It's time for another installment in our Countdown to Avengers series with
Nerd Lunch and
Cavalcade of Awesome!
Mini Review
In a world of modern superhero films, such as Kickass, The Dark
Knight, and Watchmen, Captain America has become the rarity:
its hero isn’t complicated or morally ambiguous, and he doesn’t have issues. He
is, simply put, a good man.
And, simply put,
Captain America is a good film. It’s definitely a
worthy addition to the Avengers series, combining heart, a tried-and-true
adventure story, and an old-fashioned sense of fun. The film itself could be
considered “the little guy”, coming last in the line of a series of successful
films and boasting a director - Joe Johnston - who had just come off the messy
but enjoyable
The Wolfman.
The film isn’t perfect. Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America is great for the most part, but there’s
something about him that rubs me the wrong way at times (maybe it’s the fact
that he had already played The Human Torch in the
Fantastic Four series).
Other things grated on me as well, such as the dummy grenade scene (Rogers was really that
desperate to be a hero?).
The film’s pro column is much larger than its con, however. The supporting cast
is great, with Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hugo Weaving turning in fine
performances. Another great aspect of the film is Chris Evans’ transformation.
The technique used to morph Evans into “skinny Steve” rarely looks bad, and makes me forget I’d hoped the actor
portraying Cap would go method and lose and put back on a bunch of weight.
Avengers Connections
Captain America
is a treasure trove of Avengers connections. Not only does it have a lot of
tie-ins to the rest of the movies, the film also takes place years before the
rest of the series, allowing us to see how some of the Avengers backstory came
together. Remember, we heard about the super soldier program back in
The
Incredible Hulk.
Captain America shows us that program first hand.
A big character in the film is Howard Stark, father to Tony Stark/Iron Man. We
first meet Howard presenting a flying car at the Stark Expo, seen here
in its heyday, years before Tony revives it in
Iron Man 2. Howard works
on the Super Soldier program along with Dr. Erskine (Tucci) and goes on to
serve as the Q to Cap’s James Bond, supplying him with the final version of his
trademark shield.
Another big element of the film ties into
Thor.
Captain America
begins in Tønsberg, Norway,
the same village Odin and his forces
protect from the Frost Giants in
Thor. Pax
from Cavalcade of Awesome points that out and more in his
breakdown of Thor.
Captain America's
nemesis The Red Skull (Weaving) discovers Odin’s tesseract in Tønsberg and
uses it to power his doomsday weapons. At the end of the film we see The Red
Skull disappear into a rift caused by the tesseract, vanishing into what looks
like Thor’s stomping grounds.
Finally, we get to see more of SHIELD and Nick Fury, when Cap wakes up at the
organization’s building in New York
after being revived in the modern world.
How Will Cap Fit into the Avengers?
Believe it or not,
The Avengers will be
told through Cap’s perspective.
I mentioned that Hulk was an outsider
in my breakdown of The Incredible Hulk, and Cap is just as much of a loner in a way.
It’ll definitely be interesting to see how Rogers interacts with Tony Stark. From the
trailers it looks like they have an adversarial relationship, which contrasts
with the friendly relationship Rogers and Howard
Stark seemed to be developing in
Captain America.
As I said, Cap is definitely a loner, but expect him to pull the team together at the beginning of
The Avengers third act.
Some Thoughts from CT at Nerd Lunch
With great power comes great responsibility and all that...
In general, the Marvel Comics characters are filled with flaws and their
origins are a turning point in their lives. Tony Stark and Thor are each flawed
characters that must face their past mistakes and attempt to redeem themselves
for those mistakes by choosing to use their powers and abilities for an even
greater good. Even Incredible Hulk had this to some degree. Stan Lee set out to
make comics about characters who were people first and super heroes second. And
in recent years, this has translated to Marvel having a wealth of material to
base movies on. And every one of them, executed well or not, showed great
promise because of its source.
But there is one Marvel character who is different because he pre-dates all
that. He comes from an older era, the same era that the original DC characters
came from. That character is Captain America. Cap is the most DC-ish
character Marvel has. So I wondered how well his movie could be executed
without the typical Marvel guilt story at the center of it. Surprisingly, the
movie turned out great and should be the model for what DC should look at (DC
needs to stop trying to be Marvel and be proud of who they are. Green Lantern
is not Iron Man. Make a Green Lantern movie. Stop trying to make DC's Iron Man
movie. But I digress...).
Cap is one of my favorite Marvel characters and I felt some trepidation about a
movie. In the end, it's one of my favorites of the five pre-Avengers movies and
I'm looking forward to seeing how Cap does in The Avengers.
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