Captain America - what a flop
I've been so excited about the Avengers films and by and large they've been good. Even Hulk which didn't wow me was ok. However, Captain America I found flat and boring. The whole film felt like it was just marking time until the Avengers. A LOT of the movie was wasted in just setting up Cap before he gets the super soldier serum. I really think that they should have fast-tracked that event so that we could have gotten on to his story quicker. They have us meet Bucky early but they don't flesh him out enough as a full character, so other than the fact that he's Cap's buddy we don't know much about him so we don't care when he dies. I think making Bucky an underage kid who was in the USO with Cap and who wanted to serve and snuck off with Cap would have worked better.
I'm also personally offended that Disney felt that using actual Nazis would somehow traumatize us so they moved Hydra back in time to be the villains. They then go to unimaginable lengths to show that Hydra is a separate terrorist organization that at one time was organized by the Nazis but now has broken with them. What in the world is the point of a world war 2 story set in Europe but without Nazis?
This movie gives the impression that Cap's whole career happens in a few months rather than over the entire war. The beginning takes place in 1942 and you can't convince me that it took Hydra 3 years to build its flying wing and they did nothing of note other than that for years except to take some prisoners to help them build their flying wing. This brings us to the crux of my problem with the film. We needed some context to bring this alternate version of WW2 into some focus with what we're seeing in the movie. Hydras threat factor was incredibly low. Ok, they had some disintegrator guns but guns are easily stolen and used against the original builders as the movie proved. Then the only other thing they have is the flying wing? No Nazi mechs? No nothing? I was really looking forward to 1940's era impressions of what futuristic tech would look like and we didn't get it.
Anyhow, I digress. We here some reports of hydra taking prisoners but by separating the group from Hitler it takes out really any threat factor they would have otherwise had. I know how the original WW2 went. The idea of Nazis with laser guns and giant mechs storming over Europe would have been frightening and would have given the viewers some impression of the alternate history being crafted. Instead this movie trued to presume that somehow you could have such an incredibly alternate series of events with super soldiers and disintegrator guns but have the war entirely unchanged from the one we know in our reality and it all happened in secret.
The flying wing is just a problem. What was it supposed to do...drop bombs? Drop weird funky planes? There were all those weird things with city names on them. They looked like bombs and could take pilots. Were they intended to be suicide bombs with pilots? The movie never explains so I'm not really sure what the wing was supposed to do. Then the controls get broken and Cap says "whoa no time I have to crash this into the ice". How does that make any sense. Unless the controls were locked onto the empire state building then you could just fly harmlessly over New York as everyone tries to figure out how to get the thing back under control. Instead we get some fake drama without any explanation to the viewer. It would have made more sense if during the fight with the Red Skull the controls were locked so that it took the wing into a spiral that crashed it into the ground.
So in the end I get a guy whose going to be in Avengers and I'm sure everyone in Avengers will treat him worshipfully like he's the living legend of WW2 but since he only did one thing in this movie then it really doesn't fit. This Cap doesn't seem like a living legend. He just seems like some guy who fought a few guys and then got frozen. I'm kinda disappointed that they limited this to just one movie. I was hoping they'd let there be an opportunity for more WW2 Cap films between this and Avengers because a Cap 2 set in modern times seems like it'd just be like those romantic movies in the 90's about guys from the 60's who wake up in modern times for various reasons. I think one of those starred Mel Gibson. Forever Young maybe? Whatever
There were also the little nits like having a young Stark there seemed completely superfluous. Why did they say Cap's shield was made of Vibranium and therefore vibration proof when they put on a loud "clang" sound every time the shield was hit or hit something. Why couldn't we have really said it was adamantium? Has Fox somehow licensed the entire concept of adamantium away from Marvel so they can't use it in other movies? That's rediculous. Cap with a gun with disturbing. I know that they didn't show him acutally hit anyone but the whole point of Cap is that he's so good that he doesn't have to resort to guns. He uses his athletics and his shield.
Oh and I guess the other thing is that....the things they showed Cap doing seemed super to me but yet they didn't show me more of the things that Cap should be doing. There should have been more gymnastics and less "I can run as fast as a car". Cap can't run like a car. He has high endurance and can run like an olympic runner but running as fast as a car with the guy driving as fast as he could seemed more superhuman than just human prime like Cap should be.
I did like that they worked a young Nick Fury into the movie but didn't call him Nick Fury because they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They don't want to mention the Infinity Formula because it sounds kind of hokey but they still had a black guy in a group that looked like the Howling Commandos. I am kind of annoyed that they basically merged the Red Skull with Baron Wolfgang von Strucker though. A Red Skull who isn't all about Aryan purity just seems wrong. If you wanted to have Hydra and the Howling Commandos in the movie then they should have just done a Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos movie. Then they could have left Cap and the Red Skull alone.
The best part of the movie to me was the advertisement for the Avengers. I am a little worried that IMDB seems to confirm that Avengers only consists of Iron Man, THor, Cap, Hawkeye, and Black Widow though. The Avengers are supposed to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes but only Thor and Iron Man qualify in that lineup. Marvel has always been smart and never weighted things to high in the Avengers towards human-ish characters but in this case more than half to the people aren't really super. Yes, I know Hulk is going to be in the movie but he's likely to be a pawn of Loki although he may eventually turn on Loki. Remember that at the end of the Hulk movie he smiles evily and wills himself to become the Hulk hinting at a darker, more sinister Hulk in this film. If they decide not to go that route I'll be very disappointed. Hulk as a villain makes more sense after all then Hulk just being a nice, team player. I'd even be happy if they had some characters with utility powers like Ant Man and Wasp since those kinds of people will never get their own solo movies but I guess its just not to be. I guess they're still hoping for a light comedy Ant Man solo movie like they've suggested may happen for the last 5-6 years or so.
Anyhow, my expectations are high but nowhere near as high as for Dark Knight Rises. I'm also not really sold on the Spider-Man reboot. They're going all the way back to the origin again and they're making him emo so that the new Peter looks like the old Harry. Meh, the only reason i can see going back to origin is by doing it right and having Liz and the whole crew from Untold Tales but since they're not going that route I'm kinda blah on the whole thing.
I'm also personally offended that Disney felt that using actual Nazis would somehow traumatize us so they moved Hydra back in time to be the villains. They then go to unimaginable lengths to show that Hydra is a separate terrorist organization that at one time was organized by the Nazis but now has broken with them. What in the world is the point of a world war 2 story set in Europe but without Nazis?
This movie gives the impression that Cap's whole career happens in a few months rather than over the entire war. The beginning takes place in 1942 and you can't convince me that it took Hydra 3 years to build its flying wing and they did nothing of note other than that for years except to take some prisoners to help them build their flying wing. This brings us to the crux of my problem with the film. We needed some context to bring this alternate version of WW2 into some focus with what we're seeing in the movie. Hydras threat factor was incredibly low. Ok, they had some disintegrator guns but guns are easily stolen and used against the original builders as the movie proved. Then the only other thing they have is the flying wing? No Nazi mechs? No nothing? I was really looking forward to 1940's era impressions of what futuristic tech would look like and we didn't get it.
Anyhow, I digress. We here some reports of hydra taking prisoners but by separating the group from Hitler it takes out really any threat factor they would have otherwise had. I know how the original WW2 went. The idea of Nazis with laser guns and giant mechs storming over Europe would have been frightening and would have given the viewers some impression of the alternate history being crafted. Instead this movie trued to presume that somehow you could have such an incredibly alternate series of events with super soldiers and disintegrator guns but have the war entirely unchanged from the one we know in our reality and it all happened in secret.
The flying wing is just a problem. What was it supposed to do...drop bombs? Drop weird funky planes? There were all those weird things with city names on them. They looked like bombs and could take pilots. Were they intended to be suicide bombs with pilots? The movie never explains so I'm not really sure what the wing was supposed to do. Then the controls get broken and Cap says "whoa no time I have to crash this into the ice". How does that make any sense. Unless the controls were locked onto the empire state building then you could just fly harmlessly over New York as everyone tries to figure out how to get the thing back under control. Instead we get some fake drama without any explanation to the viewer. It would have made more sense if during the fight with the Red Skull the controls were locked so that it took the wing into a spiral that crashed it into the ground.
So in the end I get a guy whose going to be in Avengers and I'm sure everyone in Avengers will treat him worshipfully like he's the living legend of WW2 but since he only did one thing in this movie then it really doesn't fit. This Cap doesn't seem like a living legend. He just seems like some guy who fought a few guys and then got frozen. I'm kinda disappointed that they limited this to just one movie. I was hoping they'd let there be an opportunity for more WW2 Cap films between this and Avengers because a Cap 2 set in modern times seems like it'd just be like those romantic movies in the 90's about guys from the 60's who wake up in modern times for various reasons. I think one of those starred Mel Gibson. Forever Young maybe? Whatever
There were also the little nits like having a young Stark there seemed completely superfluous. Why did they say Cap's shield was made of Vibranium and therefore vibration proof when they put on a loud "clang" sound every time the shield was hit or hit something. Why couldn't we have really said it was adamantium? Has Fox somehow licensed the entire concept of adamantium away from Marvel so they can't use it in other movies? That's rediculous. Cap with a gun with disturbing. I know that they didn't show him acutally hit anyone but the whole point of Cap is that he's so good that he doesn't have to resort to guns. He uses his athletics and his shield.
Oh and I guess the other thing is that....the things they showed Cap doing seemed super to me but yet they didn't show me more of the things that Cap should be doing. There should have been more gymnastics and less "I can run as fast as a car". Cap can't run like a car. He has high endurance and can run like an olympic runner but running as fast as a car with the guy driving as fast as he could seemed more superhuman than just human prime like Cap should be.
I did like that they worked a young Nick Fury into the movie but didn't call him Nick Fury because they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They don't want to mention the Infinity Formula because it sounds kind of hokey but they still had a black guy in a group that looked like the Howling Commandos. I am kind of annoyed that they basically merged the Red Skull with Baron Wolfgang von Strucker though. A Red Skull who isn't all about Aryan purity just seems wrong. If you wanted to have Hydra and the Howling Commandos in the movie then they should have just done a Sgt Fury and his Howling Commandos movie. Then they could have left Cap and the Red Skull alone.
The best part of the movie to me was the advertisement for the Avengers. I am a little worried that IMDB seems to confirm that Avengers only consists of Iron Man, THor, Cap, Hawkeye, and Black Widow though. The Avengers are supposed to be Earth's Mightiest Heroes but only Thor and Iron Man qualify in that lineup. Marvel has always been smart and never weighted things to high in the Avengers towards human-ish characters but in this case more than half to the people aren't really super. Yes, I know Hulk is going to be in the movie but he's likely to be a pawn of Loki although he may eventually turn on Loki. Remember that at the end of the Hulk movie he smiles evily and wills himself to become the Hulk hinting at a darker, more sinister Hulk in this film. If they decide not to go that route I'll be very disappointed. Hulk as a villain makes more sense after all then Hulk just being a nice, team player. I'd even be happy if they had some characters with utility powers like Ant Man and Wasp since those kinds of people will never get their own solo movies but I guess its just not to be. I guess they're still hoping for a light comedy Ant Man solo movie like they've suggested may happen for the last 5-6 years or so.
Anyhow, my expectations are high but nowhere near as high as for Dark Knight Rises. I'm also not really sold on the Spider-Man reboot. They're going all the way back to the origin again and they're making him emo so that the new Peter looks like the old Harry. Meh, the only reason i can see going back to origin is by doing it right and having Liz and the whole crew from Untold Tales but since they're not going that route I'm kinda blah on the whole thing.