just going to go ahead and have a Captain America: The Movie thread

http://i.imgur.com/jKOSW.jpg

lol

yeah I've seen WWII Cap comics - in general the character hasn't been portrayed with a gun for decades though

(recent Joe Quesada years being an exception obviously)

Bucky-as-Cap has been using a gun the last couple of years.

like I said...

Yeah, but this is a period piece, so . . .

xxp

right, sorry, misread that
xp

I know this is a period piece, but there are plenty of post-40s instances of Cap being portrayed in WWII without a gun (Invaders in the 70s springs to mind). The fact is, once the war was ACTUALLY over, portraying Cap with a gun went out the window, for the most part.

And?

I'm kind of looking forward to this, I think the WWII setting is a good move.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/movies/chris-evans-in-captain-america-the-first-avenger.html?hpw

Mr. Evans said he resisted a test audition, for which he would have had to sign a pre-emptive deal for as many as nine Marvel movies, including three “Captain America” films and three films for “The Avengers,” about the super group that includes Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk. When Marvel reduced the contract to at most six movies and “sweetened the pot a little bit,” Mr. Evans said no again.

nine movies for an audition? that seems kind of chilling.

Some alternate/international posters

Really liking this one:

http://www-movieline-com.vimg.net/images/CaptainAmericaVintagePoster630.jpg

Yeah, that one surfaced a couple of months back and I was surprised they didn't go full-on for that as a regular choice!

Shield Action!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdBO3uQcHgI

Looking forward to this. I trust Joe Johnston.

I'm sure the guy who had Evans shave his chest would've had Liz Taylor wear brown contacts.

Oh I'm sure.

also, his pecs are freakishly big. There was nothing wrong with them before.

Well they kinda need to be.

http://toonsntunes.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/180px-liefeld_captain_america.jpg

never forget

That image is the gift that keeps on giving.

Jeffrey Wells is going gaga about this, oddly.

Mr. Downey was an early supporter of Mr. Evans, having quietly lobbied Mr. Evans’s agent to keep him from passing on “Captain America.”

“I did the Eastern medicine approach,” Mr. Downey explained. “Rather than apply direct pressure, I went to the furthest meridian point.”

hayley atwell is some kind o' somethin'

Meantime, some cheap laughs:

http://www.agonybooth.com/video_shows/The_Following_Special_Presentation/Captain_America.aspx

Ebert likes it, calling it "a real movie, not a noisy assembly of incomprehensible special effects," and of course closes with See it in 2-D if you can.

Lots of positive reviews, calling it the anti-Michael Bay, in essence.

its pretty good. workmanlike. very little fat. ebert's otm about it feeling like a real movie, and how that feels like a relief after shit like green lantern. it reminded me of the first spider-man in its earnest approach to the material, though it's not as good. the actress who plays peggy carter is... uncommonly beautiful, almost distractingly so. could've used more stanley tucci.

this movie kinda made me realize that basically all superhero origin movies are failures as action flicks. either the staging falls flat (spider-man 1) or the complete absence of stakes or danger is deflating (thor, captain america). when these movies are good, it's usually because they find ways to be appealing aside from the whizbang element (like batman begins, i guess).

there's an avengers teaser trailer after the credits

first superhero movie since iron man 1 I've wanted to see. sounds great, hope this sets the tone for the rest of the Avengers movies.

when these movies are good, it's usually because they find ways to be appealing aside from the whizbang element (like batman begins, i guess).

Interesting, cuz I still prefer the first two X-Men movies, the first Burton Batman, and bits of the two Iron Man things best.

I really liked the first Iron Man when it came out but tried to watch it again recently and found it a chore. The second one was just horrible.

basically I like a volatile mix of sharp dialogue and a very slight veneer of seriousness. Nolan can't write dialogue or stage action.

that is true but for some reason his batman movies are still really good. I'm not sure why. the actual plots are good and he does suspense pretty well.

first half of iron man when he's building robots in a cave was great, second half with the jeff bridges robot was always pretty lame.

hayley atwell is some kind o' somethin'

nrq, are u such a relentless horndog in your published crizizism?

i'm more confident in nolan's ability to stage an action scene these days than i used to be; i just think the batsuit is limiting for any hand to hand fight scenes. more importantly, he understands suspense and the value of a real sense of danger. i just used batman begins as an example because the first half is fairly engaging (imo) and once he becomes batman the movie sorta deflates. the promise of action is usually more potent than the presence of it in these movies

the first iron man is fun, but the action in it is weightless - you get the sense downey & co could carry the movie even if he never put the suit on. you wouldn't be able to say the same thing about one of the bourne movies, for better or worse

It helps that RDJ is pretty much the walking embodiment of Tony Stark in both look and attitude.

I don't really get the Bourne comparison?

integral action vs. window-dressing, i think?

to my reading, in the bourne movies the action has (um) a dramatic purpose and serves to advance the plot, while in the batman they could be excised w/o damaging the plot progression

(sub in 'character arc' or 'genre necessaries' for 'plot progression' if you like)

io9 had a rave review of the film http://io9.com/5823515/captain-america-is-an-incredible-war-movie-that-just-happens-to-star-a-superhero

very detailed review of the plot w tons of spoilers so don't read it unless prepared to know the whole film going in

i just mean like, the action is the selling point of the bourne movies; the movies exist to give context to some incredible, dynamic action sequences. there's definitely some other stuff of value going on in the margins, but you're not going to those movies to spend more time with beloved characters like... Conklin and Nicolette. most superhero movies cant pull off that level of asskickery (especially origin movies, where its just about setting up the status quo), so they gotta do other things to keep you interested. thats why i think raimi's spiderbro movies worked with audiences who dont ordinarily care for this stuff - they're already fun just as these heightened reality melodramas with a kind of timeless feel to them

the problem with cap - i liked this movie btw! - is that he spends the whole movie effortlessly plowing through every obstacle. i dont think chris evans gets a single scratch or nick on him. so you can basically lean back and go 'eh, he's got this' the whole time.

It helps that RDJ is pretty much the walking embodiment of Tony Stark in both look and attitude.

RDJ is easily the best actor playing a superhero in anything since Chris Reeves, I think. Iron Man would be significantly worse without him. I can't say that about any other current superhero films I've seen; the actors are fairly interchangeable.

you'd think audiences would have reached their saturation point by now. this is the umpteenth mediocre superhero film this summer.

the first Burton Batman,

can't believe anyone still reps for this garbage

Yeah, that first movie blows. After all the portent of the beginning, it devolves into ... a countdown plot to poison the water supply of Gotham!!!

I like the number that Comics Alliance did on the first Batman:

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/05/23/batman-1989-review/

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/05/30/batman-1989-part-two-review/

(They've been going through all the movies these past few weeks.)

2nd Burton Batman is great fuiud

adding a bunch of people to the enemies list

Sounds like I should be glad I took my kid to Cowboys & Aliens instead. It was definitely an entertaining action movie, if not exactly "Ordinary People" or whatever...

I thought this wasn't too bad, most likely the best of the summer comic book flicks of 2011, but that isn't really saying a whole lot. Tommy Lee Jones was over the top in all the right ways and Dominic Cooper made a great Howard Stark. Loved the guy playing Dum Dum Dugan too, wouldn't mind seeing more of him in other movies, but thats not likely with him stuck in the 40s and the rumored next Cap movie set in the present day.

i thought the ending was kinda...pat?

The ending was 100% to set up the Avengers flick, which was really my only complaint. I mean, I'm super excited for the Avengers movie but can we let these other films stand on their own?

tell me hugo weaving wasn't just doing a werner herzog impression the whole time?

Yeah, he's talked about this in interviews. Quite an accurate one too

haha love it

Has anyone talked about the planet of the apes trailer anywhere because lol.

I thought this was OK but not great. TLJ and Tucci were p good as was the lead. Something was missing overall and I thought it was a little boring.

It was kinda boring wasn't it? I really thought i'd love it too

too much of the captain's operations were glossed over in montage. i don't know why movies do this, the kinds of 'learning' scenes of a hero figuring out how to be a hero are the most exciting. it just skipped from him being a show pony to a badass, which is just ho-hum.

and the dialogue was really childish.

i dunno anything about red skull or 'hydra', but i thought making him a rogue to the point of being against the germans was weirdly excusing of fascism? like johnston didn't even want the to deal with the realness at all, as if 'raiders of the lost ark' was too much like 'the sorrow and the pity' or something.

I don't really see how Raiders was anymore realistic?

I had the same thoughts about them ducking the issue of fascism by making Hydra even turn against the Nazis, but then I remembered that this was a movie about super-serum and a man being frozen for 70 years.

captain america fought nazis! what the hell, why get squeamish now

Easier to sell toys that don't come with swastikas, basically.

It's not like they made up Hydra for the film. They're probably sowing the seeds for their appearance in future movies too

In order to become a member of HYDRA, an individual must be a legal adult willing to submit to a thorough investigation of the applicant's personal background and to swear a death-oath of loyalty to HYDRA and its principles.

Glad to know they thoroughly vet all their members

lol hydra background check

Thought this was a lot better than ok.

Highlights-

Kid chucked in water to create 'him or me' dilemma being all 'wtf i can swim go get im'

Cpt America sneaking into HYDRA base is quite clearly spotted crossing the floor by one of the workers, who just isn't bothered tbh

Thank fuck it was about beating evil bad guys, was quite worried it might go the Nolan route of SRS ISSUES THRU SPANDEX

Peggy was incredible

Well the Marvel films in general are a lot more light-hearted than the Nolanverse. As they should be. Peggy was pretty great yeah. Pity that's the last we're going to see of her

Kid chucked in water to create 'him or me' dilemma being all 'wtf i can swim go get im'

this ruled

^^ LOL yeah I forgot about that, that kid is my hero

Well the Marvel films in general are a lot more light-hearted than the Nolanverse. As they should be.

This is one of the reasons I enjoyed this movie. It was like an old Captain America comic, it wasn't trying to be edgy or dark in an attempt to be more modern.

The kid in the water and Tommy Lee Jones ruled ("I'm not gonna kiss you"). The rest = bleh

in retrospect the whole thing was kind of a bland saturday morning cartoon. the word 'toyetic' was made for this movie

I forgot how much fun TLJ can be in Fugitive mode.

dug this the first time through, but the second, i really noticed how aimless and overstretched the second half is. still a pretty good time, though.

xp yeah, he's a guy where i never hold it against him when he sleepwalks through a movie because hes usually still a lot of fun

hayley atwell is some kind o' somethin'

otm.

but seriously, i did like they chose an actress who is hot in precisely the same way as 1940s actresses were hot.

overall this was alright. TLJ is was good. surprised he doesn't get these kind of roles more often. maybe he doesn't take them.

uh

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/03/22/captain-america-2-robert-redford/

Almost sounds like he's doing it for shits and giggles.

tbf at his age neither come easy

Legal Piddles

I saw that movie in a theater, so bad.

I just remember a bunch of shitty/stupid ads for that thing running endlessly and "Love Touch" constantly being on the radio. Fuckin' 1985.

He's at least awake in LE. And Terence Stamp is fun.

Finally watched this. Pretty similar to Iron Man in that I was way more into the first half of it than I thought I'd be, then really lost my connection with it as it moved from the origin to the 'action' and the climactic fight with the bad guy. It sort of rallied itself for the big finish with the plane; I loved how kind of tame and 40s and melodramatic they played it, like, yeah, you know what, in 2011 you can still get tears to well up with just a guy and the gal who like each other (but have never even held hands) having their last conversation while he goes off to be a hero, etc. Just wish it had been built up to that a little better... feel like a lot of movies these days have this too-smooth CGI quality and I think that applies to the plotting too sometimes, it just kind of slides its way along from the baddie fight scene to the sacrifice etc.

Agree that giving the bad guys bloodless ray guns and having them not be Nazis was a super disappointing head-scratcher. I mean, I'm fine with it being the Red Skull and Hydra goons but can they have a little more ideology, something to really make you hate them? The movie's fucking Captain America, I think the time for subtlety has passed. That being said, I was just over the moon for the idea of Cap as a seasoned USO entertainment veteran who's "punched out Hitler over two hundred times" - it's cute, it adds tons of period flavor, makes everybody feel more like people than CGI people, which I think was a real risk with this potentially one-note, personality-less character and this kind of blank, bland actor.

Overall, not the worst of these things I've seen.

I mean, I'm fine with it being the Red Skull and Hydra goons but can they have a little more ideology, something to really make you hate them

they are transhumanists

Finally watching this. Completely forgot that they got Joe Johnston to direct. All of the period dieselpunk/art-deco vibe seems perfect for him, and everything he tried to do with The Rocketeer twenty years earlier.

The ropey CGI work from pre-serum Rogers to some of his early stunts is intolerable and almost inexcusable, tho. Just use real stuntmen and erase the wires, that's what computers are for.

This was great!