Doing it Better: Captain America

Doing it Better Captain America

Part one Captain America: Super Soldier

Awesome across many generations.

                The biggest issue with this film was the pace. The beginning was very good at setting up Steven Rogers as the kind of Patriot that only the 40s could produce, and the ending was great at highlighting the most heroic aspects of the Captain, particularly his ability to sacrifice his own desires for the betterment of mankind. The middle, however, is very rushed. After the Howling Commandos are formed, most of the action scenes before the capture of HYDRA Scientist Arnim Zola is in a montage. Montages are fine, but I felt it was a disservice to Captain America to limit most of his acts of Heroism into one long montage.

                Before I get into the bulk of this post, I just want to note that for most of these “Doing it Better,” posts we will be leaving this reality. We’ll be entering an idealized world where contracts never expire, every movie is huge in the box office, all parts are perfectly cast, all the rights are owned by the appropriate studios, and actors are given big novelty checks with the infinity symbol printed on them. In short, perfect.

                So, in my opinion the best way to improve this movie would be to split it into two parts. Part one would be moved out in front of Iron-man. It probably wouldn’t have been as big of a hit as Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron-man but again, my ideal world where everything is awesome.

Not everyone can make purple scary.

Additionally, I would be adding two characters to the film, one to allow for two films, and another because my inner nerd demands it. Said character is Baron Heinrich Zemo. Zemo, for those who don’t know, is a high ranking member of HYDRA, a lieutenant of the Red Skull who often serves as HYDRA’s leader in the Skull’s absence. Like Red Skull, Zemo suffers from a facial deformity. In the comics he often wore a baggy purple mask due to his notoriety among the local populace. Crimes against humanity have a tendency to cause that. In a fight with Captain America, he was doused with Adhesive X, a chemical compound he’d developed which fused the fabric with his face. In many ways he’s the Captain’s #2 villain, forming the first iteration of the Masters of Evil (the Avengers’ evil counterpart), creating Wonder Man an immensely powerful foe and later ally of the Avenger’s, and so on.

Awesome x 2 + Bucky

I’ll keep Wolverine’s part short. He’d be in it because 1. He served with the Howling Commandos, 2. He’s Cap’s oldest friend chronologically, and 3. Because Captain America and Wolverine taking out HYDRA Nazis would be epic. He wouldn’t be anything like a second protagonist, but he’d have a larger part then a cameo.

The first film would focus on the first half of the existing Captain America. The key difference would be splicing Zemo into scenes alongside Skull and Zola. We’d devote some time to painting Zemo as a Starscream to Red Skull’s Megatron. Not that ever other line he spouted would be about how he’ll kill and replace Skull, but make it clear that he’s kept on a short leash. During the scene when Skull breaks away from the Nazi party, for example, have the Tesseract cannon overload or something keeping it from destroying the last Nazi officer. He could make it out of the room, bump into a masked Zemo, and have him slash the young Nazi’s throat without a second thought or provocation. Zemo would then meet with the Skull and make a crack like, “Herr Schmitt, it is better to not put all your trust in one weapon.” 

The major differences would only begin to shine through when the Captain is saving the 501^st from the HYDRA camp. In the original the camp was a factory designing Tesseract energy weapons, in my version it would be a HYDRA research facility. This ties into my second problem with the film, HYDRA’s focus on the Tesseract weapons. HYDRA at any given moment has at least a dozen WMD’s in the works, never just one. So, part of this scene would focus on Captain America freeing the prisoners, including Wolverine and Bucky, the other exploring the various assortment of HYDRA weapons in the works. We’d still see

Doughboy, gross and largely invincible.
Example of alternate HYDRA research

Tesseract weapons, but I think just about everyone save the energy rifles would still be prototypes.

The scene where Captain America and Wolverine met would be relatively short. Perhaps just Cap finding the most secured prison cell in the base, talking with Logan in a conversation along the lines of “You want pay back?” Wolverine snarls, “I’ll take that as a yes,” and letting the caged beast go.

After freeing Bucky the two films would be more or less the same, just adding Zemo. After that we’d see Captain America and his Howling Commandos, all named and with personalities, destroying two HYDRA facilities. We’d see Captain America bond with his teammates, and what lengths HYDRA is willing to go to in the name of global conquest.

The finale would take place onboard the HYDRA train, but instead of battling the HYDRA flamethrower soldier, he’d be duking it out with Zemo. Up to this point Zemo would have been a lot of talk and only just enough action to make it clear he’s a sadist. Cap would perhaps underestimate Zemo, until he pulled out his saber and started slashing. Bucky and Cap would battle with Zemo throughout the train, ending in a train compartment with Zemo’s Adhesive X trailer.

Kind of amazing he didn't die from this.

Bucky would still be thrown off with a grenade or something. This would send Cap into a fury and have him beat the piss out of Zemo. Wolverine or Dugan would come in before Cap finished the job. As they leave Zemo would try to pull a behind the back stab, but Cap knocks him aside. Zemo’s blade would shatter the Adhesive X container and get dosed in it. The film would close out on Zola being brought into a cell and Cap and Agent Carter in the bar.

Tragic.

The ending would be a bit depressing and darker than what some might expect but it would allow for a lot of personal growth with Cap. My thought is that movie part 2 would be focused on Cap trying to keep going even though knowing his best friend died because of him. I’ll get into greater detail in the part two, which will come in just before I do the Avengers.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Zemo

 http://www.wolverinefiles.com/009-world-war-ii/

 http://avengersearthsmightiestheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Baron_Zemo

 http://marvel.wikia.com/Doughboy_%28Earth-616%29

 http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ironnutsville/news/?a=18804

 http://marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Winter_Soldier

Captain America: The First Avenger

So Awesome.

I want to start this off by saying that I love Captain America. While he wasn’t the first superhero I remember growing up, Spiderman and the 90s X-men hold that spot, he is by far my favorite. He’s not the strongest, nor the fastest, nor even the smartest, but he is above average in each of these qualities and when mixed together with his compassion and his impressive shield we have one of the best heroes Marvel Comics has to offer. He’s Superman without all of the powers, so for me the things he says and does have much more weight.

Need I say more?

The First Avenger wasn’t the Captain’s first film debut, but it is by far the best. The film adaptation from the early 90s made far too many changes and stupid little additions to be considered a “good” movie. An Italian Red Skull, it’s like they didn’t read the source material. I only mention it as a bit of a fun fact for everyone.

I’ll start with the good. For a movie that pretty obviously only exists to set Capt. America up and get him to the modern day, they try very hard to make you forget that. At least at the beginning and the end. They take their time setting up Steven Rogers as the big of spirit small of body patriot that he is before his transformation. When they first released that Chris Evans would play the super soldier I was apprehensive. I will admit I thought that it was just something Marvel did to make it impossible for Fox to continue its existing Fantastic Four franchise. But Evans does an amazing job mixing the harshness and kindness of Steven Rogers. Sure, the CGI of making Evans a munchkin isn’t the best but I’d rather that over other alternatives. For example, the 90s Cap was a normal sized man with polio. While that does mirror many of the difficulties young Rogers had, Rogers multitude of disorders coupled with his tiny size makes him a more interesting character for me.

He's so widdle.

Post transformation Evans is still great. Many Superhero movies from the previous century had a serious issue of having actors that could only play either the hero or the civilian really well. The best, and really only well known, example would be the Batman films. In the 1995 Batman Forever and 1997 Batman and Robin, acting heavyweight George Clooney does a great job as Bruce Wayne, but his Batman could use some work. Evans does not have this problem. Granted, his character doesn’t necessarily have a secret ID but he does mix the larger than life quality of the Captain with the kind of awkward fish out of water vibe that Rogers has when he isn’t saving the day.

SOOO much better.

Hugo Weaving was an amazing choice for the Red Skull. Granted, I wish he could have been a bit more consistent with his German Accent but that’s a nitpick. He has the intimidating aura that the Skull needs, and just that mad look in his eyes when he’s working on something evil. His “Red Skull face” doesn’t detract from his performance at all. His face and eyes are still expressive, and the face looks natural enough that you’re not thinking too much about how it looks.

Toby Jones is good as Arnim Zola, Red Skull’s chief scientist. I would say that his one weakness is that Zola is portrayed as a bit too spineless for my taste. Zola as I’ve been introduced to him is a cold calculating scientist, amoral and brilliant. This Zola is smart, but he folds a little too easily, he is captured a little too easily, and he’s a little too single minded in his research. I’ll get more into that in the bad section.

Hayley Atwell is great as Agent Peggy Carter. She has a proto-Black Widow vibe to her, she’s beautiful but she’ll shoot you in the gut in a second if you cross her. Just ask Cap. I’m not well versed in her older incarnation but if Atwell’s Carter is an update it’s a very organic one. She feels like the strong woman that would exist in the 1940s. She is more active in the war than your average woman but she doesn’t feel like she couldn’t exist at the time.

Good looking group, still couldn't be bothered to name them all.

The support cast is great, especially Sebastian Stan’s Bucky. He’s more of an adaptation in that he’s Captain’s friend and partner instead of a WWII era sidekick. He’s the strong friend that tries to be supportive but still trying to keep Rogers grounded before and after he’s superhuman.

The Bad parts of the movie aren’t horrendous but defiantly noticeable. The biggest issue is the pace. The first forty minutes or so are rather slow, little action and a lot of talking. That in and of itself isn’t a problem, as the origin movie I’m fine with taking time to set the stage of the person the Hero is. The problem arises in that they try to make it up by cramming a montage of action sequences. In movie time, I assume, several weeks pass but they are condensed down into a scene maybe ten minutes long with no real substance to it.

Chris Evans and Hugh Jackman, It'd be so beautiful.

Another issue that is created because of the pace ties into the supporting cast. Aside from Bucky, only one other of Captain America’s Howling Commandos are named. And Dugan’s name is said so quick I missed it the first few times I saw the film. Heck, they don’t even name the group. This is kind of a pain for fans. We have guys like Dum Dum Dugan and James Falsworth, the guy in the bowler hat and the British man respectively, big names in the expanded universe don’t get due credit. And of course no Wolverine. Damn complicated film contracts. Think of that for a second, Captain America and Wolverine together killing HYDRA goons. The fact it doesn’t exist brings a tear to the eye.

Also HYDRA is too single minded. Let me explain. This is a problem that exists with a lot of Marvel’s scientific bad guys. Zola, Hydra in general, Doc Oct, the scientists of the Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM); all are very smart people/groups but they focus in on one project too much. The best animated incarnations of these characters have their fingers in a lot of pies. These groups know that you can’t focus too much on one evil plan in case it blows up in your face. The Tessaract is a powerful artifact but Skull won’t put all of his chips on that.

So in summation, good movie, but it could have been great. Like Amazing Spider-man 2 I give it a B. While the pace feels a little uneven at times, and HYDRA is a little too Tessaract happy this is a good film for the Captain. Dugan, Falsworth, and Wolverine might be peeved with their parts here but hey, no movie is perfect. As a movie that is trying to do a lot with just one film, it isn’t so bloated that it pulls a Spider-man 3. Next time I’ll cover on some of the things I’d have done to make the film better.

 

http://www.filmjabber.com/movie-blog/2011/08/30/captain-america-90s-style/

http://marvel.wikia.com/Wolverine/Captain_America_Vol_1_4

http://moviecarpet.com/three-new-captain-america-the-first-avenger-character-posters-2011-06-02.html

http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/post/714359/captain-america-howling-commandos-fight-hydra-on-set-pics/

http://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=163524

http://scifi.about.com/od/Captain-America-2011/ig/Gallery---Captain-America--The-First-Avenger---2011-/Chris-Evans-as-Steve-Rogers.-7_o.htm

http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Johann_Schmidt

Days of Future Past

                There is a lot to like about this movie, and I mean a lot. There are a few places where they could have made a few tweaks but nothing was so God awful that I wanted to shout at the screen… Well there was one major/minor annoyance that made me want to do that but I’ll get to that later.

They'll kill you and look good doing it.

                First off, basic plot: about ten years from now the future is in that dystopian paradise that we’ve all come to expect at this point. Side note, can’t we have happy future’s anymore? Back on track. Humans and Mutants are both oppressed under the yolk of the Sentinels. The Sentinels are a group of robotic drones designed to “protect” humanity from the Mutant “threat.” At first things were fine for the humans, but it quickly began to spin out of control when the Sentinels began targeting progenerators of Mutant. Meaning, “You’re human but meet the right woman and your kids will be Mutants. SO DIE!” The design of this hell is great. They use Sir Patrick Stewart’s liquid honey voice to narrate this part and they don’t overly rely on it. They show us corpses, subtle nods to fallen champions, the horrid M emblazoned over the eyes of captured Mutants. They use the images to drive home the point that Stewart is laying out, that this future SUCKS.

A small group of X-men remain, keeping one step ahead of the sentinels by using an enhanced power of Kitty Pryde’s, the ability to project someone’s consciousness into the past to actively rewrite the present. Their team, composed of fan favorites Iceman, Colossus, and Bishop, and relatively obscure names like Blink, Sunspot, and Warpath.

                They are joined by Prof. X’s team, comprised of Storm, Magneto, and lone-gunslinger-who-is-rarely-ever-alone Wolverine. They get the bright idea to utilize Kitty’s power to project a consciousness back to before the war with the Sentinels began. Kitty claims such a task would rip the mind of anyone who tried it apart, so they use the guy who gets over stuff like that real quickly. Wolverine, I’m talking about Wolverine if that was too subtle for ya.

Went from this

                The plan is to stop Mystique, Xavier’s rogue adopted sister in this continuity, from murdering weapons manufacturer Bolivar Trask. Killing Trask, which I’m sure felt pretty good for Mystique, creates the demand for the Sentinels she was trying to kill with Trask. Furthermore, she is captured and they use her DNA to give the Sentinels the ability to adapt to their targets. Cause and effect can be a real pain. Also, not a 100% sure why having one Mutant’s genes allows you to design self-adapting war machines, but hey I’ll suspend my disbelief.

To this? Confusing...

                Wolverine jumps back in time, and is given the difficult task of making a disillusioned Charles and Eric the Magnetic Frankenstein’s monster work together for the betterment of the world. He is helped along the way by Beast, who has developed a Mutation suppressing agent to keep himself clean shaven and somehow keeping Charles telepathy suppressed and make his legs work… not 100% that’s how it works but okay, whatever more belief suspended.

                The things that work about this movie really work. The fight scenes are amazingly choreographed and designed, combining the Mutant powers to create devastating results. Like the Colossus super battering ram they showed in the trailer. The Future X-men, while supporting cast at best, are well designed and while their characters aren’t really explored all that much if at all, they at least got desperate survivors just holding the Reaper at bay thing down pat.

                I wasn’t a fan of the giant turbines in the center of the 70s era Sentinels chests, but their future models really make up for it. Future Sentinels are built with these little individual scales that give them their adaptive technology, and they look really awesome when they move. Every time you see these things, you know defeat at this point in time is inevitable. The ray from the face thing seems like something they stole from the Destroyer from Thor but otherwise they were really inventive with these guys.

Just me and myself

                I’m going to go over the main characters really fast, so here it goes. Wolverine is awesome. Charles Xavier past and future are awesome. Magneto past and future are awesome. Mystique is good, but they REALLY over play her importance to everything. Trask is awesome. Beast is awesome, although I’d have like to see his blue face a little more. Everyone else really didn’t get enough screen time for me to make a comment about them. Except young William Stryker. Asshole is everywhere with that smug smirk on his face, I want to punch him so freaking bad, especially when he mentions his little Jason. Back on task.

                Each actor fit the role they were given perfectly, and really committed to it. I’d say the one that had the hardest job would be the two Xavier’s. In this they are worlds apart. Stewart’s Xavier is the same, stoic, selfless and all that. Young Xavier, played by James McAvoy had the much more difficult part of playing a Xavier that is simply burned out. One that has lost the sister her cared for, the student’s he loved, and even his own sense of self-respect. He had to play a man at the bottom but one that was still capable of becoming the man in X chair. He did it wonderfully.

                Now, onto the bad. Thankfully the list is rather short, outside of continuity and adaptively errors that are really unavoidable at this point.

Makes up for the look, but he shouldn't of had to.

                One thing that really, REALLY pissed me off about earlier X-men films and is continued in this one is that names. Names are important, they are what connects us to the characters. So I’m going to say this one more time and I pray someone hears me. Quicksilver’s name is Pietro, not Peter, PIETRO. Changing the name does nothing but anger fans who want to hear Quicksilver’s real name along with his alias. The same could be said for Colossus, his name is Piotr. It doesn’t come up as much, but same pet peeve button is pushed.

                Now, a more serious weakness was the First Class cast. Or should I say the lack thereof. Aside from Beast, Charles, Magneto, and Mystique, the rest are barely even mentioned. Havok gets the quick little bit from the Mystique trailer, that is literally it, and just about everyone else was either not mentioned at all or killed off screen. I won’t name names, but trust me, you’ll be annoyed if you liked those guys. The deaths are what irk me the most, since in the terms of the movie-verse pretty much means you are done forever in the films, unless your last name is Grey.

Too much of her. Can't believe I said that...

                Another weakness of the film is that they really try to push the Jennifer Lawrence Mystique is the lynch pin in all of this. HER actions shape everything, HER self-righteous quest burns the world, changing HER mind will set everything straight. I get playing up a popular actress’s popular portrayal of a character, but come on. Something like the Sentinels and global war has a LOT more moving pieces than Mystique and Trask.

                One last thing I’ll comment on that isn’t a weakness per se, but is really confusing is the continuity. Wolverine has a confrontation with young Stryker that causes old memories to boil up. It shows segments from the old film about Logan’s transformation into Wolverine. Yet at the same time here and there were nods to X-men: Origin’s, despite other events in the film negating them. It just got a little confusing for my nerd brain.

                Overall, I’m giving it an A-. It had a lot of strong points, a few minor points but nothing that’d break the movie, and one confusing continuity point. The character’s they focused on were great and most of the support was great too.   

HELL YEAH!

 http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/30626/details-on-x-men-future-sentinels

 http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/03/Empire-Mag.jpg

 http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/04/22/faster-bodypainting-bodes-well-for-jennifer-lawrencemystique-x-men-spinoff/

 http://screenrant.com/x-men-days-future-past-posters/

 http://marvel.wikia.com/Bolivar_Trask_%28Earth-10005%29

 http://screencrush.com/x-men-days-of-future-past-bolivar-trask-sentinels-first-look/