Captain America: The First Avenger: The Big Marvel Re-Watch

I'm attempting a great big Marvel movie re-watch ahead of the release of Captain America Civil War on 29th April. A summary and brief review of each of the 12 instalments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be posted each Thursday and Tuesday.

The 5th film in the franchise.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Plot Summary

The 1940's. A young and weak Steve Rogers fails to enlist in the army for a fourth time while his friend Bucky Barnes is to ship out in a few days time. He goes and tries to enlist once more and is caught with falsified info on his report. Instead of being punished he is given a chance in a special program to help his country, the Super Soldier project. The project which is headed by Dr Erskine a German scientist, who has escaped Johann Schmidt's HYDRA division of Nazi Germany, after being forced to give his Super Soldier serum to Schmidt, is hoping to find someone true and virtuous to enhance their traits and give them strength, after seeing how he accidentally turned Schmidt into the evil Red Skull. Despite his size and weaknesses, Rogers is everything they are looking for.

I like how the roles are reversed from the comics. Bucky is the bigger kid, and not a child sidekick.

During this time Schmidt and his lacky Zola have found a cosmic cube, a weapon of much power that has links to Thor's mythology. They are using it to power new weapons for HYDRA. 

Shortly after Steve is given the serum and successfully becomes super strong, HYDRA attacks the facility and kills Erskine, along with any hopes of replicating the procedure. Steve and Peggy Carter, a government employee involved in his creation and selection, stop the HYDRA agent only for him to commit suicide. Without the rest of a Super Soldier army, Steve Rogers isn't put into battle, instead he becomes a propaganda piece. He travels the country as part of a singing stage show, selling war bonds and stars in his own comics and movies as Captain America. He goes with some of the dancers to perform for troops out on the front lines, and his reception there is less warm.

Rogers learns that a large group of the battalion that Bucky was a part of has been captured and morale is lower than ever. With the help of a blossoming romance with Peggy and Howard Stark's pilot skills (Tony's father) he is dropped behind enemy lines and against all odds releases all of the prisoners, including Bucky, confronts Red Skull and Zola, and escapes with samples of the new HYDRA cosmic cube powered weaponry as well as maps to their hidden bases.

The start of the Howling Commandoes. Which we totally needed more of!

This turns the tide of the war. Captain America and his Howling Commandoes take out base after base. The last base to be destroyed leads to Bucky apparently falling to his death, and Cap and Red Skull going down with the cosmic cube somewhere in the arctic. 

Cut to modern day and SHIELD the intelligence organisation set up by Peggy, Howard and more US soldiers has found the ship and Cap's iconic shield in the ice. He's thawed out and has to come to turns with the fact that the war is now long gone.

Agent Carter. A brilliant character that eventually get's her own early SHIELD TV show spin off.

Review

Despite my low expectations and minimal knowledge of Thor, the last release in the franchise, it failed to hook me, I didn't find the characters likeable and it felt really lack lustre- a small romp in the desert for a God. I had literally zero expectations for this film. Despite being a huge fan of everything American (and I'm a Brit by the way), I always thought Cap was a bit too much of a "'Murica! Yeah! Freedom!" stereotype. I was excited for more big screen Marvel but I was scared of what that might be. I've only ever seen big, manly, scary Cap barking orders for other Avengers. He seemed to iconic and bold to work as a character. The writers deserve so many awards for this. Not only do you relate to and like this noble weakling you are presented but he only manages to grow more and more as time goes on. It doesn't feel forced when he naturally gets people to follow him or rallies everybody's morale. This is possibly the best casting so far and the most enjoyable film so far.

The song from when Cap is in the propaganda dance troop and movie is possibly the most catchy thing I've ever heard. I was scared that this stuff would be in the Marvel war film, this undeserved patriotism, but somehow not only did it work for a none American it serves it's purpose so well. 

Another one note- one film villain. I wonder if Marvel
will ever revisit or bring any of these guys back?

The villains carry a bit more gravitas, and they make it so that HYDRA is the villain rather than Nazi Germany which is very noble of them. They also make it clear very early on that the first country the Nazi's invaded was their own. It's nice to see that an entire country isn't villainised needlessly. Red Skull looks ridiculous but serves his purpose, and the stakes are higher than Thor's desert street getting flattened. This time there is a huge cosmic cube powered bomb about to drop on the eastern seaboard of USA. The connection between Cap and Peggy feels more real, and you shed tears when he says they'll have to rain check that dance they were going to have, and Cap crashes the plain into the water. When you compare that to Thor breaking his way back to Earth and not seeing Jane again, for me, there's no comparison over who has the most real feeling relationship chemistry.

For me this is the best Superhero film since 2008's one two punch of Iron Man and Dark Knight. The reason it works so well is that this is a likeable protagonist from the start, and this alternate history, world building gives a real sense of wonder and authenticity. It's drastically different from all that has come before it. A period piece for and introduction followed with the natural fish out of water story to follow. It's almost a shame that Cap can't have any more stories in the war time setting. 

The wartime propaganda suit becomes half useful.

The film does so well with it's first and second acts, developing the characters and all the feels, that it really has to rush the final act. This would be the films only down side for me. He get's the Howling Commandoes and then you only see them in action in a montage and one final mission. The ending had impact and ramifications for the next film in the franchise but it could have done with more time with it's new army characters. When the film finally comes up to speed with the modern day story again, you realise just how immersed you were in it's setting and modern day Times Square is just as visually jarring for the viewer as it is Steve Rogers.

I'll admit that after the Thor opening with the "and now let's see how we got here" moment and the jumping around with the story is was worried it would be more of the same but it really worked as a framing device. Sorry for the large amount of Thor comparisons, but it feels only right to compare the first on screen outings of two of Marvels unknown characters that are rather major in the comics.

End Credits Scene

No real end credits scene this time. A short clip of Nick Fury asking Rogers if he's ready for a mission but it's all part of a trailer for the Avengers film. 

Captain America: The First Avenger Rating: 8/10

One of my favourites so far. So upbeat and enjoyable with just the right amount of corniness. I've scored this higher than Iron Man, as I feel this film has more likeable and enjoyable characters and a bigger scale of a story.