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

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

Oh, wait, I misread Burton Batman as Batman Begins. Regardless, Burton Batman has major issues, but it does strike a nice balance between comic book and dark batman. Second Burton Batman has superior set/costume design; Pfeiffer's cat woman might be the most iconic villain in one of the ultimately least iconic superhero sequels. And also, Batman Returns has ... a plot to poison Gotham's water supply, too?

2nd Burton Batman is great fuiud

^^^agreed!

Oh, wait, it's a killing of the first born plot. But the second Burton Batman does have Danny DeVito eating off someone's face, no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7PuqHC8KaE

i do love batman returns - saw it in the theater when it came out, i was 7 years old, its really just a crazy burton movie that happens to have a batman cameo in it. its got tragic penguins, killer performances from devito and walken, plus michelle pfeiffer is the definitive catwoman imo - nobody will ever change my mind on this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onHNcxo-Lmk&feature=related

But anyway, Captain America. I laughed but it looks OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0j-Zrbo7rA

the first movie is a total mess - veers wildly in tone, character motivations make no sense, plot has literally no regard for a coherent sequence of events, majority of the acting is terrible etc

the first movie is hilarious and fuiud

Michael Keaton wtf

batman returns is fantastic imo but its probably not a great 'superhero movie' the carnival atmosphere makes it too ridiculous and lurid but w/e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6hZ4f34II

^^ HILARIOUS

look all i'm saying is if you give a major super hero franchise kick-off to the guy who made frankenweenie you get what you pay for

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!