Well, for the second time this summer I'll be eating my words: Captain America is certainly in the upper echelon of Marvel movies.

My biggest fear was that Chris Evans would sink this movie like a ton of bricks and he ends up being its biggest asset. He nailed it. I personally might have wanted cap to feel a bit more "mature" and "wise," (this was the Cap I grew up with) but for this movie and the Avengers it is the perfect representation of Marvel's founding hero.

It's also the best movie Joe Johnston has ever directed by a mile.

If there's one "major" fault to the movie it's that it feels very "safe." It's entertaining but it's paint by numbers. At no point are you thrown a curveball - the movie does exactly as you'd expect from seeing the trailers and every other Marvel superhero movie. Nothing keeps you on your toes and there's nothing that jacks up the stakes to the point where you actually don't know what the hell is going to happen. Sometimes that's OK, though, especially when the leads are fun and the film is well-made. There's no doubt that this film does well by Captain America. It's a noble, somewhat inspiring tale of zero to hero.

What stood out:

- Loved the multiple use of Cap's costumes, how shield works and sounds.
Very clever montage sequence

- The score grew on me over the course of the movie.
- Howard Stark.
- Chris Evans acting like a hero and not a fucking idiot.

- Tommy Lee Jones injects a lot of personality into the film and has about 3 or 4 very good lines (that you haven't heard in trailers).

- Red Skull and Hydra were powerful foes but never scared me for some reason.
That's part of the film's biggest misstep - the emotion of danger was never really felt even though Johnston does a lot to demonstrate

Hydra's power and Red Skull's madness. The bad guys didn't give me the willies like, say, the Nazis from Raiders did, or Sebastian Shaw.

- The special effects were very well done.
- The 3D was hit and miss, not worth it but my theatre only played it in 3D.

- There's this rumour going around that the last 10 minutes only serves to set up the Avengers and that this movie's plot is never properly wrapped up. Well, whoever started this rumour is an idiot because the plot is tied up fine and the scene setting up the Avengers is all of 1 minute and change.

It involves Rogers waking up in a hospital bed wondering where he is, baseball game playing on the 1940s style radio. He realizes the game playing on the radio is one he actually attended in 1941 and demands what's going on. This leads to Rogers escaping this "secret facility" and ending up on the streets of NYC present day. Enter Nick Fury, end movie.

- Great closing credits sequence

- Avengers trailer is less than a minute and involves mostly rapid shots of characters and a bit of action. It starts with Cap in a gym smacking a punching bag. Thor's hair is longer and he has new gauntlets. Tony Stark has a teaser-ending line which I could not hear because of all the geeks cheering in the theatre. The tone seemed to indicate that Cap is the "star" of the Avengers movie.

- Compared to X-men: First Class, Cap feels like more of a "comic book movie" and X-men feels more like an epic genre movie.

Just got back from my midnight screening too. The movie was very, very good and a lot fun. I'm so glad that both Cap and Thor turned out as well as they did. I'm sure people would still be looking forward to Avengers regardless but it would have taken the wind out of the sails had one or both of those films turned out to be a dud leading into it. Luckily that didn't happen imo and I'm even more pumped for Avengers next year.

I'm tired and will post my thoughts later but just want to say though that the audience was very enthusiastic after the film and the Avengers teaser rocked the house, people were cheering, going nuts!

Things I liked:
-The cinematography and sepia tone look of the film. Captured the feel of the 40's nicely.
-Chris Evans performance. He is Captain America, no longer will I think of him as Johnny Storm again.
-Hugo Weaving as Red Skull. Just one evil bastard. Really liked his accent and the makeup looked great and still let Weaving emote through it.
-Haley Atwell's as Peggy. Tough, independent woman who doesn't take any crap. I thought the romance between her and Cap was good, they had a nice chemistry. Tragic that they never get to see each other again.
-The actions sequences were all very well done and just fun to watch. I really loved the whole bomber sequence at the end. This definitely had the most action of the Marvel Studios films so far.
-The soundtrack was pretty good. Some of it reminded me of John Williams.
-The effect they used to shrink Chris Evans down for skinny Steve. It was very seamless, there wasn't any point that I thought it looked weird or unbelievable.

Things that could have been better:
-Bucky's death didn't have as much emotional weight as it should have. I also didn't expect it to happen at the point it did. I thought he would die in the final act.
-The Cosmic Cube was kind of under utilized. We never really got to see what its full potential is other than being used as a battery. It's certainly capable of much more as evidenced at the end when it opened a portal to the Nine Realms. It's supposed to appear in Avengers too so maybe we'll see more of its capabilities.
-Hydra uniforms. Reminded me a little too much of Cobra from the G.I.Joe movie which is not a good thing. Some of the other designs in the art book are much better and fitting for the era.

Easter Eggs I noticed that were cool:
-Reference to Raiders of Lost Ark; Red Skull says something at the beginning of the film about "Hitler digging up the desert looking for trinkets."
-Arnim Zola is first introduced as a distorted face on a screen similar to his comic suit look.
-The Hitler punch during the USO tour (homage to cover of Cap #1).
-Jim Hammond the original Human Torch on display at the Stark Expo.
I sure there are others but that's all I can remember at the moment.

8 out of 10 for me.

I think the last line is:

"you have a nice swing there."???

Saw this yesterday, had to wait for the opening day crowds to fuck off so I could actually watch this one in peace. And wow, thanks Marvel Studios for making a decent representation of my favorite hero. Not much to add to the list of highlights stated above. The skinny Steve effect was pretty seamless, except for the scene walking into the lab for the experiment itself, down the hallway as they first come in. Kind of off there for a second, but other than that it worked great.

Chris Evans as Captain America is good. But, part of me worries, this is young Cap' afterall. Will he be able to project the air of positive confidence and old-school work ethic that the modern character is looked to for? Will he project that leadership quality in future installments? I hope so. He didn't really have much of that to do here. Still, it was a great performance, fitting of the story told in the film.

Red Skull was great, but Hydra itself was sort of cartoony for my taste. They needed more victims, and some more personality. It didn't take me out of the movie, I just didn't think they were much of a threat, like actual Nazis would have been. But I get it.

Bucky sort of just drops out of the movie. His character could have been incorporated a lot better. They kind of screwed up the Iron-Man/Rhodey relationship in the same way. Don't show us moments where the hero's bff cameos in a scene, write them into the story and make it fit overall. I left the theatre thinking that if Bucky does come back all 'Winter Soldier', who in the casual audience will even realize it? Kind of a mis-step there, but not distracting from the overall story.

All in all, I give it an 'A'. Thanks to all of you MFers for the info along the way. Now, when does it come out on DVD I wonder.

S'alright.

I thought the ending (I'm talking the very end here, folks) was incredibly weak. Best part of the flick was the Captain America on tour montage. Beyond that it's pretty standard fare for a comic book flick these days.

IMHO - Bucky's death was kinda out of left field and pointless.

And what was the importance in downing the flying wing at the end? Wasn't it just it basically just a carrier for those mini-bomb planes? Once they were all gone, I didn't get the feeling that Red Skull was gonna ram the wing into NYC or something. Seemed like he was intent on surviving the big attack and being a ruler. Anyone else get a little confused here? When Cap was like "I gotta down this flying wing right now and risk my life to do it before it gets to the US" I was like "Why?"

Other than those two little gripes I thought it was a fun ride. I actually preferred the way that the Thor character was portrayed a bit more. It just seems more satisfying to see someone overcome a character flaw of their own making like foolish pride rather than a physical one that they have no real control over, I think. But yeah, CA was good and well worth the time.

Don't forget about the Skulls plane, compare it to the intro of GiJoe's 1980's animated series, it even looks like the cobra's head


To be honest I was a bit dissapointed, it had some simmilarites with The Inglorious Basterds......not a good thing, in this case.

Weaving's hissing voice didn't convince in this case, he'd make a great Cobra Commander on the other hand.


What I liked very much on the other hand, is the red skull's skull, it's really him.

Captain America himself convinced enough though , the movie is more a profile of the character than a real strong movie about this character, I expected more than this.

best damn marvel movie by a country mile. PERIOD. Better than any xmen film or spidey 2 as well! GOD BLESS AMERICA

in other Captain news, the guy that played Bucky said he's signed on for 5-6 more of these and the writers are already working on the sequel which WILL partially take place in WWII.

Personally I felt the opposite. I found it refreshing to have a hero that didn't have that type of baggage as so many other comic book characters start out with. No angst, no self doubt. Here was a guy who was good and wanted to do good from the get go.

Then when given the opportunity, just went out and used his new abilities to kick some ass. Granted his physical flaws were not something he could totally overcome on his own but he certainly was willing to try regardless. I appreciated his positive never quit attitude.


I do agree about the bomber jet though. It was a bit unclear why Cap had to bring it down before it reached NY. The jet had lost its power source in the Cube and some of the instruments had been damaged during the fight with Skull. Given those circumstances maybe Cap didn't want to risk trying to bring the jet down in a populated area because if something went wrong the bombs could still be damaged and detonate. Not sure about that one, I have to see it again.




I don't see the resemblance. Aside from Red Skull's bitching coupe the stealth jet was one of my favorite Hydra vehicles. Advanced looking but still believable for the era. I thought all the Hydra vehicles were well designed.


I've been reading a lot debate over the ending, it was too short, too abrubt, etc. I didn't have a problem with it. I liked the final line from Cap and it ending on that somber note. However this scene was definitely longer originally. In the spectator filmed footage you can see Nick Fury signal another agent who brings a case containing Cap's shield and shows it to him.

Then Fury and Cap shake hands. There's also a quick clip of unused dialogue in the #1 In America TV Spot where Nick Fury says "The world could use a man like you". Perhaps Avengers will pick up right where TFA ends and we'll see the rest of the scene as originally shot. If not hopefully it will be a extended/deleted scene on the DVD.

Finally decided to download the version of the film that DP posted in the movie section. I gotta say that I enjoyed it very well. I will have to agree though with CoGro that there was not really that scary fear feeling from Red Skull and Hydra.

I did like the scene with Cap in modern America and Nick Fury at the end of the film. It'll be interesting to see how the Avengers movie comes together and how well Captain America and Tony Stark end up getting along.

It will also be interesting to see whether or not for the Avengers movie if Cap tries to see if Peggy is still alive in modern time. I mean grant it's 70 years later but some people have been known to live well just over 100 years old. Or if possibly he might see if she had any children.

Anyway I definitely agree it's by far the best Marvel film made so far. I do like Iron Man and Iron Man 2 respectively but this was definitely better than both of those two films put together.

Saw it in theaters this weekend and was very happy with the result. Hayley Atwell is hot as fuck in that red dress. Chris Evans was the best part of the picture. I thought the early CG of weakling Steve Rogers was off. And I love the last line of the film, even though I don't agree with the ending all together.

Overall: 3.5/5

Captain America and Harry Potter - The Deathly Hallows II dvdrip now playing in MF Film