Captain America

[JasonEvans]

After 4 superhero comic book films this summer, I know I am sick of them. I suspect much of the comic book audience is as well. To make matters worse, all of these are "origins" stories, so we are forced to spend the first half of the film watching the heroes become heroes and getting their powers and establishing their character... blaah, blaah, blaah.

Yeah, can you tell that I came into this film with the wrong attitude?

Seriously though, CapAm is an ok film. There is nothing horribly wrong with it. But, there is nothing wonderfully right with it either. It is just kinda... there. You watch and you try to feel a bit of a connection to what is going on but it never really grabs you.

The film really starts off on the wrong foot by giving us 20-30 minutes of Chris Evans as a 90-pound weakling. The way they pull this off is to digitally superimpose Evans' face onto a smaller actor. Ummm, it really, really does not work some of the time. Evans' face just looks too large and in an era of fabulous digital effects, they clearly have not reached the point where they can take one person's face and put it on someone else's body (where are John Travolta and Nick Cage when you need them?).


Next problem -- the movie is humming along in a somewhat ok fashion and then the bad guy (played by one of my favorite actors, Hugo Weaving) suddenly goes really, really cartoonish. I know this is a comic book movie and I am quite familiar with the somewhat legendary villain that Weaving is playing, but rather than making him seem more imposing, it just seemed cartoonish and silly.

The bad guy's army is lame. They are supposedly equipped with super-weapons that will allow them to take over the world, but they seem to be easily defeated by ordinary American soldiers. You never, ever get the feeling of real peril or drama. This is especially significant once the origins story is out of the way in the first half of the movie and we have to sit there for another hour awaiting the defeat of an enemy that just does not seem very formidable or challenging.

Finally, there is the ending. I don't want to give too much away, but the final battle between Cap and CrazyBadGuy is anti-climactic. What' more, the key thing that happens next is just plain bad writing. It defies logic and makes no sense. I won't say more, but I was extremely dis-satisfied at how the movie ended.



And that brings me to the worst insult of all. We all know how these Marvel movies work -- you sit through the credits and you get a little bonus scene. Maybe it is Nick Fury introducing himself to Iron Man for the first time, maybe it is Loki showing himself to not be dead, maybe it is Thor's hammer appearing in the desert, maybe it is Professor X inhabiting the mind of a brain dead man. This is a Marvel movie staple and we all know it. BUT NOT THIS TIME!!! I sat through 5 minutes of reading the names of grips and gaffers and caterers and stunt doubles and my reward was NOTHING!

Look, I know these people work hard at their jobs and I always kinda liked the notion that you had to see their names before you got your bonus scene, but to make me sit through and not give me a bonus scene!?!??! How dare you!??!!

And it is not like they have no idea what they are doing next. The next Marvel film is The Avengers with Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Nick Fury, and many others!! Are you telling me they could not come up with any fun tidbit to leave for us?!?! Really?!?!? Grrrrrrrr!

Ok, I have rambled negatively enough. Time for the good stuff. The 3D effects are pretty good and this may actually be one of the few movies worth seeing in 3D. There are some decent fight scenes and Evans makes ample use of his famous shield as a weapon. I suspect that 8-15 year old boys will enjoy that stuff. The cast is fairly strong, though the best actors in the pic (Weaving and Stanley Tucci) have to use thick German accents the whole time. Evans is the weak link. I never really connected with him very much, partially because it was his face on someone else's body at the start of the film and partially because he is just not that great an actor. But, he is not awful.

Bottom line -- if you are into comic book movies, you won't hate this film. You won't love it either. It is not quite as good as Thor. Waay better than Green Lantern. Nowhere close to X-men: First Class.

-Jason "sigh... I had really hoped for more leading up to Avengers" Evans

[wilko]

Jason,
I can tell you are burned out.

The only interest in GL I have is my Neal Adams signed copy of #76. - Took a pass
X-men I lost interest in these guys in college and sold the bulk of my x-men run to fund a Spring Break adventure. The bloom is off the rose on this one. had been for decades.

As a comic collector for over 30 yrs. I am THRILLED that they are being made. Built in name recognition, built in audience. From watching the LAME Spider-man TV show of the 70's to now... wow... the effects can only now support a decent comic picture. Bring it on!!

My expectations for Cap have been somewhat restrained since I learned of the casting for the lead... A retread of the FF's Torch as Cap? I was disappointed from the start.

Hydra, AIM all these goons were never really formidable... more like fodder for action sequences. Red Skull has more than a passing resemblance to Condi Rice if you ask me. My expectations are not lofty. I just want a competent faithful treatment.

I have started a comics blog. Drop by sometime. I ramble about various topics from the collector point of view.

[bjornolf]

The film really starts off on the wrong foot by giving us 20-30 minutes of Chris Evans as a 90-pound weakling. The way they pull this off is to digitally superimpose Evans' face onto a smaller actor. Ummm, it really, really does not work some of the time. Evans' face just looks too large and in an era of fabulous digital effects, they clearly have not reached the point where they can take one person's face and put it on someone else's body (where are John Travolta and Nick Cage when you need them?).

...
Evans is the weak link. I never really connected with him very much, partially because it was his face on someone else's body at the start of the film and partially because he is just not that great an actor. But, he is not awful.

-Jason "sigh... I had really hoped for more leading up to Avengers" Evans

Actually, according to an article I read a couple days ago, they didn't do that. His head was just too big and the actor they hired just couldn't move like him. According to the director, Evans' just moves too uniquely. So, they used the technology they used on Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button to shrink and alter Evans himself. This required them to shoot his "skinny" scenes multiple times to fill in the background space around Evans' newly shrunken body. Does that relieve at least part of your dislike of Evans, Evans? Here's the article, also from MSNBC:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/438250...entertainment/

[CameronBornAndBred]

The next Marvel film is The Avengers with Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Nick Fury, and many others!!

Ever seen the complaint about a movie that there are way too many characters in it, to the point that the script is incredibly hard to follow? That's what I'm expecting from the Avengers movie. Watchmen tried it, and didn't succeed too well. Thee comic itself took several books to bring each character to life, and did a great job, but when you have essentially 2 hours to make a story happen with a lot of roles to flesh out, it rarely succeeds. One thing Avengers will have going for it is that each character will be familiar to the audience, but I'm still not expecting greatness.

[wilko]

When you have essentially 2 hours to make a story happen with a lot of roles to flesh out, it rarely succeeds. One thing Avengers will have going for it is that each character will be familiar to the audience, but I'm still not expecting greatness.

Right on - Thats why I am hopeful they break in up into multiple parts Like lord of the rings or Harry Potters conclusion...

[JasonEvans]

One thing Avengers will have going for it is that each character will be familiar to the audience, but I'm still not expecting greatness.

That is why we are sorta suffering through Thor and CapAm films this summer, so we will be familiar with the back story of these characters.

Thats why I am hopeful they break in up into multiple parts Like lord of the rings or Harry Potters conclusion...

Too late. They are already committed to making one movie.

Although, you could almost think of it as a multi-part movie with the first parts being Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and, CapAm. Then, the conclusion is the final Avengers movie.

I think Avengers will be strong, though I worry a bit about a villain who will be able to be formidable and challenging to a team of many, many superheroes including Scarlet Jo as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. So far, it looks like Loki is the only bad guy... color me unimpressed.

-Jason "I hope someone dies -- maybe Hulk, who has always been a tough property on film -- to give the film a real sense of peril" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Actually, according to an article I read a couple days ago, they didn't do that. His head was just too big and the actor they hired just couldn't move like him. According to the director, Evans' just moves too uniquely. So, they used the technology they used on Brad Pitt in Benjamin Button to shrink and alter Evans himself. This required them to shoot his "skinny" scenes multiple times to fill in the background space around Evans' newly shrunken body. Does that relieve at least part of your dislike of Evans, Evans?

Thanks for the headsup. I got bad intel on how they did it. Regardless of the digital procedure they used, it does not work and Evans' head seems too big in several scenes.

-Jason

[davekay1971]

I think Avengers will be strong, though I worry a bit about a villain who will be able to be formidable and challenging to a team of many, many superheroes including Scarlet Jo as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. So far, it looks like Loki is the only bad guy... color me unimpressed.

-Jason "I hope someone dies -- maybe Hulk, who has always been a tough property on film -- to give the film a real sense of peril" Evans

Thinking about it right now, I have a hard time imagining who, in the Marvel pantheon, would be the perfect villian would be for the Avengers. Some of the most powerful villians (Galactus, for example) are a little cheesy for film. But against a god, The Hulk, and Iron Man you need to have a villian who's really, really powerful.

Would it be too much to hope for, one day, The Avengers being used by a nefarious government organization to hunt down the Mutant threat? Cap mano a mano vs. Wolverine? Cyclops and Iron Man blasting away at each other? Colossus vs. the Hulk? Thor vs Storm? Both sides having to come to grips with the real threats of Magneto on one side and the Sentinels on the other? The 14 year old comic book geek still within me would be intrigued!

[ncexnyc]

That is why we are sorta suffering through Thor and CapAm films this summer, so we will be familiar with the back story of these characters.

-Jason "I hope someone dies -- maybe Hulk, who has always been a tough property on film -- to give the film a real sense of peril" Evans

Sorta suffering? Come on now. I don't go to movies like this expecting Oscar level performances. I go to reconnect with my youth. I remember walking to school or church, so I could pocket the bus fare and then buy a couple of comics. I go for fun and as long as I get some great special effects, some awesome fight scenes, a halfway coherent story, then I'm happy.

[JasonEvans]

Sorta suffering? Come on now.

Yeah, I think I am being overly harsh on the comic book movies this summer. Aside from X-Men, I have been very nit-picky and sorta negative about them. Sorry. I think my expectations are too high thanks to what Chris Nolan, Sam Rami, Bryan Singer, and John Favreau have done over the past decade.

-Jason "Cap ain't as bad as I made it seem... a classic 2 or 2.5 out of 5 stars" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Chris Evans just retweeted to all of his followers one of my tweets about Captain America.

I need a smoke.

-Jason " " Evans

[weezie]

Chris Evans just retweeted to all of his followers one of my tweets about Captain America.

I need a smoke.

-Jason " " Evans

SOMEBODY owes their mother a nice dinner out!

[Udaman]

Saw it. SPOILERS.

On the one hand...it was better than I thought, because I had really, really, really low expectations.

On the other...it was about what I thought, which isn't very good because I had really, really, really low expectations.

As JE said, the special effects at the beginning just didn't look right. Somehow the head was too big for the small body. Also, the bad guy was OK...but things he did just didn't make sense. Why blow up the facility in the middle? Why not protect the other facilities? How was Captain America getting there so fast?

My biggest issue was the end with the plane. They never explained why Captain America had to crash it. Heck, just hop out and let it crash. That part made no sense.

But...there were some really funny parts to it, and even though it dragged at times, it never fully lost my attention (guess it's not too great when that's the best you can say). I would put it above Thor, but below X-Men First Class.

All that said, JE, when I saw it, at the end of all the credits they showed a preview of the Avengers movie, that looked pretty good. Did your screening not have that? And I agree with others - the bad guy(s) in Avengers better be pretty bad. I sort of wish they would make it be Superman who has somehow turned massively evil. That would be the one person that it would take all of the Avengers (and then some) to defeat.

Udaboy (cause Jason Evans is DA MAN...follow Jason's brilliant comments on Twitter @TVFilmTalk)

[Olympic Fan]

It must be a generational thing ...

I hate to keep quoting Roger Ebert, but of all the major critics, his opinions are usually (but not always) closest to mine

It turns out that he REALLY liked Captain America, especially compared to the rest of the summer comic book movies. Yeah, he only gives it three stars (twice what he gave Transformers) and he admits that it's CGI driven and totally unbelievable.

But ... he argues that unlike the Green Lantern or Thor or Transformers, it takes time to develop characters, tell a real story and create characters the audience cares about:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...IEWS/110729997

Obviously, the movie is going to flop ... but it might the one comic book movie I want to see this summer.

PS Contrary to the negative comments about Watchmen on this thread, that's far and away my all-time favorte comic book movie. Great, thought-provoking story idea (with an amazing historical backstory), characters who have to make some fascinating moral choices and the single greatest performance I've ever seen in a comic book story by Jackie Earl Haley.

Second place -- Kickass ... after that, nothing worth watching.

[JasonEvans]

All that said, JE, when I saw it, at the end of all the credits they showed a preview of the Avengers movie, that looked pretty good. Did your screening not have that? And I agree with others - the bad guy(s) in Avengers better be pretty bad. I sort of wish they would make it be Superman who has somehow turned massively evil. That would be the one person that it would take all of the Avengers (and then some) to defeat.

Udaboy (cause Jason Evans is DA MAN...follow Jason's brilliant comments on Twitter @TVFilmTalk)

I think you and I felt pretty much exactly the same about the film. I am jealous that they showed an Avengers preview after your credits rolled. My film did not get that and I am bummed to have missed it.

-Jason "having a post-credits clip may take Cap from 2.5 stars to 3 " Evans

[JasonEvans]

Obviously, the movie is going to flop ... but it might the one comic book movie I want to see this summer.

PS Contrary to the negative comments about Watchmen on this thread, that's far and away my all-time favorte comic book movie. Great, thought-provoking story idea (with an amazing historical backstory), characters who have to make some fascinating moral choices and the single greatest performance I've ever seen in a comic book story by Jackie Earl Haley.

Second place -- Kickass ... after that, nothing worth watching.

1) I dunno if it will flop. It made $4 mil from midnight showings, which is better than the midnights of all the other comic book movies this summer. That may bode well for a $60+ mill opening weekend. We'll have to see how it hold up from there, but it is not a terrible movie so I doubt word of mouth will just kill it.

2) Watchmen is a fabulous movie, much more pensive than the usual action/comic book fare. I adore that film and own it on DVD.

3) I don't know how you could say there are no other comic book movies worth seeing. What about Chris Nolan's Batman films or the original Superman. What about the first or second X-men films or Sam Rami's Spiderman 1 and 2? I think there have been some truly excellent comic book movies -- certainly more than Kick I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this. and Watchmen.

--Jason "if you liked Kickass, you should probably see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" Evans

[Olympic Fan]

I don't know how you could say there are no other comic book movies worth seeing. What about Chris Nolan's Batman films or the original Superman. What about the first or second X-men films or Sam Rami's Spiderman 1 and 2? I think there have been some truly excellent comic book movies -- certainly more than Kick I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this. and Watchmen.

--Jason "if you liked Kickass, you should probably see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" Evans

I had to respond to comment on the DBR word filter. I guess you tried to write the title of the film as two words? That's caught me before too. I noticed it worked in your sig line.

BTW, I HATED "Scott Pilgrim" (even though I usually like Michael Cera). I guess the original Superman was interesting ... there were a few moments when it resonated. I couldn't make it through the re-boot. Very much dislike the Batman series and Spirderman bored me to tears (so much that I've never bothered to watch II, even on cable).

I guess it comes down to a matter of taste. I wouldn't argue that Kick*** (to avoid admitting I'm a wanker) is a great movie ... I guess I just loved the Nicholas Cage performance and the young girl playing "Hit Girl".

Now, Watchman -- I do think that's a superb film. Glad to see you agree (although at least a couple of posters on this thread don't).

[wilko]

Here is the Avengers trailer for those that missed it...

Just saw it. Favorable impressions. Liked it a lot. I wasn't overly excited by Chris Evans as the lead choice For Cap. But to his credit he did a solid job.

Wonder if Avengers will have something like this...


or even THIS one (where if memory serves)... Cap antagonizes Hulk and point him in the direction of the enemy..

[JBDuke]

I realize this thread is now several months old, but I just watched Captain America on Blue Ray last night, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. As others have said, perhaps lowered expectations were more easily exceeded, but I generally like Joe Johnson's films. This one felt a lot like one of my favorites from the 90's - The Rocketeer. Beautifully shot with a good score. Square-jawed heroes and nasty villains. Just what I wanted in a Captain America film!

[Olympic Fan]

I realize this thread is now several months old, but I just watched Captain America on Blue Ray last night, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. As others have said, perhaps lowered expectations were more easily exceeded, but I generally like Joe Johnson's films. This one felt a lot like one of my favorites from the 90's - The Rocketeer. Beautifully shot with a good score. Square-jawed heroes and nasty villains. Just what I wanted in a Captain America film!

I had not thought about the connection between Captain America and The Rocketeer, but that's a great link ... I too think Rocketeer was one of the mopst underrated movies of the 1990s. Nice romance at the heart of it between Bill Campbell and Jennifer Conolley, very good period work and some great supporting performances, especially Timothy Dalton as a Nazi loving Errol Flynn-type star, Terry Quinn as Howard Hughes and Paul Sorvino as a patriotic mob boss. And don't forget Alan Arkin.

But checking the connection out, I was reminded that Johnson directed one of my all-time favorites -- and one of the most underrated movies of all time -- October Sky with Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper and Laura Dern. It's a outlier for a career that's been driven by special effects and fantasy ... a very human drama.

Interesting career for Johnson, who worked spcial effects on the original Star Wars and won an Oscar for overseeing the special effects on Raiders of the Lost Ark while he was still a student at the USC film school. He directed his first movie in 1989 -- the very watchable Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. But he's only directed seven films in 23 years. I think most of them have been watchable. I didn't like Jumanji, but it did very well. I thought Hidalgo was ALMOST a good movie. Jurrasic Park III ... well, it was better than II. Didn't like The Wolfman.

But, as I said, I loved Rocketeer and October Sky and thought Captain America was the best of last summer's comic book crop.

The rumor is that he's been signed to direct Jurrasic Park IV. Maybe that could be the opponent for The Avengers -- superheros against dinosaurs!