Just got the Avengers on Blu-ray and absolutely cannot wait to watch it. My wife picked up a copy at Target (only $19.99!) and it comes with a bonus disc (in a crappy little cardboard case) of 90 minutes of extra footage. Looks like it’s a ton of behind-the-scenes footage from all of the Avengers-tie-in movies.
Captain America: The First Avenger has hit theaters and guess what… it didn’t suck! It may not’ve been as action-packed and exciting as Iron Man, but it most definitely held its own against Thor, to nicely round out Marvel’s core superhero films. Definitely a set-up for next Summer’s fanboy-frothing The Avengers, the Cap film far exceeded my expectations.
But instead of writing a lengthy review of the entire film, I decided to list off some of my favorite parts of the movie. And since the film took place in 1942, I figured I’d share 42 things I loved about the movie! So here goes…
[Oh, and consider this entire post one big fat SPOILER WARNING]
1. Hitler Getting Punched in the Face. Repeatedly. - While I didn’t love the whole song and dance routine in theory, I did like seeing Cap sock Adolph right in the jaw!
2. Ice, Ice Baby - You knew it had to be in the movie but even so, I still got chills (no pun intended) when the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers were walking around the ship at the beginning of the film and stumbled upon a certain Star-Spangled Popsicle.
3. The Little Guy - PhotoShop is pretty damn amazing. Or whatever the hell video technology they used to shrink down Chris Evans’ physique and make pre-Cap Steve Rogers look so incredibly frail. It looked real natural and made the transformation all the more incredible.
4. Run, Steve, Run - Seeing Steve’s eyes light up with fire right after his creator is killed by a HYDRA agent was great. A barefoot Rogers running top speed through the streets of NY to chase down the agent (even diving into the river to drag his bad-guy butt out of the water) definitely showed the hero’s driving factor.
5. The Stark Truth – What Marvel Comics does best is build continuity between characters and books. Their latest series of movies has done a fantastic job of doing just that. Having Howard Stark (Iron Man’s daddy!) play a key role in Captain America’s creation was awesome.
6. The Red Skull - Without even saying a word, he looked friggin’ amazing! I would’ve been happy to shell out $11 just to watch Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull stand and watch paint dry.
7. Gleaming the Cube - So it wasn’t AIM or even HYDRA who created the Cosmic Cube. Turns out it’s a powerful object stolen from Odin. That ties in nicely with the Thor movie and the rest of the Marvel Movie continuity which does a nice job of explaining away any sort of sorcery or mythology by giving it a scientific sort of explanation.
8. BFFs (Bucky Friends Forever) – While the movie Cap and Bucky didn’t have a lengthy tour of duty together in the war, I actually do like how they were friends first, rather than meeting in the war itself.
9. HYDRA- Yes, the green jumpsuits would’ve been cheesy, though I still would’ve liked ‘em. But the movie did a great job of taking your standard army of thugs and turning them into a full-fledged terrorist organization. Especially by explaining them as the scientific research arm of the Nazis.
10. Steve Rogers - Cap has always had a very strong personality. As Frank Miller once said, “With the voice that could command the Gods. And does.” But Steve Rogers? Well, he’s always been pretty blah in the personality department. Nothing there. The movie version did a great job of injecting some life into the man behind the mask.
11. Rubber Masks – The last Captain America movie was a total joke thanks to a rubber mask worn by our hero. This time around, though, we get to see Johann Schmidt don a flesh mask to cover his disfigurement. Seeing him pick at his mask/cheek throughout the film was a great setup to him ultimately peeling his face away.
12. Easy Rider – While it wasn’t the first time we’ve seen Captain America on a motorcycle, it was certainly the coolest.
13. Tommy Lee FTW – No, not Motley Crue. The other one. The actor guy from the Fugitive. He’s old and cranky and 100% perfect as the drill seargent who hates Steve Rogers but loves the hero that Captain America becomes.
14. Costume Numero Uno - When Cap goes AWOL from his song and dance routine to save Bucky, he’s basically wearing a hodge podge costume combined with some military gear. Helmet, goggles, leather jacket. Somehow the man pulls it off and looks great.
15. Captain America Comics #1 – Having Cap basically star in a musical and movies made the perfect launching point for a comic book series based on the character. Using the real cover to Captain America Comics #1 as the movie comic was a nice touch.
16. Stan Is Still the Man – He may be older than Dick Clark, but you gotta love Stan Lee and his movie cameos.
17. Cosmic Cube Guns - Leave it to the Red Skull to have some monstrously, hair-brained scheme to take over the world with funky ray guns powered by Cosmic Cube energy. One blast and you’re erased from existence.
18. Arnim Zola’s In A Movie! - Arnim Zola!!! Sure, the movie version was just a mousy, crazy mad scientist working for the Nazis, er, HYDRA. But if we’re lucky, by the time the next Cap film comes around, Zola will somehow have transplanted himself into a crazy robotic body with his head inside his chest.
19. Flame Off - I always thought Chris Evans was the only good thing to come out of the Fantastic Four movies. He played Johnny Storm perfectly. But he just seemed too much of a “kid,” to play Captain America. Any doubts I had about him were shattered with the very first Captain America trailer, and only solidified more after seeing the film.
20. Garbage Cans – Seeing little kids running around the streets with red, white and blue painted garbage can lids was just great. Like you never did that before…
21. Wahooooooo! - Dum Dum Dugan. Gabe Jones, Jim Morita, Jacques Dernier. Montgomery Falsworth. These Howling Commandoes were a great addition to the storyline. Too bad a young Nick Fury wasn’t with ‘em.
22. Project Rebirth – Crazy dials. Oodles of electricity. Blue liquid stuff. You just gotta give props to… uh… the props department for creating a killer birthing room for Captain America.
23. A Soldier in Winter – Movie Bucky was certainly no dopey pretty boy sidekick. He wore a slick blue overcoat and was apparently an excellent marksman. Nice tribute to the more recent Captain America storylines by Ed Brubaker.
24. Invaders - Too bad Sub-Mariner didn’t make an appearance or besides being the First Avenger, this film would’ve been a tribute to the Invaders! Neat cameo by the Original Human Torch. He was that humanoid in a red costume on display behind glass at the Stark Technology Expo.
25. Monkey Boy – Who knew Steve Rogers was such a good artist? Yeah, that little Captain AmeriMonkey sketch he drew was a a nice peek into his psyche, but also a nice tribute to comic book Steve Rogers, who was indeed an artist.
26. Flying Cars - It may’ve only “flown” for a good 10 seconds or so, but Howard Stark’s flying car certainly used some innovative technology that could easily be put into, oh, say some sort of flying armor…
27. Costume Numero Dos - The wings on his mask are painted on. It doesn’t cover his entire face. There’s pouches across his waist. Yet, this 1940s Cap costume does a great job of imitating the Ultimate Captain America costume and comes across as a very believable and useful costume.
28. Hayley Atwell – As curvy as she is good with a gun, Cap’s 1940s love interest Peggy Carter actually had way more personality than I ever would’ve expected.
29. Blood Brothers – So basically, the movie takes the approach that the Red Skull is the first Super Soldier ever created, but that he was a poor test subject and the program wasn’t complete, hence his disfigurement and extra lunacy. Makes Cap and Skull kinda like brothers.
30. The Cosmic Cube - You can’t have the Red Skull without his patented reality-bending Cube. While it only provided mass amounts of energy in the film, I expect way more insanity from the Cube in the Avengers movie.
31. Good Man Inside - Scrawny Steve’s training montage in the army was pretty pathetic, but while he could barely scale a wall, he did show a determined spirit. And his diving on a grenade without a second thought for his own safety was a true display of Captain America’s core. It’s not the serum that makes Steve Rogers become Captain America; it’s Steve’s heart and spirit. (The serum certainly didn’t hurt, though…)
32. Shield Slingin’ – I’m actually glad they didn’t do a Rocky-type training sequence with Cap practicing his shield toss and having it come back like a boomerang. There were some great scenes, though, where he tossed it, knocked some heads with it, and then caught the shield. But it all came across real natural.
33. The Artist – Proving his ego is as large as his face is red, I just loved how the Red Skull (hidden in shadow) had a terrified artist painting his portrait. I just wish we got to see the final product!
34. Captain America Donuts – Fine, so the donuts weren’t in the film. But if there wasn’t a movie, then Dunkin Donuts never would’ve created the uber-delicious Captain America donut!
35. The Good Doctor – In the comics, Dr. Erksine never had a chance to really show off any personality whatsoever. He showed up, injected Steve, had success and was promptly killed. The end. Was actually nice to see a bit more of the man who created Captain America.
36. The Shields – Nice tribute showing his badge-emblem shield, and his regular vibranium shield looks spot-on perfect!
37. One Man’s Car Door Is Another Man’s Shield – You thought the triangular shield was Cap’s first one? Wrong. Apparently using the door of a crashed car to deflect bullets was how it all began!
38. True Colors - That teenage kid in a full-on Captain America hoodie who sat 3 rows in front of me and refused to take his mask off? Geekness with pride.
39. Man Out of Time - Ending the movie with a pregnant pause of a blackout definitely fooled the bulk of the audience. Then having Cap wake up in familiar surroundings with an all-too-familiar ballgame on the radio brought the Super-Soldier to modern times in a brilliant way. You really feel for the poor guy when he crashes through the dummy walls and runs out into the middle of Times Square.
40. No Assembly Required - The Avengers trailer. Yes, please!
41. Kill One Head, Two More Will Take Its Place – Cyanide capsules are a captured HYDRA agent’s best friend!
42. Punching Bag – You can just feel the intense frustration Cap’s having at the end of the film when he sends a punching bag clear across the gym with one punch. He’s lost, confused and angry, and the only thing that makes sense to him at the moment is to jump on a mission for Nick Fury.
So you think you’re a Captain America fan, huh? The new movie’s out and suddenly everyone and their mother knows all about Super-Soldier serums, Bucky Barnes, the Red Skull and Dr. Erskine. Well, I’m happy to see the Star-Spangled Avenger’s mug (and shield!) plastered all over the place from donuts to gum promotions. But I’ve been a Cap fan since the 3rd Grade. I suffered through the rubber-ears, straight-to-DVD Matt Salinger Captain America movie. I read and collected well over 100 issues of a painful Mark Gruenwald run (yes, there were some great storylines smattered through, but overall definitely not Cap’s finest moments) on Marvel’s Captain America series, Cap-Wolf and all. And I”m here to tell you that I’m not just a Cap fan, but I’m a way bigger Captain America fan than you are. And here’s 10 things to prove it.
Bored Game
Remember board games? I think Toys R Us still sells a few besides the latest crappy-TV-sitcom-version of Monopoly. But the ’70s, hoo boy, was that a decade of board games. Or bored games if you want to be a bit more accurate. There were wayyyy too many comic book-themed games out, most of which consisted of a board, colored playing pieces and, if you’re lucky, a spinner. Last one to the finish line wins! Yeah, the most exciting twist was always a “Sub-Mariner forgot his lunch. Swim back to start” type of space. Well, the Star-Spangled Avenger was no different. And as boring and crappy as the Captain America game is (even though it features the Falcon and the Avengers!), I’m proud to say that I still own a copy. I’m not proud to say that my 6-year-old son easily kicked my ass in it last time we played.
Drink Up, the Lead Paint’s Fine
And speaking of the glorious ’70s… remember when Burger King and McDonald’s were offering all those awesome Star Wars glasses but kept doing recalls because of lead paint? Well, they weren’t the only ones. Plenty of other stores jumped on the collectible glasses bandwagon. Like 7-11 for instance who put out this Captain America glass, recreating the cover to issue #190 of his original series.
Custom Captain America Shield
Working at Wizard magazine certainly had its perks. Free comics being one of the better ones. But an insane network of geek resources was just as good. For one of my birthdays, my good buddy and former Wizard Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum commissioned someone in the midwest to create a custom-built Captain America shield for me out of fiberglass. The thing is a work of art. It’s big. It’s heavy. And it has huge leather straps. Not sure if it can stop bullets or not, but it sits proudly in my office as I type this!
Take a Shot
Shh… nobody tell Marvel, since I’m betting this one’s not so officially licensed. But nothing’s more American than tossing back a swig of Jack Daniels with your very own Captain America shot glass.
My Mona Lisa
Another perk of having worked at Wizard magazine was working with so many talented comic book professionals. I headed up a column called “Basic Training” where every month a different comic artist would do a “How to Draw” column on a specific topic. My Holy Grail was finally landing a “How to Draw Group Shots” column from the insanely talented (and incredibly super awesome nice guy) George Perez. He’s easily one of my favorite comic artists and getting to work with him on a column that included Captain America and the Avengers was just, well, a geek’s dream come true. When the column was done and I had sent the artwork back to George, I called to thank him and actually ask if I could buy the one piece he did of Captain America because I loved it so much. George refused. And instead, signed the artwork and sent it back to me for free.
Burn, Baby, Burn
When your college girlfriend takes a candle-making class and she knows you’re a monstrous comic book geek (and yet, still continues to date you), you find yourself the proud owner of a Captain America Shield candle.
What’s in the Box?
Thanks to that Captain America flick hitting theaters now, there’s a battalion of Cap action figures swarming shelves right now. But no matter how articulated or shiny they are, none, as in none, will be cooler than the Mego Captain America and his super-cool Captain Americar. Sure, Cap fans will still have their Mego Cap, but only true fans will have the Americar AND the box it came in.
There’s a Little Cap in all of Us
Okay, any real Cap fan could buy these. But only a true Super-Soldier would buy these AND wear them in an attempt to make his wife weak in the knees. [NOTE: Results may vary.]
Frosting, Assemble!
If you’re a huge Captain America fan, you will accept nothing short of perfection on your 30th birthday. Such as this amazingly, awesome (and fantabulicious!) Captain America’s shield cake my wife painstakingly made for me a number of years ago. No, I didn’t try throwing it.
Cold, Hard Facts
Did YOU have a Captain America ice sculpture at your wedding? Did you? Yeah, didn’t think so. Game. Set. And match.
I finally caved this week. Sure, I’ve been stopping by my local Dunkin Donuts almost daily to snag a large ice coffee since the chain stared using the super-star-spangled plastic cups! But I never gave in to the donut craze. In general, I’m not a big donut guy. Sure I’ll eat one if at gunpoint but I’d rather save my calories for something better like pizza or beer.
But this week, well, it’s been a bad week. And I was there at Dunkin Donuts. And I was hungry. And I heard rumors about the Captain America donut. And… well… yeah. I tried one. And it was beyond glorious!
First off, merely telling the woman behind the counter that, “I’ll take 4 Captain Americas, please” was worth the trip! But the donut itself? Oh, man. It’s star shaped which is neat. It has white icing on it, which is yummy. Colored sprinkles add another layer of nomness. But bite into it and… [SPOILER ALERT!] you’ll find super, gooey red jelly goodness! It may sound simple in description, but a star-spangled, jelly-filled, glazed donut is the Super-Soldier of pastries.
Tastebuds, Assemble!
I hate hate hate hate how good Marvel is making this new Captain America movie look. Every new picture, trailer or info I hear, makes me believe that this movie won’t just be good but it will be soo good that it’ll make up for that atrocious Matt Salinger Captain America movie from the ’90s. Yes, even the rubber ears.
I’m trying desperately NOT to learn anything new about the film, but it’s nigh impossible. And the latest trailer for First Avenger literally sent chills up my spine since it shows off a frozen Captain America. This trailer alone is so damn cool that I’m satisfied.
I don’t have much to say about this other than the fact that its something Watchmen related. So I’m interested. In short, it’s a Watchmen/My Little Pony Mashup. Yes, you read that correctly.
Brilliant? Insane? Complete waste of time? I’ll let you decide. My only question is… why is Rorschach the pink one?
I’ll start by saying I loved X-Men: First Class. It’s definitely as good (if not better) than the first two X-Men films. It’s certainly a lot more grown up!
I loved the characters, the acting, the storyline, the setting. What Christopher Nolan did with “Batman Begins” (A great movie that happened to include superheroes), is the same feeling I had with the latest X-Men film. Set back in the ’60s, it had a really similar flavor to the old, great James Bond films. Only with mutants. (Although Goldfinger would make a good mutie, wouldn’t he?)
That said, no movie is 100% perfect. And there were a few things about “X-Men: First Class” that annoyed me. [SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't seen the film yet, then stop reading now.] Since everyone loves lists, I came up with the 10 Things That Pissed Me Off About “X-Men: First Class”…
Where the hell was Colossus?
How do you have a film where Russia plays a major role, and NOT include one of the most beloved X-Men of all time: Peter Rasputin, a.k.a. Colossus?!? Granted, if this film fits in perfectly with the other X-Men films, Peter shows up much later as a young kid. So he most likely wasn’t even born yet. Still, why not at least get the Rasputin name in there somehow?
Sebastian Shaw’s not a mutant!
I didn’t run out to the bathroom or grab an extra box of Sno-Caps in the middle of the movie. So how did I miss Nazi scientist Sebastian Shaw suddenly gaining mutant powers? Clearly he was experimenting on young Erik to unlock mutant powers, but that’s a big leap from seeing a mutant in action, to becoming one yourself. Not to mention that giving yourself mutant powers does not make you a mutant. You need to be born with it!
He’s cuttin’ it loose, a Footloose!
And speaking of Shaw… it was really hard to watch Kevin Bacon play a bad guy and NOT have the “Footloose” soundtrack running through my head every time he delivered a new bad guy line.
"I'll be right there, Emma. Just gotta cut loose first..."
Angel’s a chick? With Wasp’s wings?
I wouldn’t mind so much that Angel was a woman. Her Wasp-like wings even looked pretty neat. I just don’t get why instead of a bio-sting, she basically barfed up some exploding venom. WTF was that all about? (After some digging, I just learned that Grant Morrison actually created this exact character in his New X-Men run) Regardless, what bugged me about this Angel is that we were already introduced to the winged Warren Worthington in X-Men 3. So why have another Angel? There’s so many other characters they could’ve chosen, even if they wanted to go with a female character. Polaris. Psylocke. Heck, even Boom Boom or Marrow would’ve been something new.
Why bother with Riptide?
While I never even heard of Azazel (that’s what I get from not reading X-Men comics religiously anymore), he at least looked cool and his obvious similarity to Nightcrawler makes sense. But Riptide? I never liked him in the comics, and in this movie, he looked insanely cheesy. A guy making tiny little tornadoes in his hands that grow and destroy things? I kept picturing the big blue Genie from Disney’s Aladdin every time those tiny twisters showed up in the palm of his hand.
Charles amnesia kiss with Moira Mactaggart
If anyone but Bryan Singer was involved in this movie (he has a story credit) , I probably wouldn’t have had a problem with this. But his obsessive love for the Richard Donner “Superman” films makes it pretty hard to believe that Charles’ amnesia-kiss with Moira wasn’t a complete tribute to the Superman/Lois Lane amnesia kiss from Superman II.
Because Superman clearly isn't powerful enough... let's give him the Super Amnesia kiss!
How can you have only one of the Summers’ brothers?
Trust me, I’m not complaining. I hate Cyclops as much as the next guy. But how can you have Alex Summers (clearly the crappier of the two) and not even mention his brother Scott? This is the one bigger flaw that doesn’t seem to connect with the later X-films. Wouldn’t Cyclops mention he has a brother with mutant powers?
I sat through the whole friggin’ credits for nothing!
I feel hornswaggled. I know it’s a completely different movie studio putting out the X-Men films than the other current Marvel films (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America), but comic fans have gotten spoiled waiting for the awesome teaser clips at the end of each movie. I certainly wasn’t the only one in the packed theater to wait through the entire credits, only to see a blank screen. A few dozen moviegoers joined in a perfect chorus of boos before filing out.
And that’s about it. Nitpicky on most of these? Maybe. But what pisses me off the most about “X-Men: First Class,” is that I couldn’t even come up with a list of 10 things that pissed me off…
I’ve already seen the trailers, read a few early on-set articles about it and know the release date. Even still, it’s tough for a big Captain America fan like myself to believe this film is ever going to really come out. Especially after the last Captain America movie that mercifully went straight to video, rubber ears and all.
But today saw one more major step towards the Star-Spangled Avenger’s film debut: the official movie posters. Just like Thor and X-Men before it, the Captain America: The First Avenger movie posters spotlight one character on each of the three posters released so far. For the most part, yeah, these are pretty straight-forward (read “boring”) posters. The Cap one is okay The Peggy one is kind of completely useless. And the Red Skull one, well, that one just shows how unbelievably awesome and true-to-character he looks! I’m real curious how they handle the Skull in the film. Will his red face be a mask or an actual disfigurement? Will they even mention Hitler or the Nazis or completely ignore it and use HYDRA all the way? (I’m sure some of these questions have been teased or answered already, but I’m trying to avoid as much info about this film as I can until it hits theaters.)
Anyways, enough yapping. Here’s a look at the new posters:
So what do you think of these single character Captain America; The First Avenger movie posters? Good? Bad? Indifferent? It’s a poster, who cares?
(Source: JoBlo)
I still have a hard time remembering that Disney bought Marvel. Then I see some cool Spider-Man T-shirt at the Disney Store and I’m instantly reminded. Comic fans were definitely in a tizzy when the announcemen first came out, but I’ve always been a fan. Disney + Marvel is a surefire win. Now you get stuff like this:
Make your own Hulk mask and smash your kid brother to bits!
Where's the Apple Pie?
Avengers Assemble (out of paper)!
They have a few more Avengers crafts including free coloring pages. And you’ll even find some Star Wars, Tron, Toy Story and other characters on Disney’s printables page.
