Captain America: The First Avenger

Hell YES! A muppet Marvel super-hero movie! Sweetums' as The Hulk. Gonzo as Iron Man. Piggy as the Scarlet Witch. Fozzy Bear as Wolverine! Rizzo as War Machine. Kermit as Nick Fury. That crab/lobster thing as Ant-Man. Professor Bunsen as Prof X and Beaker as Cyclopes...
Oh, the possibilities...

 

I adored it. Regardless of whether it had flaws or not, I adored it. It's my favorite superhero movie of the summer, hands down.

 

Ha...one of the major sub-plots of Avengers is suppose to be Captain America and Iron Man not seeing eye to eye.

Also, Captain America's "out of time" sense of the world comes into play.

Which is good...the more they focus on that, the less time Thor is on camera.

 

Saw this one last weekend...my first film of the summer, believe it or not.

Not that I was waiting for it or anything...the timing and the opportunity presented themselves.

I've got some spoiler bits...not much...but I'll black it all out now:

Anyway...not a bad offering...did a good job or dealing with some really campy content that is part of who Captain America is, and delivered it so well, you only grin instead of grimace ("vita-rays" was a chuckle).

Hugo, as always, delivered masterfully on a difficult villain to portray.

Evans made me forget all about Johnny Storm...thank heavens.
(Though a Captain America team up with the Fantastic Four would be HILARIOUS...though I pray the 4 are done now.)

The film...gets high marks for visuals...I liked what I saw...a lot of obvious green screen, but it was to be expected...it had a good amount of color to it as well...not a bleak film, nor they "realistic" drab that is suppose to distinguish from the "unrealistic" comics.

I hated the final Captain America uniform...particularly the helmet...fix it before next summer, or have him go without...Captain America doesn't have to hide his face.

The story...beyond the origin tale...stunk...all over the place...condensing way too much...how did they get behind the lines so easily...etc...when you use more then one montage in your film, it bodes poorly.

In a lot of ways, this was exactly what the secondary title says...the first avenger...movie...but I can't help but think they could've succeeded with much less fanfare by doing a 60 minute straight to dvd story 6 months ahead of "Avengers"...the way the whole movie is bookended by the present only compounds the sense that your whole purpose for watching the film is to prep for "Avengers" next summer, not to watch a Captain America story.

Given Cap's difficult translation to today, it's as good an offering as I would expect. So in the end, the film met my limited expectations without causing any outrages...which is a rare occurrence these days.

3 out of 5, and I'm looking forward to Cap's part in "Avengers".

 

I love this film to death. Some of the most fun I've had watching a movie on the big screen.

 

Seriously?

The world has gone "reboot" crazy...it's getting out of hand.

"oh, well that version underperformed, we can do it better."

Hulk...Spiderman...Fantastic Four...

There need to be rules:

1: You have to have at least a decade since the last installment of the previous version.

2: No cameos involving people from the previous version.

3: Don't COPY the previous version.

4: Rules cannot be overlooked because of poor performance. (Coming in 2012...Green Lantern Reboot!)

 

Is is true that FF will be rebooted as a TV show?

 

Getting pretty sick of reboots. Nobody can come up with anything original these days.

Having said that, the new Spider-Man reboot looks alright.

 

That is soooo awesome.

 

I really thought / hoped that Captain America would break the $200m barrier domestically. Suprised that it hasn't, considering it was a good, fun film. I'm also suprised that Captain America didn't surpass Thor in the box office, considering he is a bit 'out-there' in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so to speak, ie: the cosmic storyline...

 

Thor also came out in early May, which is a much better opening time then mid/late July.

Thor was early in the summer season when people hadn't seen much and there wasn't a lot to choose from.

The fact that Cap did as well as it has in the shadow of Harry Potter should not be overlooked.

Overall, I think both films got about what they were gonna get...neither was ever going to be a game-changer...one is an outdated relic that they are trying to bring into the modern era (both story-wise and concept-wise), and the other has always been a bit of a fringe element.

The modern world embraced the Iron Man franchise because it was identifiable as either a hysterical tongue-in-cheek joke on modern fame and responsibility, or the modern aspiration of every 10-22 year old male.

I think there is going to be a world of disappointed fans next summer when "The Avengers" isn't "Iron Man 3". It's a huge gamble they are making, assuming the Iron Man audience will embrace the character in concert, or even cameo...

In the mean time, the rest of the Avengers will have the general comic fans, their die hards, and hopefully a few open-minded new comers to win over to hope for significant impact next summer.

Personally, I think we're gonna see every scene from "Avengers" in which Iron Man appears by the 3rd official trailer...It's the only way that movie makes the killing they are gambling on.

It's Wolverine/X-men syndrome X 1000.

 

Oh, I'm not disparaging a July release date...but in the long run, relatively speaking, the studios tend to lead the summer season with their hopefully projects...late summer is usually 2 things: 1) Established franchises that will draw their audience at will (Transformers, Harry Potter, Batman), 2) Other summer films that didn't get the "May Release" seal of approval. It's not a bad thing that Cap released in July by any means...better then when they release "Daredevil" in February...talk about a death penalty.

Moreover, by the time you get to mid-July, you have much better competition for the viewing dollar...I think there were even some of the bigger multiplexes that still had a show time or 2 for "Thor" when Cap came out.

Therefore the fact that Captain America is even marginally similar box office-wise to Thor, means either Thor underachieved, or Cap overachieved.

And you're right that mid-summer releases have better whole week revenues...however, those numbers have been in decline since I worked at a theater a decade ago...only kids movies get a real benefit from "out of school" periods...which is why, consequently, most kid's films tend to release at Memorial Day or early June (when most elementary grades nationwide are finished).

 

What strikes home about this for me is that years ago I had a dream in which every scifi and comic book character ever where gathered together in a costume party. It was sort of like a cosplay. Everyone from Indy Jones to Howard the Duck was there. The thing was that you literally had the powers of the person you showed up as and did battle. The damage was temporary, defeat someone and they just moved on to the next battle fully healed. I was Darth Maul and faced and defeated both Wolverine and Captain America.

 

Cheers T2Q, how do you find this stuff?

 

I just picked up the Blu-ray and am excited about listening to the commentary. This is one of my favorite Marvel movies.