Captain
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First Avenger: Movie
Review
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Review
Captain
America as portayed by Chris
Evans Captain
America: The First Avenger, is perhaps the best of
the films featuring characters from the Marvel
Universe. This film is a great war film, an
accurate-feeling period piece, a caring romance
flick, and a superb superhero epic. It is also
turning out to be a blockbuster at the box office.
Unless you have been living under a Cosmic Cube
lately, you probably know that this movie is the
latest in Marvel's lead-up to the 2012 release of
The Avengers
movie, which will feature an assemblage of the most
powerful figures in the Marvel Universe (and in
Marvel Studios productions). In many ways, no
Avengers movie can happen without a full
understanding by the movie public as to who and
what Captain America is, and is not. The Captain
America we meet in this movie is a normal guy named
Steve Roger. This guy is not some powerful god, he
is not a tech-savvy billionaire playboy, or some
cosmic-powered alien from another planet. He was
not born with any mutant powers, and he is not
gifted with an alien artifact and told to go save
the universe. What he is, though, is a man with
heart and with guts, a good, decent, patriotic man
who prefers to see the good in the world, but is
more than willing to stand up to the bad in the
world, whether it be in the form of standing up to
a street-wise bully, or standing up to Hitler and
his evil cronies. The Captain America portrayed by
actor Chris Evans starts out as a scrawny, skinny,
runt declared "4F"by the Army. Steve Rogers wants
to serve his country and stand up to the Nazis, but
the Army declared him physically unfit to serve.
Chosen by a wise immigrant scientist to take part
in an experiment to create a Super Soldier, Rogers
undergoes an amazing transformation. Without giving
away too much here, let's just say that the origin
story presented in the film pretty closely matches
the "real" origin story of Captain America as
originally presented in Captain America Comics in
1941. The skinny runt turns into an athlete with
the physique of an Apollo, uses his new-found
physical prowess to take down a murderous Nazi spy,
and then goes on to become Captain
America. The true believers
out there who are steeped in comic lore (like
myself) will love the movie for its attention to
the overall spirit (and quite a few of the details)
found in the original Captain America source code
(the comics themselves). But, this IS a Hollywood
(specifically, a Disney) release, and some
alterations in the Marvel Universe canon took
place. But even to a life-long Cap fan, these
alterations appeared seamless and fit within the
overall rubric of the story that Marvel is trying
to tell with these pre-Avengers films. The movie differs
from Marvel continuity and canon in a few ways.
(Note: Spoilers down below. Watch your
step) 4, HYDRA is, in
the comics, a terrorist organization seeking
world domination led by Nazi Baron Strucker. In
the movie, it is the Red Skull. Again, it makes
sense for this movie. Other nice touches to
the film include the connection to the recent
Thor
film with the use of the Cosmic Cube and the
interesting things it shows when handled
carelessly. The surprisingly major role of Howard
Stark (father of Tony Stark/Iron
Man), makes
the connection to the Iron Man movies, and, I
suspect, the blood drawn from the post-experiment
Steve Rogers is connected to the super-soldier
serum given to Emil Blonsky/Abomination in the
second Hulk movie. And, of course, we once again
see Colonel Nick Fury at the end of the movie, who
serves as the tie-in to the formation of the
Avengers (in May of 2012). As usual with recent
Marvel films, fans will want to wait for the end of
the credits to see the last scene related to the
next movie. Pickiness aside, the
changes in the movie from the comic lore all seem
to fit. Again, this is a great movie. The romance
(such as it is) between Rogers and Peggy Carter is
almost an innocent (and definitely chaste) affair,
and given Rogers' background, it makes sense. And
it fits the overall sense that this movie is truly
set in the 1940s. Many of the movies of that era
never even hinted at actual sex between unmarried
adults, and in that regard, this movie feels like a
true period piece. The patriotic fervor of the
times is captured quite well, as is the clothing,
dialogue, and the music of the times. Captain America: The
First Avenger is a fun, absorbing movie that neatly
sets the table for next year's Avengers movie. I
will likely see Captain America again, and when I
do, I plan on adding an addendum to this review
with any other points I may pick up. Go see it.
Other
Reviews of Captain America: The First
Avenger: Chris
Evans Shines as ‘Captain America: The First
Avenger’--Forbes.com Captain
America: A pop culture Rorschach
test --The
Globe and Mail Hawksblueyes
Reviews Captain America:The First
Avenger
--Comicbookmovie.com 'Captain
America': Five 'First Avenger' Easter
Eggs--MTV Copyright
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America Captain
America
Costumes
- Offers costumes based on the
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Site--Information
resource for those who want to
know more about one of Marvel
Comics' earliest
super-heroes. Captain
America--Marvel's
site for the upcoming
movie Thor
and Captain America Superbowl Ads
Disappoint--
posted Feb. 6, 2011 O
Captain! Our Captain!: Stan Lee
and Marvel Comics’s Joe
Quesada contemplate Captain
America's surprising
death.--By
Samantha Henig, Newsweek,
Updated: 7:03 a.m. PT March 9,
2007 Marvel
Directory: Captain
America--A
directory of Marvel Universe
heroes. Captain
America-Wikipedia
article. Michael
Medved on Captain America on
National Review
Online--critical
article by a nationally
syndicated columnist. Continuity
Pages: Captain
America
:A study of Captain America,
published by Marvel Comics.
Written by Julian
Darius. Captain
America: Superhero of the
Military-Industrial
Complex--By
Nick Turse -political article
about how the Pentagon is trying
to create a real version of a
Captain America-like super
soldiers. Comic
Book
Milestones--
A celebration of Captain America
vol. 1, # 337. Cool
Faux-Vintage ‘Captain
America’
Posters-Flavorwire Site
Map--revision
in progress
A chronicle
of newer and more recent
conflicts and wars from around
the globe
A listing
of wars and war pages on the
History Guy site
1. In Marvel
canon, Captain America's sidekick is a kid named
Bucky Barnes, who discovers that Steve Rogers is
secretly Captain America, and basically
blackmails Cap into letting him serve as his
sidekick. In the film, Bucky is an adult about
the same age as Steve Rogers, and they are old
pals who grew up together in Brooklyn. In the
film, Bucky is one of the Howling Commandos, and
does not wear a costume as in the comics, but a
regular army uniform. Actually, this is a more
realistic depiction of what Bucky should have
been than the original in the comics. And actor
Sebastian Stan does a pretty good job of playing
Bucky Barnes.
2. Staying
on the Bucky theme, all true Cap fans know what
happened to Bucky in the end. It was not pretty
in the comics, and what happened to Bucky
changed Cap in terms of his feelings of guilt
and remorse and a sense that he could have done
more. The nature of Bucky's end in the film is
different, with Bucky not dying in the final
rocket ship/doomsday weapon scene, but by
falling off of a train somewhere in the
mountains. Still, this sets up a possible future
film story where Bucky comes back as the Winter
Soldier (one of the best Cap comic book story
lines of the recent past by the way). The film
could have shown more of Captain America's
emotional grief at the death of his best friend,
but perhaps we will see more of that referenced
in the Avengers movie.
3. Perhaps
the biggest deviation from the comic canon is
who the bad guy is who launches the weapon that
ends Cap's (and Bucky's, in the books) World War
Two career. In the 1964 retcon (retroactive
continuity) as written by Stan Lee (who has a
brief cameo in the movie), Captain America and
Bucky were believed killed in action while
disarming a super-weapon launched by Nazi
scientist and all-around bad guy Baron Zemo. In
the movie, there is no Zemo, but we do have
Cap's other main nemesis, the evil and nefarious
Red Skull. Again, this change fits into the
movie well, and realistically, having both the
Skull and Zemo in the film (plus the evil genius
Arnim Zola), would be too much.
5. The
Howling Commandos in the comics were led by
Sergeant Nick Fury, and would occasionally team
up with Captain America. The movie version has
the Howling Commandos as Cap's idea and Cap's
team. No Nick Fury showing up in World War Two
in this version. Just as well, as he is a
prominent figure in the current pre-Avengers
movie line.
Captain
America is even better the 2nd
time!--Comicbookmovie.com
