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

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/watch_new_trailer_for_captain_america_promises_to_be_the_savior_of_summer/

i mean, we have one for green lantern so

this could very well be terrible but it also looks like it could be fun in an indiana jones/hellboy kinda way.

Sky Captain of Tomorrow meets Watchman. Snoozefest.. I’d say domestic hits 150 and international roughly the same. Won’t be profitable. You’ve seen one of these movies, you’ve seen them all. Twank on Playlist.

By ryan on June 23, 2011

glib, bitter fanboy-speak is something to behold

you know what cracks me up whenever i see a trailer for this, is the shot of tony stark's dad checking out post-transformation Cap while doing the "daaaamn!" looking over his sunglasses move thats usually reserved for guys scoping out hot babes in teen comedies

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

holy crap you're right!

Shade Tippin'

Or you're Sam Neill scoping out a hot brachiosaur

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q222/ammonites/Jurassic%20Park%20Costumes/Alan%20Grant/Grant_glasses.png?t=1254967882

Capt America with a gun what kind of bullshit is that

preposterous

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

more like two guns am I right?

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

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

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

I mean, come on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxySK01v1os

the first movie is hilarious and fuiud

it is hilarious. because it is SO BAD

They should have Prince play a villain in a new Batman.

Now imagine the movie actually started with this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n4s-lkYm0w

i loved dark knight as much as the next guy who didn't think it was The Greatest Film of All Time but i will take a movie where thugs deface fine art to the sound of prince over Brooding Arguments About Creeping Fascism every day of the week

xpost -- Compare and contrast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-sV-O2-jCY

(Or eight million other films, obv.)

ppl hating on "Batman" need to reexamine their aesthetic priorities IMO

I get the feeling Prince was the only one that realized how ridiculous the whole endeavor was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Bj_So1PuA&feature=related

I am pretty certain Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton got it, too

i am pretty sure nicholson was lol'ing all the way to the bank and i salute him for it

You're goddamn right he was:

http://promovieblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/jack-nicholson-the-joker-money.jpg

and wheeeereee is the BATman...

I kind of wonder if Prince wasn't shown any actual movie footage and just had visual cues of what the characters looked like and someone summarized the script

Thinking about the artistic process of Prince is probably something I could do for decades and still be puzzled, though

i have a feeling prince was shown some sketches of the joker's outfits and combined with some vague memories of the tv show cranked the whole thing out in an afternoon between lunch and his nap.

I wonder what the soundtrack discussions were like. "Who would really nail the feel of Tim Burton's Batman?" "Well obviously someone famous for being horny and funky, right? Horny and funky are definitely the adjectives that spring to mind looking at the storyboards."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt2nc2NkcGE

I am pretty sure the discussion was more like "$$$$$? $$$$$$. $$$$$ PRINCE!" "$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh man I'm going to have Batdance stuck in my head the rest of the afternoon, aren't I?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyrdui5wQmE

^^ classic material

That edit of the boxing glove apparently taking out Billy Dee Williams and then pulling back to show it was hitting the TV screen = A+ still.

still mad at Schumacher for turning Billy Dee Williams into Tommy Lee Jones

haha i remember being 11 and none of my friends understanding why it was so cool that billy dee was harvey dent. "give it a couple movies. you'll see!"

I love Batdance btw

Vicki Vale! Vick - Vick - Vick - Vicki Vale!

xp In Blockbuster, Tom Shone identifies Batman as the tipping point for blockbuster hype - the first movie where hype was successfully manufactured on a grand scale. I wish he'd included a bit about the soundtrack because I bet the conversation was pretty much verbatim as Dan said.

i can still recall the shock and awe of seeing this commercial for this for the first time. my parents only got me to finally go to bed when it was clear they weren't going to play it again that night.

I remember the shock and awe of seeing the soundtrack cassette

also hearing "The Future" and "Electric Chair" for the first time

and yeah, the hype for this was insane. i was too young to really live through star wars hype, but i don't remember anything being so...saturated for so many months before the thing premiered.

the amount of batman-related merchandise i bought in the spring/summer of 1989 was 0_o.

the first batman was before my time, but i remember watching it on tv as a kid and asking my dad why batman was wearing a turtleneck and glasses - i found it very confusing that batman would dress like a weenie

like i remember going to county fairs and shit and there being booths where people had made bootleg batman buttons where they didn't even get the symbol right and still selling out of them.

even carnies know a good thing when they see it, i guess.

My dad was such a Batman stan (since the 60s) that he bought the soundtrack. It's not the first Prince album I would have chosen to hear all the way through. Probably stopped me from going beyond his singles for a few years afterwards.

Adam West rules, you cretins

Anyone who didn't watch the early 90s Captain America on syfy last night really missed out. It was like the Room of superhero movies -- the female lead even looked like Lisa.

morbs no one was even talking about adam west.

haha nicole i think marvel tried to bury that in the 90s? or maybe that was the fantastic four movie? they are both TERRIBLE in a room-esque way, yes.

I still haven't seen the Corman Fantastic Four movie, I would love to see if it lives up to Captain America.

it's very weird to me that they were so aghast at the 90s c.a. and f.f. movies and yet they let the dolph punisher movie run free.

this has nothing to do with anything but i will take any mention of dolph to post it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY6GvTY7E5U

the Corman FF movie is hilarious

To be fair I don't think Dolph's Punisher is any worse or more ridic than any of the other Punisher movies.

i implore everyone to watch that youtube clip if they've never seen that movie

then i implore everyone to watch that movie

OMG WHAT IS THAT MOVIE?

dolph punisher is bad, but it's really just regular 80s cheese bad - the corman fantastic four was literally shot in a cave for no money

nicole, allow me to introduce you to the wonders of "showdown in little tokyo."

I am going to go check and see if it is on netflix on demand right now...

it's not. :(

it's on the bottom shelf of pay cable every now and again but i would recommend adding the dvd

will do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWKnJcotkG0

someone should let michael mann know that his movies look like dolph lundgren DTV flicks now

r.i.p. brandon lee its so sad he liked big dicks on men

dolph lungren has an advanced degree in engineering

i read that in the utne reader when i was in high school

so you know he can lay some pipe

lol

i want to have a viewing party where we all watch dolph lundgren movies

then, ritual suicide pact

Okay that Dolph clip.

Meantime:

and yeah, the hype for this was insane. i was too young to really live through star wars hype, but i don't remember anything being so...saturated for so many months before the thing premiered.

Remember crowds going crazy for the trailer. And it was a good trailer. (Was there even music? I think that made it seem more flat out intense.)

my reaction to that clip: o_O

it's the "on a man" part that always gets me. so many questions.

maybe he owned horses when he was younger

or was a slaver who specialized in pre-op M->F transsexuals

a decent screenwriter would have made the slaver connection more apparent

Dolph's appreciative "Thanks!" is being underrated here

I guess I don't understand macho camaraderie because I don't think complimenting my partner on his dick size would come anywhere near my list of potential last words to exchange.

i wish there was a clip of the sex scene between dolph and cassandra from wayne's world.

it's like someone saw the asian porno from the beginning of videodrome and thought hmmm classy.

"Don't get killed" is their "As You Wish", isn't it.

That Fantastic Four one from the 90s is bootlegged, right? I just watched the trailer again and it's definitely good for lols

(old guy voice) 9 year olds these days have no idea how good they have it, with comic book movies coming out every which way! i remember when i was a kid reading about the punisher movie or the fantastic four movie and being so excited...and then having to wait like three years for them to come out on video and then THEY SUCKED SO BAD.

Marvel did a couple straight to television features that were kind of special. Hasselhoff as Nick Fury in one, and another one that was supposed to be the Generation X characters if I remember correctly.

haha every thread on ilx is about the 90s now huh

tylerw otm

thats the pernicious influence of strongoization at work

(old guy voice) 9 year olds these days have no idea how good they have it, with comic book movies coming out every which way! i remember when i was a kid reading about the punisher movie or the fantastic four movie and being so excited...and then having to wait like three years for them to come out on video and then THEY SUCKED SO BAD.

^^^this. man as a kid I just could NOT understand why there were not superhero movies coming out all the time, I was dying to see them. now they're everywhere. unfortunately the vast majority of them suck.

i would read about things like the 90s capt. america movie coming out like in the letters section of the comic (or stan lee's little goofy newsletter column) where it'd be like "there's a movie coming out! we don't know anything about it!" funny how clueless marvel seemed to be about all their properties at that point.

the level of terrible, sucky comic book movies has gotten much better! c.f. the last punisher movie versus the lundgren version.

Omg the Captain America with the guy from Space Mutiny is on Syfy now.

Bridge Largemeat! Splint Chesthair! Smash Lampjaw! Rip Slabcheek!

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

Batman Begins, you mean.

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

― you call it trollin' i call it steamrollin' (Dr Morbius), Friday, July 22, 2011 2:43 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

lol no. i could ask you the same qn tbqh!

so how did those early-mid 90s marvel adaptations happen? my theory is that corman et al were sitting on 5- or 10-year marvel licenses that had been drawn up in the mid-'80s when comic-book movies were not in vogue. then with the crazy success of batman they rushed them into production (captain america maybe was even in production during batman pre-release hype?). my question is did marvel have to sue to keep the corman fantastic 4 from seeing proper release? or did corman himself deem it unreleasable?

seems like another world. now even 2nd-rate marvel characters get $300 million movies.

xpost

it's weird to think how early in burton's career the two batman movies were. i mean w/ the first one he was fresh off of beetlejuice.

I enjoyed this - not for the action really, but for the amusing metafictional aspects I didn't realize were a part of the character's development (or is in the movie, anyway). Also, weirdly poignant last scene!

but the elaborate, bloodless 'war' scenes were pretty zzzzzz

bizarre abt the fantastic 4 corman movie
The Fantastic Four is an unreleased low-budget feature film completed in 1994. Created to secure copyright to the property, the producers never intended it for release although the director, actors, and other participants were not informed of this fact.

more:
In 1992, Constantin Film was about to lose its option on the film rights for Fantastic Four, unless production began by December. Without the $40 million in necessary funding for a full-budget film, producer Bernd Eichinger turned to Roger Corman for help.
Constantin Film permitted the director, actors and others involved in the film to believe that the studio intended to release it in theaters, rather than the film being a cinematic equivalent of an ashcan copy.[1][2] The cast and crew did the film for low salaries after being told that if it did not get released to theaters, it would be used as the pilot for a potential television series.
Filming lasted a month and finished in January 1993, after which post-production began. The cast gave press interviews and attended comic book conventions in good faith. The studio announced a premiere date of 1994, at the Mall of America in Minnesota. In late 1993, the studio announced that the film would not be released because of the budget.
Over a decade later, Constantin Film made a $100 million Fantastic Four film and its sequel, the $130 million Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

was there a precedent for this kind of maneuver? seems nutty.

The line "Jam Captain America down their throats!" was just uttered. I had a coughing fit.

p.s. continuity nerds are going to have a hell of a time explaining how chris evans is both johnny storm and captain america.

in fairness, the CGI done on Steve Rogers make him VERY un-Johnny Storm-like

the effects on skinny steve rogers are good, but its weird because they didnt do anything to change chris evans' voice, so he comes off like tay zonday

Skinny Steve looks like Pete Campbell.

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.

― ＤＥＨＵＭＡＮＩＺＥ ＹＯＵＲＳＥＬＦ ＡＮＤ ＦＡＣＥ ＴＯ ＢＬＯＯＤＳＨＥＤ (Princess TamTam), Friday, 22 July 2011 14:31 (5 hours ago)

^OTM.

This movie just hammers home what i've always thought: watching superheroes in action is generally pretty boring. The stuff that's fun for me about comic-based movies (when they're at least halfway decent) is usually not the hero-fighting-baddie stuff.

Anyway I liked this overall, largely because of the retro pulp sci-fi WWII setting and the metafictional aspects Simon H. mentioned above. And Evans was good.

what metafictional aspects idgi

They have a Princess Bride-type framing device where a grandpa reads a Captain America comic to his ailing child, who then becomes Captain America IRL at the end of the movie.

p.s. continuity nerds are going to have a hell of a time explaining how chris evans is both johnny storm and captain america.

― by another name (amateurist), Friday, July 22, 2011 7:31 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

The FF movies and the Avengers-related Marvel movies are separate.

"We sure did cram ourselves down a few throats, didn't we?"
"We sure did, Steve."

I can't believe this movie.

?? are they planning to have metafictional grampa steve rogers lead the avengers??

no, i was kidding

that's too bad! i was looking forward to charlie kaufman's avengers.

yeah, evans was good. its tough to play a character this square and still be charismatic, but he pulls it off. and simon otm about weirdly poignant closing scene, which actually made me want to see a sequel just to see how they handle its implications

i liked this a lot

yeah you never feel like Cap/Evans is in danger at any time.

for the curious - metafictional qualities in this movie = Evans earning the Cap title not through valor / some personal vested interest in AMERICA iconography but through a war bonds promotional tour that winds up extending to films...and comics! I kind of loved that he had to prove himself as a commerically viable capital-I Icon before he could do any actual adventuring.

*commercially

lol that is pretty cool

I do like the mobius strip like vibe of all these comic book franchise reboots and relaunches. I'm not imagining things when I say I thought I heard news that after The Dark Knight Rises they're restarting the Batman franchise all over again, right? It's really in keeping with the comics, where the quality of the product ebbs and flows radically based on what writers and artists are tackling in essence the same story over and over again. Like, in the comics, many of these characters go fallow for years until someone finds a way to make them fresh again. Funny that the movies are following the same model, however inadvertently.

well I mean at some point someone is going to do Batman again in any case, it's just a matter of when.

doing the origin story over and over is pretty fucking stupid tho, there is a lot more to the comics than that

Yeah, sometimes they also kill him, too.

never forget: batman's parents were murdered etc.

Every generation gets the origin story it deserves.

Producers not trusting the public to follow a superhero series more than two films past the origin story, non-shocker. (Producers are likely otm.) Reminds me a little of writers who take over a title and want to retcon away the previous writer's work. (Daredevil as the leader of a ninja assassin gang?! Sure, why the fuck not...)

where's our generation's paul giamatti penguin?

Producers not trusting the public to follow a superhero series more than two films past the origin story, non-shocker. (Producers are likely otm.)

probably not really a bad idea if your target audience is 10 years old

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSdX9-_3vEA

I totally thought that kid in the tie dye was going to say "green lantern.... which they FUCKED UP" haha

trailer looks interesting but uh haven't there been enough marvel comics-based movies this summer?

thor
x-men 1st class
crappy transformers, sorta
this one

slow down ffs. spread those IPs out.

well they had to rush out thor and cap so they can do avengers next summer. and transformers has nothing to do with marvel

and xmen doesn't really have anything to do with marvel either. Fox has to release an xmen movie every 3 years or they lose the rights back to marvel.

tbh the kids in that last video could replace most film critics and noone would notice

tbh the kids in that last video could replace most film critics all of ILX and noone would notice

that rang most true for response to "what do you most want to see?"
"horrible bosses... and... harry potter."

Hasbro had previously worked with Marvel Comics to develop G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero for a three-pronged marketing scheme - the toyline, a tie-in comic book by Marvel, and an animated mini-series co-produced by Marvel's media arm, Marvel Productions, and the Griffin-Bacal Advertising Agency's Sunbow Productions animation studio. Given the success of that strategy, the process was repeated in 1984 when Hasbro marketing vice president Bob Prupis approached Marvel to develop their new robot series, which Jay Bacal dubbed "Transformers."[3]

i don't like that i knew that already, but at least i had to confirm with wiki.

yes, there was a transformers comic, but marvel have nothing to do with the transformers movie. and marvel studios has nothing to do with the x-men, spiderman, fantastic four, daredevil, or ghost rider movies.

so I'm just saying it doesn't make sense to say "why did marvel put out 4 movies this summer?" when they only put out 2. that still may be one or two too many, but you can't blame them for transformers.

i think people are just reacting to the glut of comics-themed movies this summer, whoever is behind them

and while one studio isn't responsible for all of them, surely all studios knew what the others' summer schedules were. so they must have figured there was an inexhaustible market for this stuff.

well there sort of is isn't there? Thor, X-Men and Transformers are all in the year's top 10 box office gross so far. why would any rational studio say "hey, let's sit this summer out and give someone else a turn"? Fox basically had to make the X-men movie to keep their license, and Marvel is doing what they can with the second rate characters they have the rights to. And that involves quickly putting out Thor and Captain America movies so they can try to make Avengers into something that's as big as X-Men or Spiderman (neither of which they will ever have the movie rights to again).

The only big flop has been Green Lantern, so it would make more sense to complain about the shit DC puts out.

FWIW Captain America is better than the other three comic-based summer flicks from this year

This movie was hella corny and boring.

Sample dialogue from a fight scene:

Bad guy: "You never give up, do you?"
Captain: "Nope!"

Bleh.

Could someone who has seen it comment on the action:dialog ratio. My kid and I have been to every movie in this Avengers sequence, but for some reason he is convinced that this one will have "too much grown-ups talking".

I thought it was a pretty decent balance, and the action scenes are well-shot. Plus, every single word out of Tommy Lee Jones's mouth is gold. He's basically playing "Gen. Tommy Lee Jones" but his performance is the unsung hero of the movie. Dominic Cooper is good, too.

xxpost That sounds like some typical Simon & Kirby dialogue! I've got to see this.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/captain.jpg

I enjoyed this.

I like you, CAPTAIN AMERICA the movie.

The plot-heavy bits involving lasers and girders were alright, but I was surprised by the emotional investment I put in. That last line in the movie packed a mighty punch for me.

Just saw this, enjoyed it. Was a bit disappointed that they didn't bother to name the Howling Commandos, but by and large a good matinee affair.

i though this kinda stunk.

took solace amid the endless montages with the supporting cast. tell me hugo weaving wasn't just doing a werner herzog impression the whole time?

you can't unhear it now can you.

augh

fell asleep in this

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!