42 Things I Loved about the Captain America Movie

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.