Film Debate re: Captain America

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2011)

FILM DEBATE
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THE PROFESSIONAL: So... let's get to it. What are your initial reactions to Captain America, the latest "Marvel Comics" movie?
THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE: There is nothing new or interesting about it. You have your pre-hero weakling, gets powers, post-hero using powers, build up to the fight with the big bad guy, and the end. It covers everything with just a cursory glance. The action sequences are one giant cut scene, and then the final showdown. And wakka, wakka, he's in the future with Samuel L Jackson! COMING SOON, The Avengers. It feels more like homework before the Avengers movie so you know where he came from.
Also, come ON. He crashes in the Arctic and he goes into hibernation? LAME.
THE PROFESSIONAL: I understand the criticism about seeming like homework for the Avengers, but I think it is possible to view and enjoy these Marvel-Interconnected-Universe movies as just that, episodic comic book films, instead of stand alone features.
With comics you have multiple writers and illustrators contributing to characters shared in the same "universe." The benefit of making movie versions of these stories is that they have to be accessible enough to make money from a mainstream audience and they can't have the ridiculous convolution that comic books develop. Obviously all comic book movies look terrible compared to the Dark Knight, but perhaps these Marvel films can be thought of as something else entirely... their own genre, certainly, but almost bordering on their own medium.
And he could survive being frozen because of the Super Soldier Serum!
THE FUGITIVE: The last scene with SLJ was thirty seconds long, compared to a whole movie full of awesome deco-styled mega-planes, trains, and...cars; retro-futurism was hitting on all its diesel powered cylinders. Nazis are the ultimate movie evil, why not make them even more, complete with super flame-throwing and dual evaporator-gun carrying nastiness. And really, you just cannot go wrong with a crazed mutated arch Nazi nemesis.
Note: I watched it in 3D, and I admittedly flinched at one point as Captain American threw his shield and it bounced back towards the screen. Darn, they got me!
THE PROFESSIONAL: Interesting how none of the main German characters were actually played by German actors... nor did they speak German to each other in the privacy of their own company... it made me want to go home and watch Inglourious Basterds.
I tell you, I can imagine being a Marvel comics geek or 10-year-old boy and loving this movie. They had lots of fanboy service with Dr. Zola, Bucky in very pre-Winter Soldier form, Dumb Dumb Dugan (I can't believe I just wrote that...) and so forth. For the kiddos, they had punches, explosions and one-liners. Ultimately, I have never thought highly of Joe Johnston as a director. He is like the (very) poor man's Spielberg. His films are very workmanlike and without any flair.
I can't say I experienced any dramatic tension for the majority of the film, except perhaps the tension of not wanting to be embarrassed by a phony looking visual effects sequence. I did think the War Bonds Propaganda montage was a nice touch, as well as the (SPOILER ALERT!) "death" of Cap's close friend.
Compared to other Marvel Comics movies, I can say that Captain America had big set pieces and a high stakes plot. World domination! Imminent destruction to major cities! Compare this to Iron Man, where the grand finale was a mediocre fight in a... parking lot. Or to The Incredible Hulk where the final battle of two mutated guys punching each other happened on some random rooftop. Or even Thor, where the hero easily bested an oversize toaster-headed robot in some deserted New Mexico shantytown.
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