WARNING: This article contains extreme use of pictures and embedded videos. That doesn't really require a warning, but I figured I should comment on it.
The Basics: I'll be pretty annoyed if they screw this movie up because it's not really that hard to make a decent Captain America movie. There's so much to draw from. Most superhero origin movies give film makers a starting point, but then they have to figure out where to go from there. This movie gives the people working on it the beginning and the end. It's pretty obvious that it should start around the time that Steve Rogers is undergoing the super soldier procedure and end when he falls into the water and is frozen. All the writers really need to do is fill in the gap. Obviously, the main villain of the story is the Red Skull, so that's figured out and right there you have a basic plot outline.
Visually, there's a lot to take inspiration form. Obviously, the WW2 setting of the movie will influence the look of the movie. Most WW2 stories have kind of washed out colors to give them a distinctive, older feel so I think this movie should look sort of like that.
I really like the Ultimate Captain America WW2 costume and I thought it would be a great starting point for creating the movie costume.
It has a very practical and realistic combat feel to it, more so than the classic costume. When I saw the first few picture of the movie costume, I thought it looked cool, but a little too modern.
Then I saw the Comic Con concept art poster, and I was sold.
The costume seems to be influenced by both the Ultimate WW2 costume and the Reborn Costume.
It really has the WW2 movie look with Captain America thrown in. The costume has more of a rough dirty look to it too which I think is great. It's much looser fitting (especially on the legs and sleeves) and the ears are now uncovered. If this picture is representative of the overall look and feel of the movie, then I think they've nailed it.
On another note, I believe I may have discovered the source of inspiration for the artist who made the costume concept art pictures. I noticed that two of the pictures bear a striking resemblance to the covers of Ed Brubaker Captain America comics.
The similarity is just too strong to be a coincidence. Maybe I'm just reading too much into this, but these picture and some earlier quotes suggest that the look of this movie will be heavilly influenced by the art featured in Brubaker's Captain America.
They have kind of a reference on how to show Captain America's abilities on screen if they look at The Incredible Hulk when Blonsky is on the bootleg super soldier serum.
With all that to draw inspiration from, it should be pretty easy to make this a decent movie.
Making it Great: With that said, while making a decent Captain America movie is easy, making a great movie is never easy. Of course, with any superhero movie visuals are important, but I think this movie needs to really focus on being a character driven story. Like I've emphasized before, this movie is partially about introducing Captain America to general audiences and making them like him. To do this they have to let people get to know Steve Rogers as a character and really emphasize what makes him a great hero.
When I think of Captain America, one of the first things that comes to mind is how much of an inspirational figure he is. It's pretty much a requirement for him to deliver at least on moving speech over the course of the movie and some good quotable lines should be thrown in too. This is closely related to his great leadership ability so along with the speeches, his general interactions with people should show how he's able to make them want to be the best they can be. Of course, the reason people feel so inclined to follow him is that they can sense that he's a very brave and noble person. If done right, Steve will not only inspire the characters he meets, but the audience as well. While the portrayal of Steve Rogers depends a lot on the writers and Joe Johnston, there is a lot of pressure on Chris Evans to get it right.
In terms of the tone of the story, it will be PG13 as it should. Joe Johnston has stated that it isn't exactly a war movie, which makes sense because it shouldn't be too serious. However, the things that Steve experiences during the war and how they affect him are a significant part of what makes the character who he is. To totally gloss over the gritty parts of what Steve would experience while fighting in a war would really hurt the story and weaken the development of the character. I believe Johnston has compared it to an adventure story like Raiders of the Lost Ark. That would probably be a good source to take inspiration from since it's a great movie and a period piece that's fun and timeless.
Obviously, they should also look at some war movies for any big battle sequences. While Saving Private Ryan is much more graphic and serious than what they should be shooting for in this movie, it's one of the best WW2 movies there is, so I think it should influence the tone and art style a little bit.
For the direction I think they should take their Invaders/ Howling Commandos team in, they should look at ensemble shoot 'em up movies. I think movies like the Losers and the new A-team movie might be around the right tone for this team. For the scenes with the Invaders, take movies like these and imagine throwing someone with the abilities of Captain America in there.
Here are a few movies that have the tone of action that I'd like to see in this movie.
There's really a lot of potential to make some great action sequences that could be something very fresh and unique. I mentioned earlier that the scene with Blonsky fighting Hulk would be a good place to look for a sample of how to show Captain America's abilities. There's also a point in the opening video of the game Marvel Ultimate Alliance that realistically shows Captain America's combat skills. Watch this video at 1:44 for awesome (but brief)Cap action.
To sum all that up: I think the feel could be a mixture of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan, and fun action movies like Live Free or Die Hard. Crazy? Yes. Potentially incredible? Heck yes!
There are two scenes that I have ideas for and think would be really cool.
The first would have Captain America, Bucky, and whoever is with them surrounded and pinned down somewhere. Some Nazi calls out something like "Captain America! We have you surrounded. Surrender now or die!" Bucky asks Cap if they're going to surrender. Cap replies with his famous line "I can't surrender. I don't know how." Bucky looks at him and says "Cap, what are you gonna do?" Cap just replies "Cover me." then runs out with his shield, charging toward the enemy soldiers leaping, rolling, and just kicking some major ass. Then the rest of his team opens fire on the enemy and they eventually escape. It would be sort of like this.
The other scene I'd really like to see is a Wolverine cameo, maybe with Magneto involved too. I realize that the movie rights to both of these character are owned by 20th Century Fox so they can't be in this movie. However, I think they could get around it by not explicitly naming them. The way I see it, Hugh Jackman could just make a brief appearance as an unnamed soldier. They had a flashback scene in the show X-men Evolution that showed Captain America and Wolverine freeing Magneto and others from a concentration camp.
Here's how I envision it happening in this movie. Before the mission, Cap sees a guy standing away from everyone else and not talking to anyone. He asks Bucky who he is. Bucky says "Canadian. They say he's the best there is at what he does." (fans would get the reference) They go in, save the people, and Cap asks a boy what his name is. The boy says "Erik." Cap says "I'm Captain America. Nice to meet you." and shakes his hand. He then sees the Canadian and decides to go talk to him. He says something like "You did a hell of a job back there. I didn't get your name." The Canadian looks at him revealing to the audience that it's Hugh Jackman and replies "I didn't give it" and walks away. ( I realized after writing this that the line is a Dare Devil rip-off, but whatever) I know that it's probably a bit far-fetched to hope this happens, but it would definitely be really cool.
Of course, there's a lot more to making a great Captain America movie than what I've covered here, but I think through this series I've been able to get across my vision for what Captain America: The First Avenger should be.
As usual, here's the video version of the article. Mostly the same content, but nifty intro, some different pictures etc. Nice alternative if you want to listen and not read.
Thank you for reading, especially those of you who have read this whole series.