The Official Captain America: The First Avenger Review Thread! - Part 1

[Liam_H]

Only small portion of people who see movies care about behind the scenes features I believe its always been the case.

[scatterax]

Originally Posted by Liam_H

Only small portion of people who see movies care about behind the scenes features I believe its always been the case.

eh, true, but we've always been willing to pay the extra 5 for some decent special features.

[kedrell]

Cap now has a HISHE video like Thor:

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

[S.A.A.D.]

From a out of 10 stand point, I bumped my rating up to a 4.

[scatterax]

I saw that HISHE vid coming as soon as i saw that scene in the theaters. lol

(did i say that in another thread?)

[Spider-Fan]

I saw it for my 4th time, making it the MCU film I have seen the most times in theaters

I have seen:

Captain America - 4 times
Iron Man - 3 times
Iron Man 2 - 3 times (least fave, but so many people wanted to see it with me, LOL!)
The Incredible Hulk - 2 times
Thor - 2 times

[DyeLorean]

Saw it for the second time on dvd, I love it just like the first time. I think it has that 'rewatchable' factor for some reason.

[fixxxer1022]

I also watched it again tonight and i loved it. Although i feel the story was a bit rushed. I still wanted a 2nd cap movie before the avengers.

[marcvader]

Yeah, it's a shame. Cap would have benefited from not needing to be in the present day till the sequel. We would have gotten a fully realized romance, a more fleshed out relationship with Bucky, and gotten to know the Howling Commandos better, aaand more Red Skull.

[pjspider1C]

Found this on YouTube and laughed hysterically...

Captain America (On a Budget)

[elgaz]

Watched it again tonight and loved it again. Definitely my favourite out of all the Marvel films released in the lead up to the Avengers, and the thing is ............. I was more into Hulk, Thor and Iron Man beforehand, so didn't have any real expectations for a Captain America film. This film has a lot of heart.

[Crimson King]

Agreed. The ending gets me every time.

[Scooter]

This movie had some really good things going for it it, and some really cheesy and bad things. Like, a 6/10 overall. Could have and should have been so much better. Joe Johnston really isn't a good director.

[Van Petrol]

Finally got round to see this yesterday, and loved it. Probably one of, if not my favourite pre-Avengers film. Though I do also have a soft spot for TIH.

I also enjoyed the chemistry between Evans and Atwell, and the final parts of the film were actually quite heartbreaking. The score really played its part also in adding to these scenes.

[Hunter Rider]

My Blu Ray arrived yesterday so tonight I finally saw the movie after unfortunately missing it at the cinema, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

It captured the oldschool pulp series feel of the era while being slick and modern in it's presentation. I thought the casting worked in every major role, Evans was great as Cap, Atwell got the balance right for Peggy making her strong but charming and compassionate. TLJ was on form, Weaving was superb as The Red Skull and I thought Stanley Tucci was very effective in his small but important part.

The story was a simple action adventure one and perfect for Cap's origin movie in my view, it was oldschool and pulpy and all the better for it. I also felt of the Marvel studios movies so far it had the best production values, the sets, costumes, cinematography and score were all top notch.

The film was well paced with the action spread out well and I felt it built to it's final set piece well by keeping the best for last, where a lot of movies blow their load in the middle. The pacing really allowed the Cap/Peggy relationship to develop to where the big and sad finale to the adventure really worked. I'd have liked a bit more Cap/Bucky screen time but what we got was enough to make the big moment just before Zola is captured, impactful.

The action set pieces were all good, not groundbreaking but it was nice to be able to see everything that was going on, especially in the fight scenes. The big chase just after the super soldier experiment, the train infiltration, the bike sequence and the aerial finale were all very enjoyable.

I'd say along with Spidey 1 & 2 and Iron Man, this is my favourite Marvel movie.

8.5/10

[C. Lee]

Hoped you would like it.

[CelticPredator]

I think it might be the best hero movie of all time.

[Juicy J]

Loved it just as much as Thor...both are probably my favorite marvel movies.

[Kevin Roegele]

The first half is a good, if somewhat shallow, character piece where we see Steve's progression. Unfortunetly all the effort gone into giving Steve a character arc has meant all the other characters are extremely 2D, and 1D in many cases (Tommy Lee Jones playing Tommy Lee Jones).

The second half is just a mess of forced drama (Bucky dies? We don't even get to know Bucky or see him very much), lame romantic sparring (the fondue stuff was awful) and the usual crowbarring in of Avengers material - in this case, the completely unneccesary addition of Tony Stark's dad, who even happens to fly planes into warzones-! It ruins the suspension of disbelief. Why not have Bruce Banner's dad in there too? And Hawkeye's? Hell, why don't you just run a message at the bottom of the screen throughout the entire movie saying, "Avengers, coming 2012!"

Another problem is the action scenes are forced in because they need to be there, rather than occuring naturally in the plot. I guess that's the advantage of a WWII setting, there is always a battle to be had when audiences demand it. But there's no build up to these fight scenes, and they're not very exciting (Hydra vehicles blow up one after another). Cap and his friends never look remotely in danger as they take out one Nazi after another (sorry, not Nazi, I mean Hydra agent...don't want to possibly offend the German audiences, do we? Hydra are much worse than Nazis, really!).

You may say, so what if the action isn't great, the movie is about Steve Roger's journey. It is about that. But if you've ever read a Jack Kirby Captain America comic, they are the most thrilling, action-packed, rollercoaster-rides you'll ever find in a comic. The fight scenes in those comics are intense and spectacular. Cap doesn't just fight Nazis, he launches himself at them and fights three or four at once. These stories are full of cliffhangers, end-of-the-world scenarios, dramatic rescues and deadly peril. And absolutely action packed. Captain America: The First Avenger, is none of those things. The movie even looks static and slow compared to Kirby's work.

[arveg2]

just received my blu ray copy last weekend. one question, can someone tell me if it was explained why marvel cut short the fury-rogers conversation at the end movie. me and wife felt that the deleted scene was so much better than the one actually shown on cinema

[herolee10]

Originally Posted by arveg2

just received my blu ray copy last weekend. one question, can someone tell me if it was explained why marvel cut short the fury-rogers conversation at the end movie. me and wife felt that the deleted scene was so much better than the one actually shown on cinema

This is just my own opinion, but I think the reason why they had cut out a part of the scene was that they wanted to focus more on the emotional impact of him having realized that he essentially lost the life that he once had right away instead of bringing in the whole talk about the war and such.

[KalMart]

I finally saw it.


Fun, well-acted, and simple enough in not trying to be more than it was. Period definitely helps. Felt a bit too brief, and I can see how audiences are tiring of hero origin flicks. I liked the WWII aspect, but didn't really feel I wanted to see him in modern times. C+/B-

[Whiskey Tango]

Originally Posted by Kevin Roegele

The first half is a good, if somewhat shallow, character piece where we see Steve's progression. Unfortunetly all the effort gone into giving Steve a character arc has meant all the other characters are extremely 2D, and 1D in many cases (Tommy Lee Jones playing Tommy Lee Jones).

The second half is just a mess of forced drama (Bucky dies? We don't even get to know Bucky or see him very much), lame romantic sparring (the fondue stuff was awful) and the usual crowbarring in of Avengers material - in this case, the completely unneccesary addition of Tony Stark's dad, who even happens to fly planes into warzones-! It ruins the suspension of disbelief. Why not have Bruce Banner's dad in there too? And Hawkeye's? Hell, why don't you just run a message at the bottom of the screen throughout the entire movie saying, "Avengers, coming 2012!"

Another problem is the action scenes are forced in because they need to be there, rather than occuring naturally in the plot. I guess that's the advantage of a WWII setting, there is always a battle to be had when audiences demand it. But there's no build up to these fight scenes, and they're not very exciting (Hydra vehicles blow up one after another). Cap and his friends never look remotely in danger as they take out one Nazi after another (sorry, not Nazi, I mean Hydra agent...don't want to possibly offend the German audiences, do we? Hydra are much worse than Nazis, really!).

You may say, so what if the action isn't great, the movie is about Steve Roger's journey. It is about that. But if you've ever read a Jack Kirby Captain America comic, they are the most thrilling, action-packed, rollercoaster-rides you'll ever find in a comic. The fight scenes in those comics are intense and spectacular. Cap doesn't just fight Nazis, he launches himself at them and fights three or four at once. These stories are full of cliffhangers, end-of-the-world scenarios, dramatic rescues and deadly peril. And absolutely action packed. Captain America: The First Avenger, is none of those things. The movie even looks static and slow compared to Kirby's work.

Agree about Bucky. Zero emotion.

Disagree about Howard. Awesome, hilariously played character and it's feasible that he'd be involved in the war. The comment about Banner's dad makes zero sense and sounds like more complaining for the sake of complaining. "Oh no they're putting references to Avengers in this movie the horror the horror"

Also disagree about Tommy Lee Jones. You hire a guy like that because he's a natural at whatever role (in this case, grumpy military officer) not because you want him to reinvent the wheel.

[SuperSoldier985]

This movie ranked #10 on my top movies of 2011. I saw it in theaters almost three times and I'm looking forward to see how they handle the series from this point on. I must say, this was one of the biggest surprises of the summer.

[loganom1]

First post!
This movie ranked #1 on my top movies of 2011!!

Also, my friend wrote this review:
http://popcitizen.com/2011/08/18/cap...the-great-war/

What do you guys think?