Movie: Captain America: The First Avenger

[Munsu]

Well it looks like this will get a summer 2011 release date. Anyways, a bit of old news, but it seems like Chris Evans has been picked to play the part of Captain America. I don't know about you guys, but I really dislike this casting decision. Not only do I hate actors portraying different Superheroes (Human Torch from Fantastic Four), I hate him as an actor.

What's your opinion on this?

[Penner]

I totally love Chris Evans, he was the only thing about the Fantastic Four that i liked, his style is very similar to Ryan Reynolds who i'm also a huge fan of ^_^

[animus]

He doesn't look or feel like someone that can pull off Steve Rogers. I don't believe he'll be able to portray Captain's vintage 1940-1950s personality.

Not to mention, like Munsu, I hate the decision to put him as Cap' if only because he was The Human Torch. It doesn't make sense, especially when they're both from the Marvel Universe. I'd understand if the characters never had interactions with each other, but they do on numerous occasions. Not to mention a trip to wiki says they're both in the new "Secret Avengers" comic/team. Not like they'd ever make that into a movie since he'd have to play both characters and would make little sense.

[Penner]

I've actually read somewhere that they might simply 'reboot' the Fantastic Four franchise, and imo they should, because it could have been alot better :P

[Carnage]

They are going to reboot it, and Chris Evans as Captain America was a terrible decision. Way to fuck things up, Marvel.

[Penner]

While i do like Chris Evans, i actually think Mark Valley (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0885090/)(Human Target/Boston Legal) would have been a good Captain America :P

[Psyke]

The concept art for the costume looks cool at least.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4166/captain20america.jpg

[Penner]

It does indeed, heres another one:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv243/FilmNerdJamie/ChrisEvansasCaptainAmerica.jpg

[Penner]

While on the subject of people playing mutliple heroes, i just remembered that Ryan Reynolds is both Deadpool and Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, but they are in different "universes" (Marvel/DC) so it might not be as big of a deal as the Chris Evans situation (Marvel/Marvel)

I'm a huge fan of Ryan and i have no problem with this, but what do you guys think of it? ^_^

[iMUSTbeTHEdevil]

I like Chris Evans, I just don't know how well Captain America will hold up. He throws a shield...

[Raven]

Captain America is supposed to be an enigmatic, majestic icon, a source of inspiration. Chris Evans seems more like a silly prankster, which is why he's perfect for Johnny Storm. I worry for this casting choice, I really do.

[Penner]

A concept-art "banner" for Comic Con.

(Click image for High-Res)
http://www.darkhorizons.com/assets/0012/1721/capban_slideshowbig.jpg (http://www.darkhorizons.com/assets/0012/1721/capban.jpg)

[Assassin]

Cap looks weird with a pistol in his hand.......just not used to seeing superheroes use guns. unless its some freakish souped up super-gun.

Also, would it be unrealistic to ask that this movie not be overly nationalistic/patriotic? I dont know if i'd be able to handle a "america's so great" pep talk for 2 hours.

[Munsu]

Just watched the movie, and really enjoyed it. Any of you guys seen it yet? We got a trailer for next years The Avengers movie at the end of the credits.

[Carnage]

I thought it was good, not as great as the trailers hyped, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

Im pretty pumped for the Avengers movie though.

[Munsu]

I thought it was good, not as great as the trailers hyped, but very enjoyable nonetheless.

Im pretty pumped for the Avengers movie though.

Spoiler for those who haven't watched it yet:



The agent at the end who's there when he wakes up, is that supposed to be Peggy's niece? The chick from The Mentalist, if you watch that show.




.

[Animeniax]

Cap looks weird with a pistol in his hand.......just not used to seeing superheroes use guns. unless its some freakish souped up super-gun.

Also, would it be unrealistic to ask that this movie not be overly nationalistic/patriotic? I dont know if i'd be able to handle a "america's so great" pep talk for 2 hours.
I like how they are taking a more real-world approach to super-heroes in these movies, so guns will have to be addressed. Captain America in particular usually fought non-super-powered villains, so they carried guns even in the comics. Capt never used one that I can remember, but it's more realistic that he does. He can only throw his shield and decapitate so many enemies before it looks ridiculous.

[darkshadow]

You guys don't realise that cap has always used firearms when he was shown in a WW2 setting? Seriously always; plus this movie is moreso based on his ultimate universe origin story. Ultimate Cap guns down people allllll the time lol ;P.

Anyway my mini review:


Just saw Captain America: The First Avenger 3D,

After Thor being pretty damn good, all I was hoping for was that they wouldn't butcher the story of the starspangled man. Now while not as good as Thor, Marvel has definitly kept the quality up.
It was already forshadowed in 2008's Hulk that The first Avenger's origin story would be mostly based on the alternate Ultimate universe version; this was a good thing however, since the official origin story isn't that interesting..
But while I did like the choice of story, there were a few tiny things that bothered me; about halfway through the movie they go through a montage of Cap fighting along side his fellow soldiers, but never once showed Cap actually -training- with is super iconic weapon of choice: the shield.
The reason why the shield always returns after being thrown isn't because it's "special", but because the serum enhanced his brain so much that cap actually subconciously calculates how to throw it in order for it to bounce back...it would've been nice to see that explained...perhaps in the upcoming Avengers movie.
I did however really like how it ended in present time, but still, coupled with some pacing issues I feel this could've been on par with Iron Man or even Thor, but ultimately falls a bit short.

The cast was pretty great; Chris Evans makes a great Captain America. Even though he also plays (a pretty good) Torch in the marvel movies, I'll associate him with cap first now; it just fits him better...aaannd Torch is dead now in the marvel universe anyway ;P.
His "arch-nemesis" the Red Skull was played by Hugo Weaving and didn't dissapoint at all; he's at his best playing villains anyway.
The rest of the cast was good enough, I wasn't really bothered by anyone...well agent carter's kiss had some pretty horrible cliché timing, but the rest of her performance was solid.

Now the visuals were great. "Skinny Steve" was pretty awesomely done. Instead of using a different body with Evans' head superimposed on it like benjamin button, they actually shrunk him and thus all scenes had to be acted out as if he was really that small xP.
This way had the advantage that it looked far more natural than the other aforementioned movie.
The shield bouncing of surfaces and nazi faces looked great too.
It's funny though that my favourite scene in the movie actually used the least CGI; when cap jumps of his motorcycle and just bashtackles a Nazi out of the way was just stupidly epic, even if it only lasted for half a second. Now if cap actually yelled "charging star" at that scene I would've lost it and screamed :x.
The 3D effects were just right, better than Thor.

As a sidenote I also really enjoyed them putting cap in his comic book outfit first, just to show how insanely silly it looks in real life ;P.

Even if this wasn't as good as Thor I still say this was very worth the watch and was highly enjoyable. Also stay after credits for a very epic trailer of the upcoming avengers movie!

Cap can do this all day, so watch it ;D!

Oh and Bud, yes she is indeed who you suspect she is.

[Munsu]

I actually liked it more than Thor. I thought they could have done a better job fleshing out the villain though, and his plot. Felt very abstract and not well explained.

As for Chris Evans, I really thought he did a great Captain America, so I take back what I've said before in this thread as I was quite critical on the casting. Though I dislike the idea of cross-casting among superhero movies.

[enkoujin]

I just watched this film today; it wasn't bad, I would say.

However, it feels like a generic superhero storyline with a whole lot of action and CG effects (without many innovative or creative writing skills). I thought the opening's connection to the end was rather clever, but I also thought that there could have been more military strategy involved during the battles when the US forces were beating Schmidt's organization.

I'd say the best part of the movie, aside from the showgirls (who I can imagine in my head what they would look like with their hair modernized) were the scenes in the end with Colonel Fury and the impact of the punching bag that Captain America was training on.

[Ryllharu]

I really liked it.

It was honest. Cap isn't an angsty teen, he isn't a tortured soul, he's not an arrogant child, not a colossal ego. He's just Cap. He feels like a Golden Age (or early Silver Age) hero, and it was hugely refreshing from the recent glut of ever-doubting superhero movies.

Hugo Weaving was excellent, I actually thought he got better after he ripped his face off. The way he acted after that point really gave off the feeling that he felt he was better than the rest of humanity. Evans was way better here than when he played Johnny Storm, he's really grown as an actor. Cap would be an easy role to overact (just play him as a paladin), but Evans added depth without going down the tortured soul path. He just played it honestly, and it worked really well for him.

The action sequences were great, and while the montage was a little cheesy, I didn't feel it was out of place. It felt like a newsreel.

I saw it in 3D. While it wasn't bad like other movies can be, it doesn't really add anything.

[Killa-Eyez]

I did not like the movie as much. It was even boring at some points. It made me feel it was more of a prep for the Avengers movie (which of course it is) but they didn't take the time to actually make a good movie instead of build-up material. I didn't feel like the scenes were properly merged into each other and it indeed tended to get predictable and cheesy. Good CGI and action sequences but poor story telling. I really do admire the way they made him tiny so realistically. And the way he fought made me think of a pro football player with a shield, which was cool.

On the 3D aspect, digital movies are by nature a little capped in terms of dynamic range as opposed to motion picture films. This makes the movie already a little less lively and colder. But the real problem lies in the 3D aspect, which most of the time doesn't add anything to the movie and even worse, makes you wear 3D glasses. Today's glasses are polarized; designed to block different types of light coming off the screen, making the movie even more "gray". This really makes viewing less pleasant.

[Raven]

As good as skinny Steve looked, I felt like his deep Chris Evans voice didn't suit, they needed to squeak it up a bit somehow. That was my only gripe, really. I thought it was great all things considered.

[Animeniax]

As good as skinny Steve looked, I felt like his deep Chris Evans voice didn't suit, they needed to squeak it up a bit somehow. That was my only gripe, really. I thought it was great all things considered.

Late to the party, but the voice also threw me off with how bad it didn't fit the body and image of pre-juiced Steve Rogers.

[Sapphire]

Agreed with Ryll from the Thor thread, this was way better than Thor. The director did a great job, and they actually did a way better job of displaying the setting.

It was still pretty boring, but they did a super good job at saying "hey, this isn't really anything but an Avenger's origin story" which is awesome. They even went as far as filming a teaser trailer in the after credits?! Even Thor got a better after credits scene than that. I feel little sad because the Captain America movie deserves to be more than a prequel, though. For example, Iron Man does a really great job at standing alone and having it's own spark and depth to it, which is probably why it's so successful. Plus, Tony Stark is hilarious and interesting.

Time for Avengers!

[Kraco]

Agreed with Ryll from the Thor thread, this was way better than Thor. The director did a great job, and they actually did a way better job of displaying the setting.

Yeah, this is better than Thor, but Thor did one thing better: The main character had to struggle more. Captain only struggled mentally when losing a close person, but otherwise everything went so smoothly for him that you'd think it was DS playing a game on casual difficulty. Well, except for the ending but that wasn't anymore between the beginning and the climax.