"Captain America: The First Avenger" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Lord Dalek]

The Star Spangled Man With a Plan

Release Date: July 22, 2011
Studio: Paramount/Marvel Studios
Director: Joe Johnston
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 (HDTV)
Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper, Neil McDonnogh, Derek Luke, Stanley Tucci

Plot Summary: "Captain America: The First Avenger" focuses on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America. As Captain America, Rogers joins forces with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) to wage war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving)

COMMENTS?

LD Talkback #146

I wonder if I should move Thor over here?

[Avaitor]

If you do, you should also bring over ones for the Iron Mans and Incredible Hulk, so we're ready for Avengers next year.

I was going to go to the midnight premiere with some friends, but we were doing bad movie night at one of their houses (Mars Attacks... yeah), and by the time it was over, we only had about 20 minutes to make it to a theater. We just stayed at his house instead.

I'm hoping to see it with my uncle tomorrow then, and if not, I'll try to go with friends again later. I missed out on catching X-Men: First Class, and I don't want to miss this as well.

[Lord Dalek]

Its pretty good. I wouldn't say its a great film narrative wise (there's some draggy moments that kill the pacing in a few places) and the special effects occasionally leave something to be desired (I saw it in 2D so the "Evans Bobblehead" effect was pretty noticable in the first couple reels).

That said, this is by far the best film Cap has ever got and leaves the horror of Matt Salinger in the dust.

[Commode]

I saw it last night, and thought it was pretty good.  The theater was packed though, moreso than the theater I went to for HP last Friday.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, apparently it's midnight premiere did better than any other super hero movie's did this summer. I would be kind of surprised if it did a lot better than the rest of them overall, though.

While Cap is a more popular character than Thor, the idea of a super hero movie based in World War II seems like a hard sell for the mainstream audience, and it hasn't really got too many better reviews than Thor did. But who knows, it might click better, and the Avengers hype could help catch up to it.

[Daxdiv]

I greatly enjoyed this movie. Maybe it's because I have a soft spot for WWII setting and such, but it didn't bug me. Really liked Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, the casting director sure does know how to pick them. Everyone else delivered a great performance as well, with my second favorite being Tommy Lee Jones.

I think my only complaint is Red Skull, he should have felt more like a threat.

[Avaitor]

Just came back from seeing it, and really enjoyed the film.

I had my doubts on how well it was going to be done, and they did change a lot of things in the original comics, like Bucky's age and death. But I think everything worked pretty well, and it turned out to be a fun experience that bordered on epic by the end. Chris Evans was a damn fine Cap, and the rest of the cast was solid as well.

Well, almost everything. I didn't think that Red Skull was as much of a pushover as other seem to, but he was a bit underdeveloped. And Bucky really could have used some more development as well, particularly his relationship with Steve. I didn't really care much when he died, and I don't think Cap did, either.

Also, for the love of god, please stick around at the end. A bunch of people left before, and I wanted to slap them all across the head.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just saw this movie, and overall I liked it. I kind of feel similar to LD that it dragged in places, though. Most of the movie had me pretty engaged but I actually felt that the ending went on a bit too long and kind of got bored of the action going on in the final fight between Captain America and Red Skull at the end of the film, though it was only for a few minutes that I lost interest, so its not such a big deal.

For what its worth I like it more than I expected to, as I had a hard time believing that they would be able to make a superhero like Captain America work convincingly in a live-action adaptation, and that shitty film from the 90's didn't help at all in convincing me otherwise. This movie managed to do the character some justice, though, from what I can tell. I'm sure this type of superhero works much better in the comics (and I can say for certain that he works better as a cartoon character in the animated Avengers, as well), but if nothing else this movie does prove that the Captain can work as a live-action hero as well. To be honest, though, most of the movie focused on him as Steve Rogers rather than his presence as the iconic hero that he is in the Marvel mythology, but I preferred that since I find Steve Rogers to be a very likable character with an interesting personality. He's the classic goody-two-shoes character of the Marvel Universe, you could say, but while he may not crack as many witty lines as Spider-Man or act as outlandish as Tony Stark/Iron Man, he makes up for it with a sense of charisma and determination that you just don't really get from any of the other Marvel superheros (at least from what I know of them).

So, yeah, its a pretty good flick. To be honest I think I actually had more fun watching Thor, though, but this one was pretty close.

I'd say that of all of the Avengers-related films excluding Iron Man 2 (which is easily the worst of them), the weakest would probably be The Incredible Hulk. To me, it was certainly a very entertaining film on the action side of things, and its not like its story or acting was too shabby either, but for some reason it just feels so forgettable. It sort of felt like they just made it for the sake of making it since they wanted the Hulk to have some relation to the Avengers for the movie (and going by the trailer he doesn't even seem to be in it, anyways, and even if he is they already got rid of Ed Norton so it'll be weird replacing him with someone completely new). That said, I certainly don't think it was a bad film, but more on the lines of being a bit uninspired. I might watch it again sometime to see if I feel differently, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

For anyone who's interested, this movie has now been added to Netflix, joining the likes of Iron Man 2 and Thor. I haven't re-watched the film since I saw it in theaters, so this is now the perfect opportunity to me to see how it holds up after a full year.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just re-watched the movie for the first time since theaters, and now I have seen each Marvel movie leading up to The Avengers at least twice with the exception of The Incredible Hulk which I've still only seen once.

Here's how I rank them:

1. The Avengers
2. Captain America: The First Avenger
3. Iron Man
4. Thor
5. The Incredible Hulk
6. Iron Man 2

[Spark Of Spirit]

Rewatched this recently back to back with Winter Soldier.

It gets better ever time I rewatch it, and Winter Soldier is such a perfect follow-up that I have a blast seeing them every time.

[Avaitor]

Agent Carter has me in the mood to watch it again, myself. I'll try to before I head back home.