I'm going to sort of pick up where I left off in the last article. The last cast member I talked about was Toby Jones who will be playing Arnim Zola. I din't go into much detail about the character because I felt my thoughts on that subject would be better suited for this article. One of the things Arnim Zola is best known for is his strange appearance. He created a brain pattern imprinting device, which would allow someone's mental essence to be projected into a cloned brain. He used this device on himself transferring his mind into an artificial body. This is what the body looks like.
As you can see, it looks sort of like a predecessor of Krang from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Teletubbies.
There's debate among fans whether they should keep this for the movie or not. I'm really against using this design for several reasons. First and foremost, it just looks goofy. Having a robot with a monitor on its stomach displaying a face would instantly make this movie campier. When making this movie, they have to keep in mind the tone of semi-realism established by the first few movies in the Marvel cinematic universe. Robot Zola just seems suited for something in the tone of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and similar movies which are supposed to be very strange in terms of style and story. With Captain America they need to stay focused on what's important and keep it grounded. Some fans are claiming that if you make Zola into a normal scientist you're taking away everything that's interesting about the character. To those people I have to ask what exactly would be the function of having Zola in the artificial body for this movie? What is there that he would really need to do with that body that he couldn't do without it. If he is such an interesting character, he should be an interesting character because of his motivations and the type of person that he is. Those things aren't affected by whether he's a robot or not. I think the best way to use Zola would be to have him as one of the scientist working for the Nazi's trying to come up with their own version of the super soldier serum. He helps to create an imperfect serum which Johann Schmitt tests on himself, becoming the Red Skull. Then he's present for the rest of the movie in a small role working for the Red Skull. Maybe at the end, they could hint that he's going to transfer his mind into an artificial body so they could bring him back in future Captain America movies as something closer to the traditional Arnim Zola.
The other big concern I have in regards to keeping this movie grounded is the talk of including the Invaders for a large portion of the movie. The Invaders are a team of superheroes that Captain America and Bucky were a part of during WW2. Some of its members include Namor the Sub-Mariner, the original android Human Torch, Whizzer( a guy with super speed who got his powers by an injection of mongoose blood), Thin Man, and Union Jack.
Joe Johnston has stated that the Invaders will be appearing in "the entire second half" of the film. I think this could either work well or just be a terrible idea. This is Captain America's only solo film before the Avengers. One of the goals of this movie should be to sell Steve Rogers as a character to an audience who isn't really that familiar with his story. He shouldn't have to fight for attention like it's an ensemble film. While any cast is an ensemble, this is a solo superhero movie which means the main character is the strong focus of attention. This story shouldn't have a bunch of super heroes taking spotlight from its main attraction. From a character development standpoint, if you introduce these characters, you have to take some time to develop them. That would take away time that should be spent developing Steve as a character. Imagine if they decided to include Namor. The guy is from Atlantis! His story would especially require a lot of explanation to do the character justice.
From a visual standpoint, Captain America should be the most interesting person on screen. If you have him dressed in his red, white, and blue costume among soldiers who are much more plainly dressed, then he stands out and looks impressive. If you have him fighting alongside a guy who's on fire, a guy with super speed, and a stretchy guy, suddenly the super soldier doesn't seem so super. To illustrate my point compare the following pictures. What's the focus?
One is a picture of a superhero team while the other is a picture of Captain America. While Captain America is the team's most prominent and popular member, he's not the focus of the Invaders. He
has to be the focus of this movie.
It'll be great to see a team in the Avengers because the interest has been built through the solo movies and the audience is excited just to see them together, but in an introductory solo movie, the main character needs to have the spotlight mostly to himself.
Some people might point out that Wolverine's Origin movie featured several other super powered people. A) X-men Origins: Wolverine was kind of crappy. B) Audiences had already gotten to know Hugh Jackman's Wolverine through 3 X-men movies that were pretty heavily focused on him before seeing Wolverine Origins so it's a completely different situation. When you look at Iron Man, it would have been possible to include War Machine in the first movie. After seeing how easily Rhodey got the Mark 2 suit in Iron Man 2, it's not difficult to imagine him using it in the first movie to help Tony fight Iron Monger. However, this would have been a bad idea because they needed time to show off Iron Man before throwing in another character to share the spotlight.
I think the best way to do the Invaders is to make them more like an elite combat unit similar to teams like the A-team, the Losers, and most importantly, the Howling Commandos. There's already talk of including the Howling Commandos in the movie, so the most sensible thing to do would be to sort of mix the Invaders and the Howling Commandos to form one team instead of trying to cram both in.
That's more like it!
The roster doesn't need to be big. Seeing that the movie already has Captain America, Bucky, and Peggy Carter, I think adding 2 or 3 more characters to this team is the most they should do. Of the Invaders, I definitely think that Union Jack is realistic enough to be adapted in a way that would fit in with the tone the movie should have. Dum Dum Dugan of the Howling Commandos has already been confirmed to have a role in the movie so he could complete the team's roster. Since they are using him in this, I don't think he should be in the modern Marvel world because I think that for the purpose of these movies, there shouldn't be many characters besides Captain America who survive through the war and continue fighting in modern times. We're already looking at the possibility of Bucky, the Red Skull, and Arnim Zola meeting up with Cap in later movies. To add more characters to this list would probably just be a little too much.
Please check out the video version of this article here. It's mostly the same content, but it has a catchy intro. It's also a great alternative if you just feel like listening while doing other stuff instead of taking the time to read this whole thing.
Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for my next and final article in this series in which I talk about what this movie needs to make it great.