|
Going into this I was concerned that the army or the marines would hijack the film for recruitment and propaganda, since Captain America as a franchise could very conveniently be vulnerable to that. I'm happy to say this is not the case, however. The titular character has always been exuberantly patriotic, its a fundamental part of the nature of the Captain America, so a certain amount of patriotic schtick is unavoidable. However, it could have been alot worse and it doesn't ruin the movie. The film is largely dominated by character Captain America of course. Other characters have lines, and provide some witty one liners of course, but most of the personality comes from the Cap and to a lesser extent from the villain Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). Weaving's monotone droll manner of speaking and penchant for speeches give the character a nice villainy feel and I'm happy to see him getting work outside of something about owls and the latest Transformers explosion festival. Other characters are less developed though we do see a fair of amount of Howard Stark who adds some good one liners. And for some godawful reason there's a guy in a bowler cap who show's up midway through the movie and doesn't go away. Was this some weird British uniform attire during WWII? Its never explained why this guy is constantly wearing this hat throw the middle of all these combat and action scenes he shows up in. At one point he even wears military rank on it. Is it somehow related to the comic? (vvv Ah gotcha, not a big comic buff so not familiar with that one) The romantic subplot of the movie, with Carter, is under-developed and more than a little tacked on as well. Why they even bothered trying this, I don't know. As for special effects most of it is given to Hydra's weaponry and Red Skull's face which to be fair look fine, but there isn't much more than that. Also, as this is one of the few well known Marvel characters that Stan Lee did not create, you will find no Stan Lee cameo in the movie (vvv Ah your right, wasn't expecting the cameo so I wasn't looking for it). As per the usual Marvel comic movie fare, stay past the credits for an ending clip and a short trailer for The Avengers movie, which is apparently set for next summer. Cast stars and notables include: Chris Evans (I guess he's notable, he's the lead), Tommy Lee Jones and and Hugo Weaving. Oh and Samuel L. Jackson shows up at the end to do the usual Nick Fury bit. All in all, I'd put it on the level with Thor, but no where near Iron Man. 3.5 maybe 4 if I'm feeling generous. Satone fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Jul 24, 2011 |
#
?
Jul 23, 2011 04:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 23:33 |
|
|
Just a quick response to Satone; the character in question is actually Dum Dum Dugan, and yes he MUST wear that hat. It's his trademark. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum_Dum_Dugan Anyway this movie is definitely the best super hero flick this year. Captain America isn't afraid of being corny and old-fashioned. He loves his country, he loves fighting for it... We all know the story. Who wouldn't root for a weak little guy who just wants to kick rear end in the military? Go America, gently caress yeah! Like any Marvel movie this is pretty much a who's who of onscreen cameos, most of which will absolute allude even the most astute of comic nerds, and leave others (like Satone above) questioning why the hell they're even on screen. But this is fine. Stuff like this is just fan-service anyway. And all this movie's really out to do is set us up for our Avengers film next year. It does a good job of that. I can't wait to see Cap in it, and personally I think Captain American and Tony Stark will be a hilarious combo. 4/5... Better than anything else you'll see this year, but pretty much just one big prequel at this point.
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2011 05:25
|
|
|
Satone posted:
This is incorrect, Stan Lee has a speaking part in this one. His line is, "I thought he was taller!" Saw this a couple hours ago. The stuff that happens before Rogers becomes Cap is the best part of the whole experience, except for Neal McDonough's cameo. There's literally zero tension in the entire movie - once Rogers becomes Cap, everything is just effortless. The acting is good (Evans) and great (supporting cast), but there are still some really poorly written an delivered lines peppered throughout. Plot inconsistencies too. Overall it was good, but not great, and I have no desire to see it again. In terms of recent superhero movies, it's not as good as Thor. 3/5
|
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2011 06:19
|
|
|
I just saw this last night, and I guess the only positive thing I can say is to agree with OP that it didn't boil over with any numbskull Dubya-style patriotic horseshit. Instead, they jumped right off World War 2 and created a personal conflict between the bad guy and Cap. I like watching Hugo Weaving, but I really don't think he brought much to the role beyond a combination of Agent Smith and Elrond with a fun accent. Tommy Lee Jones also was clearly just there, too - I mean, I love the guy but I have the feeling that it was a missed opportunity to let somebody bring some fresh 'tude to the role. The camera work and production values were pretty good. I was quite relieved that they actually built some sets and models as opposed to greenscreening the whole flick. The first half of the movie was actually pretty solid, and the charming, amusing story of how this nebbishy guy became Captain America was strong enough to carry the first half of the film. Stanley Tucci was good. The girl playing the female lead was pretty good as far as her job was to look great dressed up in a sexy '40s military skirt with perfect makeup and hair at all times and get shoehorned into the plot. I don't think Captain America was a very compelling hero to begin with, and maybe I'm cranky and jaded about movies, but I'd give this thing two stars, and maybe an extra half star for the horrible stuff they didn't stick in the movie. I think Red Skull blurted out one single solitary line about his motivations that wasn't just crazy power-mad Skeletor, in the final fight scene on the big airship, when he said that he envisioned a world without flags to fight for. That's actually pretty cool, a sort of post-patriotism vs patriotism dichotomy but it got washed out by something exploding and then the movie ended Tujague fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Jul 23, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 23, 2011 17:41
|
|
|
Most superheroes have this thing against homicide except in the case of super-bad guys, robots, and monsters. I like Captain America because he isn't afraid to pull out a Thompson and shoot people. This movie is bright, shallow, and campy. It really does homage to the comics of the 40's which spawned the hero. 4/5 for a superhero movie. 2/5 as a film in general.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2011 22:30
|
|
|
A paint-by-numbers superhero movie, to be sure, but that doesn't mean it was bad by any means. There's lots of good action in the movie and not much of it is obscured by shaky-cam syndrome. The characters are all acted out very well, and I found Captain America himself to be really likeable. 3-D is completely unnecessary for this movie (like most others) so I'd recommend saving your money and buying 2-D tickets unless you're really desperate to see Captain America throw his shield at you in 3-D. 3/5 no cinematic masterpiece, but I enjoyed seeing it in theaters even with $13.50 tickets.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2011 21:25
|
|
|
This was rubbish. Dull dull dull. The wimp backstory went on too long, it was baffling why Mr Patriotic took so long to actually do any fighting, the team were undifferentiated by anything but nationality (I don't know the comic), there were loads of snafus like the blonde reading a newspaper that must have been literally weeks old, the technology looked far too modern, the bad guys were no threat, and at the end the whole thing turned out to be what should have been a three minute pre title sequence for Avengers. Massive disappiontment. I really liked Thor, Iron Man and Avengers; this was far and away the worst. 2/5 for Chris Evans' torso, which I could watch all night.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2012 09:41
|
|
|
Nothing amazing, but much better than Thor. I liked the origin story at the beginning, but watching the skinny Chris Evans was extremely distracting. I know they had to make him scrawny, but good god they made him look like he had the body of a terminal AIDS patient with a normal person's head. I liked seeing Tony Stark's dad in this universe, and enjoyed watching how he tied into the whole Marvel movie universe. Tommy Lee Jones was a joy to watch in the brief screen time he had. I loved the cheesy "buy war bonds" musical number in the first half of the film - I thought it was adorable. Hugo Weaving was disappointingly underwhelming as the Red Skull. We all know the man can act, unfortunately he doesn't bring it here. My eyes rolled when they shoehorned the token black and the Asian guy in Cap's team of kickass soldiers. I'm sure it's all canonical in the Marvel universe, but a little ridiculous when you consider it's supposed to take place in the 1940's. They thankfully kept the "rah rah America" patriotic crap to a minimum, although not surprising considering how important foreign box office sales are for these superhero movies. What saved the movie for me was the bit at the end, where he wakes up from the plane crash and realizes he's actually in the future. That was done perfectly, and got me all excited to see Steve Rogers' story continue in the Avengers. 3.5/5
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2012 03:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 23:33 |
|
|
The first half of the movie was great. The first major battle was pretty neat, but it was way too easy and short. Everything after that was boring as hell. Split this movie into two parts, and you have "Captain America: Origin Story" and "Captain America: Jumps On Things", because that's basically all that happened in the second half. Everything after the first big battle was nothing more than a montage of Cap jumping onto and off of tanks, buildings, and cliffs, with heroic music playing in the background and cuts of various things burning, flags being placed on and then removed from maps, and the Red Skull getting more and more pissed off, yet doing nothing to retaliate or prepare for the next attack. Soooo boring and pointless. 2/5
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2012 19:47
|
|
