CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
CAPTAIN AMERICA is my favorite superhero… period. I just want to put things into perspective before I get into this review. I also want to establish myself for the record as a proud card carrying member of Generation X. The reason being is that a lot of “So-Called Fanboys” seem to sign off on anything comic book movie related as “EPIC” and whole heartedly subscribe to the “Well at least it’s got made & you should be grateful” mantra that I feel is killing the genre off in it’s supposed GOLDEN ERA.
I’m not going to give any movie a pass just because it’s based on a comic book character I like (In this case love.) if it’s a substandard product. If the movie has a good story, is faithful to the source material in a manner that shows the filmmakers care and has a decent look … I’m more than likely to give it a pass for better or worse.
That being said, I’d like to talk about Captain America in depth and explain my views on the character so that I won’t seem like I’m head hunting the big studios and their interpretation of my favorite comic book character.
CAPTAIN AMERICA is the creation of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Initially imagined as a sort of propaganda tool during WW 2, Cap exploded onto the scene in March of 1941 literally smashing through a window in Berlin and decking Adolf Hitler with a round house right to the jaw.
Dressed in the American flag and armed only with an indestructible shield, Cap sold nearly a million copies in his premiere debut. The character would go on to become the best selling title at Timely Comics (Marvel’s Predecessor) and Atlas Comics until its popularity waned and the comic bowed in September of 1954.
Cap would be revived during the Silver Age of Comics by writer-editor Stan Lee and co-plotter & original character artist, COMIC BOOK LEGEND, JACK KIRBY. Cap was reimagined as a literal “Man out of Time” and thrust into the 60’s with Avengers #4 in March of 1964.
This is the Cap that I’m most familiar with as this story was adapted into a cartoon episode of the MARVEL SUPER HEROES (1966) which was in perpetual syndication during my childhood.
This comic detailed the discovery and eventual rebirth of the Iconic character “at a time when the World needs him most”.
The Avengers consisting of Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man & the Wasp discovers a large slab of ice containing Steve Rogers a.k.a Captain America and successfully revives the super soldier. Cap is shocked at having been “out-of-action” for nearly two decades and initially becomes reclusive and withdrawn until he is forced into action by the sudden incapacitation of the Avengers by an extraterrestrial villain.
One of the most memorable moments for me personally comes when Cap wanders around 1960’s New York stopping in front of the United Nations where he is stopped by a police officer. After realizing that this costumed stranger is the “REAL CAPTAIN AMERICA” the cop begins to well up with emotion and apologizes telling Cap that he has returned at a time when “the world needs him most.”
Needless o say Cap vanquishes the villain (A misunderstood alien being blackmailed by Cap’s old enemy Baron Zemo.) and takes his place in the modern world among is greatest heroes, the Avengers.
One of the things I love about CAPTAIN AMERICA is that his “true super-power” isn’t his super strength, uncanny agility and speed, his herculean endurance or the indestructible shield he carries as a symbol of freedom and a weapon … Cap’s true power is his “HEART”.
Simply put, the character has endured over time because he is the living embodiment of all that makes men … “GREAT”. Notice that I didn’t say America … that would be limiting the impact of Simon & Kirby’s creation that has endured over decades & remains one of the enduring archetypes of modern super heroics to this day. Captain America isn’t just a Super Hero; he’s a Moral Hero as well. Someone you can count on to always do what is right, someone who will put humanity first and looks for and is a symbol of the best in all of us.
I am a CAPTAIN AMERICA mark … and that being said and “hopefully” explained let’s take a look at Cap in other media.
CAPTAIN AMERICA (February 05, 1944)
Produced as a Serial by Republic Pictures, this episodic set of 15 chapters details Cap’s struggle against the enigmatic villain known as the “Scarab”. While definitely not a faithful version of the character in any sense, this serial ratcheted things up considerably with knock down-drag out fights between Cap and numerous gangsters and other stock villains of the time.
Dick Purcell as District Attorney, Grant Gardner / Captain America plays the entire affair in a no-nonsense manner. Kudos goes to the stunt coordinator for the aforementioned fights. The serial is definitely worth a look for any curious Fanboys.
FILM FACT: Actor Dick Purcell died shortly after completing the serial. He collapsed in the locker room of a Los Angeles country club. It has been the opinion that training for the role took a fatal toll on his health. Note: Cause of Death was a heart attack.
FILM FACT #2: CAPTAIN AMERICA was the last serial made by Republic Pictures about a super hero and it has the distinction of being the most expensive production mounted by the studio. Note: The late Mr. Purcell passed away before the serial was released to enormous commercial success.
CAPTAIN AMERICA (December 14, 1990: U.K Release / July 22, 1992: United States)
Directed by Albert Pyun (Cyborg, The Sword and the Sorcerer) this movie is a RAGING STINKER, BAD, BAD, and BAD, a turd (Excuse my candid admission and toilet based vernacular to describe this movie.).
Matt Salinger is cast as this movie’s hero and spends a large portion of the film learning about the modern world by watching Time-Life videos. Cap’s greatest nemesis, The Red Skull fares even worse as he is re-imagined in his “film” as an Italian fascist and a failed result of the super-soldier serum (More on that later.).
Note: CAPTAIN AMERICA’S creator Dr. Erskine is even reimagined as a woman named Dr. Vaselli (Carla Cassola).
CAPTAIN AMERICA starts out in the forties where we (The Audience) are witness to the birth of the titular super hero and his first mission where he is physically overpowered (?) by the Red Skull and strapped to rocket aimed at the White House.
Cap manages to knock the missile off course and ends up frozen for four decades before he is thawed out and this cinematic excretement of a film proceeds.
Pyun is a crap director who has only had two stories to tell his entire career (Cyborg & Sword) … Given a ten million budget which could have been used to shoot at least a decent action movie, this movie is plodding & limps to its conclusion.
FILM FACT:
21st Century Film Corporation the “studio” which produced CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990), also owned the rights to Spider-Man … Pyun was the final director slotted in to do the movie. The rights shifted to the house that Charles Bronson built, Cannon Studios.
Thankfully, that company made the commercial bombs “Masters of the Universe” & Superman 4: The Quest for Peace.
I recall being consumed with anger at how Pyun had screwed up Cap. I mean how hard could it be to make an action movie with the star spangled hero which is all Pyun could have down with his budget.
He over-reached and the film suffered miserably for it. Perhaps he should have just made a movie with Cap already around fighting Skull. Well, enough of this project… No use crying over crap-stained newsprint.
THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
Wikipedia description:
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a shared fictional universe that is the setting of superhero films independently developed by Marvel Studios, based on characters published in Marvel Comics. The setting is much like the Marvel Universe in comic books. The universe was established by crossing over shared plot elements, settings, cast, and characters. Five films set in this shared universe have been released theatrically: Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in 2008, Iron Man 2 in 2010, and Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011. An additional three planned films are in various stages of production as of November 2011: The Avengers is in post-production, and Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 are in development.
CAPTAIN AMERICA (2011)
Take a good look at this photo. This was the first TEASER Image released by Marvel Studios to promote the upcoming movie … Ask yourself this… What’s wrong with this image?
Answer:
This is a photo of Chris Evans, if you want to stretch that a little bit and be favorable… You can say that this is a photo of Steve Rogers.
Where is CAPTAIN AMERICA?
Some might think it’s a little anal to be put off by this picture simply because Evans isn’t wearing the character’s signature cowl.
But to many loyal fans and comic book movie enthusiasts, this one sheet is like releasing a one sheet of Superman that features a photo of Clark Kent.
IMAGINE IF THIS WAS THE POSTER IN 1977!!!
CAPTAIN AMERICA: The First Avenger
Release Date: July 19, 2011 (World Premiere)
Studio(s): Marvel Studios
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $ 140 Million
Gross Revenue: 368,608,363.00
Produced By: Kevin Feige
Written by: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
Based on the Marvel Comics Character created by Joe Simon And Jack Kirby
Featuring:
Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Stanley Tucci and SPECIAL GUEST CAMEO(S): Sam “Da’ MAN” Jackson & STAN “THE MAN” LEE
Effects by:
Special Make-up by:
Music by: Alan Silvestri
Cinematography by: Shelly Johnson
Editing by: Robert Dalva and Jeffrey Ford
Directed by: Joe Johnston
During the development of this movie Marvel Studios added “The First Avenger” moniker to give the project more of an international flavor in a knee jerk reaction to the current political atmosphere and the rising Anti-U.S. sentiment on the world stage. Whether it helped stock more money into this studios coffer is anybody’s guess. I simply wondered what Simon thought about the whole affair. I wondered if Jack Kirby still lived, would he even be able to go to the movie without having “difficulties”.
KIRBY Note(s):
It has been documented that Kirby couldn’t stand to see even the smallest bit of merchandising on his established characters & that he would have a severe emotional fit if he did. He spent the good years of his life creating & drawing these characters and hardly gets any recognition in these movies other than a small, brief screen acknowledgement.
On September 16, 2009, the Kirby estate also served notices of termination to Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Sony Pictures to attempt to regain control of various Silver Age Marvel characters. Marvel is seeking to invalidate these claims.
However, in mid-March 2010 Kirby's estate "sued”Marvel On July 28, 2011, the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, ruled a summary judgment in favor of Marvel in the case "Marvel Worldwide, Inc., Marvel Characters, Inc. and MVL Rights, LLC, against Lisa R. Kirby, Barbara J. Kirby, Neal L. Kirby and Susan M. Kirby".
Simon Note:
There was another lawsuit between Marvel Comics and Joe Simon over the ownership of Captain America copyrights, disrupting the development process of the film. The lawsuit was eventually settled in September 2003.
Looks like Marvel dodged a potential bullet there … and speaking of bullets…
Development Note(s):
Jon Favreau (Iron Man & Iron Man 2) approached Arad to direct the film as a comedy, but he chose to make Iron Man instead. In July 2006, David Self was hired to write the script. He explained that Captain America was his favorite superhero as a child because "my dad told me I could one day be Captain America". Joe Johnston met with Marvel to discuss directing the film.
Marvel Studios hired Joe Johnston to direct this film after he pitched his directorial take having similarities to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with some similarities o his own “Rocketeer” alluded o for good measure. After reading this I was fairly optimistic that Johnston would do more than the standard “barely” competent and “smaltzy” job he normally does (See: The Wolfman (2010) & Jumanji (1995) etc ;).
JOE JOHNSTON’S TAKE on CAPTAIN AMERICA:
"He [Captain America] wants to serve his country, but he's not this sort of jingoistic American flag-waver. He's just a good person. We make a point of that in the script: Don't change who you are once you go from Steve Rogers to this super-soldier; you have to stay who you are inside, that's really what's important more than your strength and everything... It's also the idea that this is not about America so much as it is about the spirit of doing the right thing. It's an international cast and an international story. It's about what makes America great and what make the rest of the world great too."
Joe Johnston, director of Captain America: The First Avenger, about the film.
I was more than a little worried after reading what sounded like studio-fed pabulum from Johnston. Also worrisome was the fact that this director was a disciple of George Lucas and as such, prescribed whole heartedly to the school of “Digital Filmmaking” that Lucas “revolutionized” in his first Star Wars prequel “The Phantom Menace”. Anyone that has seen that film knows what a soulless affair that turned out to be. I wondered how this CAPTAIN AMERICA movie would play out considering some of the negative forces surrounding it.
Chris Evans was cast in the role of CAPTAIN AMERICA and I was troubled by this at first until I saw some leaked stills of the bulked up Evans and the now infamous YOUTUBE videos of the filming in progress. I was ready to give Evans a chance and he didn’t disappoint.
Evans came across in interviews as an actor that earnestly wanted to do right by CAPTAIN AMERICA and that impressed me even more. I felt that Johnston would more than likely screw things up with his Meat-N-Potatoes directing style, but that perhaps Evans could carry the day and make the film a break-out hit in a summer crammed to the gills with superheroes of every color and stripe.
• Would Captain America be a “REAL MOVIE” with a decent story to tell ala Raiders of the Lost Ark?
• Would the movie be OVERPOWERED by Special Effects and computer imagery as it’s predecessors in the MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE had?
• Could Chris Evans portray a decent Steve Rogers & a Believable Captain America?
• Would Joe Johnson bring his A-Game to his project and more than a considerable amount of passion?
July 19, 2011
My loving wife Caitlin knowing how much I wanted to see the movie brought a pair of tickets and we hit our local theatre for a screening of the 3D version. I had initially wanted to see the film in 2D (3D is a blatant cash grab & pads out the gross revenue for substandard films: My view on the fad.). I can’t lie, I was anxious no wanting to see my all-time favorite comic book character butchered i.e. the X-Men, Fantastic Four & to a lesser degree ... Iron Man.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: The First Avenger is a barely adequate film that seems to just want to “get by” so that the Avengers movie can be made. It’s like Marvel Studios went to sleep when they were making this movie and left a gimp running the proceedings. The result is that this movie feels like a puzzle piece in the unsaid studio mantra to “GET IT DONE so that we can make HISTORY with our little ENSENBLE CBM.”
… and on that sentiment alone this movie fails to stand on its own merits. Nothing is memorable or “Iconic” about this movie.
Chris Evans does the best that he can but seems bogged down with smaltzy; Disney styled tripe like the “Star Spangled Man” musical number which is written by none other than Alan Silvestri. This number had Disney written all over it and as I gritted my teeth through it, I just kept wondering why Marvel / Disney simply didn’t animate the film.
The movie details the origins and beginnings of Cap in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) up to his eventual “heroic death” & “rebirth” with the RED SKULL as his primary antagonist. Here as in the 1990’s version the Skull is presented as a failed result of the super-soldier serum (Albeit, by his own hand.) and a megalomaniac bent on world domination through the Tesseract (I.e.; the Cosmic Cube).
The Red Skull as played by Hugo Weaving is almost an afterthought and is barely seen throughout the movie popping up only when needed by the screen writers. This movie badly needed a “Larger than Life” villain. There was definitely the potential to create something unique and frightening (See Heath Ledger/ Dark Knight) that was missed here. As a result, Weaving just phones it in and collects the easy check.
Character Note(s):
Bastardized versions of the “Howling Commandoes” appear in this film and are given the “FOX X-Men” treatment in that they are fully unrealized as real characters in this movies world.
Arnim Zola is presented as a cowering, Igor-like lackey which makes it hard to draw the connection between him and his four color comic book counterpart. Arnim Zola has always been presented as a Hannibal Lector / Seth Brundle like scientist conducting experiments on humans for the sake of experimentation itself.
The movie missed out on the chance to firmly establish the roots of S.H.I.E.L.D in the blah, blah, blah universe.
In the comics, Red Skull was established as the personal project of Adolf Hitler himself. He was never presented as a super-soldier until decades later in the comics when he had his consciousness projected into a clone of Cap’s body by Arnim Zola.
The Invaders DO NOT appear in this film. A throw away shot reveals an obvious mannequin meant to be the “Human Torch” encased in a plexiglass tube at the supposed Stark Expo.
SPOILER ALERT!!
Captain America apparently bites the bullet during the 40’s & awakens in the modern age mirroring in part, the events chronicled long ago in Avengers #4. The way this is depicted is the main reason why the film is an EPIC FAIL. There is no DRAMATIC WEIGHT to Cap’s demise as most of his missions with the Howling Commandoes are presented in a music accompanied montage only a HACK DIRECTOR would have approved.
His relationship with love interest Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) lacks any serious chemistry because of their lack of screen time. We get a few clichéd exchanges between the two and that’s it. Granted I didn’t want to see a full on “BODY HEAT” style sex scene or anything. I kind of felt that maybe Cap would be modeled a little bit on Jimmy Stewart in this regard.
When Cap knows he isn’t going to make it back and radios his goodbyes to his star crossed love, there shouldn’t have been a dry eye in the theatre.
The spring of 2012 will see the BIG SCREEN DEBUT of THE AVENGERS (May 03, 2012) and it is because of this upcoming movie that CAPTAIN AMERICA was given the short end of the stick so that Joss Whedon’s movie could slide into home base.
Strangely enough I find myself optimistically hoping that Whedon will correct some of the mistakes created by Marvel and Johnston, but a lot of the promotional material leaves me with that anemic, “blah” feeling again.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Doesn’t this look familiar?
Just making a BLATANT point here … “Look before you leap.”
It is because of this that I feel the filmmakers just missed the boat and dropped the ball on something that could have been special. This movie screams “Blah” at the audience and we are left with a poor experience as a result. This movie barely registers as a period piece which could have benefitted it immensely in giving the supposed marvel cinematic universe some heft and weight …clearly established a lineage for future filmmakers to work with. All I’m really saying is that Marvel has cheated itself in profits and marketing and the movie going public with his anemic affair.
CAPTAIN AMERICA deserved better MARVEL.
** AND A HALF STARS out of FIVE
Shadowgeek10 returns to the shadows once more ...