Big spoilers here…I mean the film has been out for five years now
Captain America: The First Avenger has one goal and it accomplishes it: provide an origin story for Captain America (I suppose it sets up some things for The Avengers as well). It accomplishes this goal in a straightforward manner in a very good but not quite great way.
The First Avenger is a classic zero to hero story. Steve Rogers is a skinny kid in Brooklyn with a great heart and fighting spirit. He’s found by a scientist for the U.S. military who’s directing a project to create the ultimate super solider and thinks Rogers the right choice because of his personality. It turns out he’s right, as Rogers is transformed into Captain America, proves his worth, and takes down the Nazi organization HYDRA, led by the Red Skull. It’s a basic but good story that gets the point across.
The First Avenger is made up of several mini-arcs that work, yet are rushed. He starts off as that skinny kid that no one believes in (and may be smarter than everyone else too), but rather early in the film he’s transformed into Captain America. He’s stuck as a symbol of the American effort in World War II, another interesting direction, but then decides to go on his own and free soldiers (including his friend “Bucky” Barnes). Agent Carter falls for him, sees him kissing someone else, gets mad then falls for him again. It works…but again it’s rushed. Admittedly his friendship with Bucky is underdeveloped…but still good enough.
Some of the performances work really well here. Tommy Lee Jones is great as Colonel Chester Phillips and Hayley Atwell is just as great as Agent Carter. Hugo Weaving is a very good villain as well as his Red Skull is one of the more memorable Marvel villains in the MCU (whatever that’s saying). Chris Evans wasn’t bad either.
Perhaps I didn’t say much in this review but in turn there’s not a lot to say. There’s much more good than bad and we get a good origin story for Captain America. There’s nothing in this film I would particularly classify as bad other than it being a bit rushed.
We also had one of the better final scenes of the MCU…when Cap wakes up in modern day NY, setting up the Avengers. Just a great scene.
Pros:
+Agent Carter is great, and the Red Skull is one of the more memorable MCU villains.
+Zero to Hero story done quite well.
+Establishes the Captain America character well.
+It was cool to see Howard Stark in action.
Cons:
-Some plot points are a bit rushed.
A good film that establishes Captain America for the MCU. There’s not much bad here at all and a whole lot of good.
Big spoilers here…it’s pretty early in the MCU and you probably know what happens anyway.
The Incredible Hulk is an okay film that doesn’t really stand out. It’s just there. Considering the titular character and the lead actor playing him (Edward Norton),the film being nothing special has to be considered as a big disappointment.
The film is made up of three stories. First of which is about Bruce Banner and his search for a cure to the gamma ray radiation that’s plagued his body. If this film does one thing right, it’s the opening sequence which brilliantly kinda-sorta references the previous Hulk film released in 2003. That scene gives us a great visual of just why Banner feels like he has to hide and how much pain he feels in regards to hurting anyone. But after that, his entire story arc is as follows: hide, get found, run, fight, hide, get found, run, fight, suddenly possibly unable to turn into Hulk, suddenly is needed to turn into Hulk, does so and fights. In between we see him working on his breathing exercises and working on his determination to make sure his heart rate doesn’t hit 200. It’s a good story, but not exactly a compelling one and unfortunately Norton isn’t able to shine in this role.
The second story is General Thunderbolt Ross’ goal to recapture Banner. William Hurt’s performance as Ross is my favorite part of the film as he effortlessly can go from a calm, even fatherly figure to someone barking orders and commanding an army to take down the Hulk. Unfortunately, Ross’ story is quite simplistic too, as he tries to capture the Hulk, fails, attacks again, argues with daughter, then eventually is forced to align himself with the Hulk. It’s so systematic that it’s just not that compelling.
Ross plays a big part in the third story which had the highest upside but turns out to be the biggest dud. Ross helps solider Emil Blonsky gain abilities to help him battle the Hulk. While Blonsky’s character starts off strong and has a compelling battle with the Hulk during his super speed and agility phase (where the Hulk shows off perhaps his best moment: kicking Blonsky into a tree, “killing” him), his arc takes a really disappointing turn as he becomes Abomination, a big monster that leads to a monster vs. monster confrontation. Iron Man did it better with a suit vs. suit battle to be fair.
There’s also the love interest for Banner, Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross. While it’s not bad at all, once again she can be described as “just there”. I was honestly more interested in her interactions with her father than Banner overall.
When a film called The Incredible Hulk fails to stand out, that means it’s failed to meet expectations. It’s the Incredible Hulk! It should probably have been the most over the top Marvel film ever. Perhaps the Hulk just isn’t the type of character to have a whole film dedicated to him.
Pros:
+General Ross is a strong character for the most part. At least in the first two acts.
+There’s nothing really bad about the film, but…
Cons:
-Nothing particularly good either.
-Abomination is a disappointing route to go for Emil Blonsky.
A decent film with no real stand out moments. Well, except when Tony Stark shows up at the end.
If I had to pick between Marvel and DC, I’m on the DC side. It’s more about what I grew up with than anything else. I grew up with Batman. The only Marvel properties I enjoyed as a kid were X-Men and Spider-Man, but neither of those were Batman. Iconic villains, a bad ass hero, an awesome animated series (I was never a comic book reader), Batman had everything. It took until the Justice League animated series for me to appreciate any other DC heroes (Flash, Green Lantern etc.), but even then I would avoid episodes that didn’t really feature Batman.
I hated Superman. I found Superman to be perhaps the most boring superhero of them all with just about nothing capturing my interest. When watching The World’s Finest, a three part Batman/Superman Animated Series crossover, I cheered each time Batman (and The Joker) would outsmart the overpowered alien. I was frustrated when Superman easily dispatched a robot Batman struggled with. It’s interesting how looking back on it, Batman is actually more overpowered than Superman considering he’s outsmarted every being in the world, which really doesn’t make any sense. But I don’t care. I just hated Superman. And up until Man of Steel, I hated Superman.
The only way Batman could beat Superman
Man of Steel’s direction was a riskier proposition than perhaps all fans realize, and here’s why. As X-Men and Spider-Man were dominating the big screen with light hearted, yet serious films, Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins rebuilt the Batman franchise from the pit that the awful and nearly genre killing Batman and Robin left it in. Before Batman Begins, the Batman franchise experienced massive success with two exceptionally dark films, the 1989 version of Batman and its sequel Batman Returns. Batman Begins went back to the dark Batman, drawing inspiration from Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One. And it was an incredible film. Suddenly, the talk wasn’t about Spider-Man or X-Men. It was about Batman again. The hype for Begins’ sequel, The Dark Knight was incredible. And then the film itself delivered like nothing else. DC found its stride as the brooding dark world Nolan gave DC a leg-up in the film business.
The Scarecrow was just one example of the darker tone Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy used
But something else happened along the way. Marvel figured out the big screen superhero movie better than DC ever could. The reason? Outside of the hardcores, no one really cares about DC heroes other than Batman or Superman (and maybe Wonder Woman). Sure the Flash and Green Lantern are cool, but they aren’t Batman. It didn’t help that the Green Lantern film bombed in every way as well. Marvel had a roster of heroes that all fans could get into. Suddenly, after a series of successful films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel had the whole Avengers team going up against Nolan’s last Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. Marvel had created 6 or 7 characters the casual fan cares about. DC still had one. And now at least a couple of them could draw on par with Batman at the box office (well, that’s stretching it for Captain America, but certainly Iron Man was at that point). If you were looking at this as a pair of basketball teams, DC were the late 80s Bulls, with Michael Jordan and not much else. Marvel had become the mid 80s Celtics or Lakers, with multiple top guys and real top guys like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
There’s just more big box office money on the Marvel side right now
Marvel had also provided a more kid friendly action packed film experience as well. Surely no one would describe Rises that way. So it seemed the lines were drawn, Marvel had the colorful over the top super hero experience, and DC had the dark, realistic (for a lack of a better term) Batman. And Nolan, Warner Bros. and DC continued that route with Man of Steel. Was Superman that type of hero? Man of Steel’s visuals are excessively dark, and while I enjoyed Superman for the first time, many others didn’t. It turns out the dark thing is a Batman gimmick, and it just didn’t click for Superman. And now for the risk factor: Marvel, which has done pretty much everything right in terms of creating a cinematic universe that is critically acclaimed, has also turned to the dark. Age of Ultron not only looks like the MCU’s darkest film yet, it looks a hell of a lot better than DC’s last film, which was Man of Steel. With other Marvel properties doing the dark thing quite well (X-Men: Days of Future’s Past was great), what DC specialized in is something they are now behind in. (It should be noted DC went a different direction seven years earlier with 2006’s Superman Returns…which didn’t work either and also had a strange, dark tone to it)
Have no fear though, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is probably going to be the darkest installment ever seen for a superhero film (which is saying something…again, just look at DOFP or Nolan’s trilogy). Just look at this trailer.
It’s admittedly pretty awesome. But I’m still worried. I’m worried we’re going to see Age of Ultron…and next year’s Captain America: Civil War and just see BvS playing catch-up. It’s trying to be darker. It’s trying to gain ground on Marvel. Worst part is DC knows that it’s doing this. The other fear I have for BvS, is that they are trying to cram way too much into this universe into one film. The only established characters for this film so far are Superman and Lois Lane. This is a new Batman, and apparently a Batman inspired by Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, which is a problem for me as that storyline should be something that should be at the end of the Justice League, not before it. In the midst of all this, Wonder Woman is in there to be established as well. Marvel smartly had the Black Widow play a supporting character in many different Marvel films to establish her where she actually could have her own film and I could buy it. Here, we have to establish Wonder Woman to the point where she can have her own film. At first glance it seems like a distraction. There’s also the rumor of Carrie Kelley, the female Robin, which would make sense as she was Robin in the Dark Knight Returns. There’s just a lot going on here. Funny enough, this Dorkly Bits video pretty much sums up my feelings.
I didn’t even get into the fact that Civil War has Spider-Man in it. I mean just how can DC regain the advantage? Can DC pull ahead while playing catch-up and without overcompensating? I just don’t see it. I’m worried. But I still stand by Batman. Always have, and hopefully always will.
