, and, the big one that fans waited until Endgame for, Cap and Peggy sharing a dance with one another. As much as I have enjoyed that aspect of this movie with time, it was interesting going back to the chronological beginning once more to see where it all began.
The acting of this movie is along with much of the MCU is truly something to marvel at -- no pun intended. Having previously come off of playing Johnny Storm/Human Torch in the 2000s Fantastic Four movies, Chris Evans returns to acting as a Marvel superhero in the role that ultimately propelled his career. He has that Captain America charisma many have come to love, is convincingly humble in explaining who he is (i.e.: explaining to Red Skull that he's "just a kid from Brooklyn), and gets off to a great start with his snarky one-liners that I quoted for many years during his MCU tenure. When his face isn't placed on the skinny body they created to portray an unpowered Steve, Evans also looks the part with his ripped physique that would most likely leave the ladies swooning and the guys wanting to achieve his body. Ultimately, Chris Evans is what carries this film and the MCU going forward from this film up until Endgame and they picked the best actor for the job. Sebastian Stan was also an excellent choice for Bucky as he delivers a convincing best friend persona who gives sarcastic remarks to Steve at every turn. While he isn't as much of a character here compared to later projects, his and Cap's dynamic makes you care about their relationship in time for his supposed demise 2/3 of the way through this film. As good of an actor as he is, Hugo Weaving was a good pick for Red Skull; he manages to be taunting and intimidating as any Nazi-related bad guy should be and while that may make him seem generic, it gives fans of the comics an accurate portrayal of the Red Skull who's, no doubt, the perfect antithesis to Cap. Hayley Atwell portrays a very no-nonsense, loyal to Cap Agent Carter whose demeanor, despite her beautiful appearance, is enough to rock male recruits to their core -- case and point, when she punches a recruit in the program for calling her "Queen Victoria". An underrated part of this film is also the dynamics Cap and Carter have with Tommy Lee Jones' Colonel Phillips since, while the latter is the standard faithless, no bullcrap higher up to those two, it was a decent use of Tommy Lee Jones. Even the various guys that Cap recruits into his unit have a few moments to shine as characters (i.e.: Gabe Jones (Derek Luke) knowing how to speak French with a fellow comrade).
Unlike most other films I have reviewed on my blogs, the music of this and most other MCU movies are not exactly standout -- save for the Guardians of the Galaxy films -- though composer, Alan Silvestri, does quite well with what he's given. The one song that really stands out, however, is the song created specifically for this film "Star Spangled Man"; it sincerely fits the 1940s time period in which Cap exists and portrays the patriotic spirit that a figure like Captain America would have especially with the chorus line of girls dressed in red, white, and blue following him around. While music isn't a standout of this or any of the Cap movies, the one thing that helps the film stand out from most other MCU movies is the fact that it's a convincing period piece. While I'm not quite sure how many of the New York/Brooklyn backdrops are just small sets or CGI images, they do a fine job of looking like how the city looked in that time period, contrasting heavily with the modern New York Cap finds himself woken up in at the end when being recovered from the ice. An intentional design choice in making the film look authentically like the forties was the decision to incorporate designs for unmade Nazi vehicle designs, giving things like the huge tank Cap blows up during the Hydra raid montage and the smaller Hydra tanks an authentic WWII flare -- Red Skulls car in the opening 1942 scene was also a combination of a couple 1930s Mercedes-Benz models. Similar to sci fi spy flicks like early James Bond films, the various Tesseract and other Hydra technologies were made with 1940s designs in mind -- the heavy tanks they carry to power their vaporizing Tesseract weapons and flamethrowers being one of them. Hydra's massive bombing plane, the Valkyrie -- the main setpiece for the climax -- in my opinion, also resembles a massive version of German WWII bombers and its design is made all the more intimidating by the fact that it has a round front as opposed to something more angular. Simply put, the designers committed to selling the period piece in order to make the 1940s come to life in a modern movie.
The biggest distinction between this movie and the previous MCU Phase One movies is its action and action setpieces. In the Iron Man films, you had a guy flying in a suit of armor battling in the sky or on the ground against other humans or other robots/suits of armor whereas in Cap, it's a boots on the ground super-soldier against technologically enhanced Hydra troops who easily go down with bullets, neck snaps, or just Cap's super strength. The Incredible Hulk had CGI Hulk beating up/killing live action soldiers and one other CGI monstrocity unlike Cap who's actually there and engages extra actors in hand-to-hand battles. While Thor was a mix of both CG and actors faces in its action scenes, the actors are pretty much all there in Cap's fight scenes whether with other Hydra soldiers or the Red Skull himself. Pretty much the main sources of CGI in any of the battles are the Hydra troops firing Tesseract phasers that vaporize people and the Tesseract itself igniting during the final battle before Red Skull holds it and the portal that opens warps him into space. That said, for its time, The First Avenger was undoubtedly the most authentic and grounded MCU movie for its action alone and a lot of the battles Cap engages in feel real and kinetic. There's even a fair use of practical effects in the opening chase sequence following Cap's augmentation in the sense that when he hops across the cars in pursuit of Erskine's assassin, you can tell it's actually Chris Evans on strings. Some may say this makes the film look dated by today's standards, though if I'm to be honest, it fits the 1940s aesthetic where being on strings was a common thing for flying/jumping in films moreso than it is nowadays. Though we did get some authentic action with Black Widow in Iron Man 2 prior to this film, Cap and many of the later films' action scenes with unpowered characters such as Black Widow would ultimately set the basis for practical action in the more grounded MCU films for years to come.
For those who weren't here when I first reviewed this movie on my other blog, I will say now that my opinions on this film, while heavily reworded from before, remained largely unchanged save for the addition of a few observations I hadn't noticed before. Between setting up various MCU story threads from this film to Endgame, the competent to brilliant actors, a few snippets of the music, the period time piece elements, and the authentic action with little use of CGI, this film is now an underrated MCU classic compared to how it may have originally been perceived. Before I somewhat thought that the use of montages unnecessarily sped up the story too much and rushed things just so that Cap could sacrifice himself in time to appear in The Avengers a year later. Given how brilliant and full of characters The Avengers ultimately became, it most likely would have felt cliche and a bit rushed if, say, Cap triumphantly ended WWII without seemingly dying and then his sacrifice was the prologue of The Avengers. While some may see that as a better approach to that story, I personally have learned to enjoy the MCU for what it is despite its flaws and will enjoy each film to my heart's content. All in all, I give this film a B+ and will recommend it as a good starting point for the MCU both thematically and chronologically.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
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