Captin America, Is it really that good?

[Quellist]

I say this as a Brit who doesn't really like the Jingoism and propaganda that a lot of American movies dealing with wars/politics/terrorist are often full of...

Yes, it is That good! its a great rip-roaring action adventure from beginning to end and I loved every minute of it!

 

[Mr.Petey]

I'm British and I like the film although I did know him from the comic more. I like Steve Rogers since his portrayer is that he was genuie a selfless and a courageous man (he didn't sign up to kill some Nazi, he just hated bullies). In another word, he is envision of what a superhero should be (heroic and stand for truth and justice).

Essentially this. When he says that line that simply states why he's in to fight old Jerry, it almost made me tear up because he is that honest, genuine and he says what a lot of people feel when they sign up to defend the innocent during wartime.

I liked the film too because it gave the Marvel series time to shy away from all the big powered-up fantasy superheroes and concentrate more on the man himself and how he comes to understand his newfound abilities from the ground up

 

[viranimus]

It was simply put the most boring large budget film I have seen this year and I watched the Green Lantern film as well

It literally took 4 sittings for me to watch the entire thing because every single time I turned it on to watch it, I was bored into sleep with the unrealistic and unrelatable protagonist.

Generally I do not watch Marvel films any more (cause I do NOT give my money directly or indirectly to Disney) But after hearing the film being highly praised as being not a good super hero film, but simply a good film, I decided to give it a shot. Sincerely I regret it because I can never get back those 90+ minutes of my life.

My biggest problem is it crafts this delusional and counter immersive idea of a protagonist with no sort of inner conflict. It tries to push this cornball notion of "in this jaded day and age of cynicism... someone can be an honest and true person who makes their decisions out of a pure heart and what is in the best interest of everyone." It is in essence like watching a film where the protagonist is Michaelangeos statue of David. It is a perfected idea without flaws, but it is devoid of emotion or depth and is lifeless as cold stone.

But... on the up side... Visually, its pretty.

 

[Monsterfurby]

It's an entertaining movie, but I wouldn't put it anywhere near my top 10, 20, or even 100 movies of all time.
There are probably two reasons for that:
1. I am not American
2. I am not into comic books/graphic novels/whatever these are called these days. The only ones I followed in my youth were Astérix and the likes, and that's a bit of a different genre altogether.

Also, as viranimus pointed out, "perfect" protagonists are simply boring to the point where it would not be too far-fetched to call Captain America "the Gary Stu of a Nation".

 

[irani_che]

I see Captain America's strength in that he doesn't get caught up in the "glory" of battle, he just sees fighting as the means to an end. You'll notice when he's fighting he rarely kills people, he just puts them out for a while with his shield. He said it himself: he doesn't like bullies. He'll do what he has to if he must, but he's not going to revel in it or cause unnecessary trouble along the way.

Because of that, your whole "didn't beat the Red Skull" thing doesn't make much sense. Just look at his character--his goal wasn't to "beat" the Red Skull. He didn't want revenge, or the glory of taking him out himself. His goal was to stop him. If killing him is what it took I'm sure he would have made that decision if it came down to that, but at that point he still saw other options. Then the Red Skull took it too far with the cube, and burnt himself up.

I just don't get how you can call him a "namby pamby" if he can march right into one of Red Skull's bases on his own, release all the prisoners, take down the base, and get them all back to their camp safely. The kid's got balls of steel, he just doesn't wave them around as much as the other Avengers.

What bores me about the capt is that he is too perfect. He chases a Hydra spy pausing only save a boy thrown into save a boy thrown into the river.
He becomes roughly a space marine and he is still the shy reserved guy he was at the beginning, does he revel in his newfound height or strength? does he go meet that guy who beat him up earlier? no, he can barely flirt wth the girl.
Why because he is a a man of perfect soul.
He breaks into a hydra base with nothing but an adamantium pizza on his arm and uses it to knock out a load of nazis and turn a group of prisoners into a fighting force
how? he is just perfect like that.

A character needs his flaws to make him real. His own demons or feelings of pathos or at least a reason why even though he is so powerful but still so subservient. There is nothing interesting about the character and compared to the other movies, the action was quite lacklustre


Maybe I am cynical, that I find a space Viking more believable than a guy whose jingoistic dedication to the military is wrapped in a warm coat of benevolence and beta-complex

and a boozed up womaniser who builds a super-weapon to make up for his past more relatable

As for the Shield? He's just that good. Years and years of practice will do that, and it helps the shield is made of a special alloy that is not only indistructible, but also aborbs energy. Nothing gets through to hurt Cap, and when you know how to block that makes a big difference.

He's just that good.

This line is used to expalain everything about him and it is the laziest thing you can ever do in a superhero movie

Its why Superman has not made a good movie in decades and it should not work on him

 

[JesterRaiin]

My wife liked it quite much, but not as much as "Thor".

Thor, or Thor's pectorals?

As long as it is i whom she falls asleep next to, she may as well be interested with Thor's other Mjölnir. I'm not jealous.

 

[SilentCom]

I thought Captain America was ok. Maybe it's because Nazis are a big turn off to me seeing that they are over-used. I liked Thor better anyways.

 

[Chainsaws_of_War_2]

I think it was decent movie, a good watch.

But certainly not something I'll ever probably want to see again.

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

I think he is flawed, but the reason it's not obvious is because he realizes and accepts his flaws. He's come to terms with them, and because of that he didn't need his story to be some self-discovery, coming-of-age, kick in the pants to get moving thing. Before he's changed, he knows he's a wimp. He knows there's little he can do, but he wants to try anyway. And he fails miserably, ends up getting rejected by the military multiple times and gets beaten up behind the theater. He knows he's horrible talking to women, but he tries anyway. And he fails miserably, especially first time he's talking to that British lady alone in the car.

He is a bit sickly sweet as a character, but I think of that as his superpower. He's stable, consistent, and honest. If he hadn't had that extreme level of empathy and sense of justice, that professor wouldn't have chosen him for the experiment. He's got the moral compass to tell him what's right no matter the circumstances, but he's got also the balls to say something about it, and after the change he's got the fists to DO something about it. And who's to say that empathy and that refusal to not act couldn't be a weakness as well? He hasn't had his character tested to that limit, yet. What would he do if he had to choose between someone he loves and a city full of strangers? We don't know, and I feel like that's something that will be brought up in the Avengers.

And I think it was a brave character type to do, as well. We see the "scarred outcast becomes a hero to prove his worth/get revenge/get back something taken/honor somebody lost" archetype so much that it's begun to bother me. Not everybody has had some horrific thing that's happened to them that's changed something about their character. Not everybody has scars they haven't come to terms with. Not every story needs to start in that stage of coping or transition. So why should we restrict our heroes to the scarred antihero archetype? That in itself is unrealistic. Just because someone's earth hasn't been shattered doesn't mean they don't have a reason to fight.

 

[WolfThomas]

Loved it. Best possible adaption of Captain America possible.

 

[Bobic]

I thought it was a completely typical, generic and forgettable affair. The only thing that stood out, and put it slightly above the green lantern movie, was Tommy Lee Jones being awesome.

Then again, There's been an awful lot of these superhero films, and most of them go for the same sort of feel, so I'm probably just getting cheesy superhero fatigue. At least I can still look forward to the Dark Knight Rises.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

I thought it was pretty good.

Admittidly i did have low expectations because i thought it was going to be Team America but with just the Captain and without the satire.... but Moviebob talked me into it and im glad i went to see it.

No i dont think its the best thing ever like Moviebob thinks but its not really our problem if he really likes it.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

What bores me about the capt is that he is too perfect. He chases a Hydra spy pausing only save a boy thrown into save a boy thrown into the river.
He becomes roughly a space marine and he is still the shy reserved guy he was at the beginning, does he revel in his newfound height or strength? does he go meet that guy who beat him up earlier? no, he can barely flirt wth the girl.
Why because he is a a man of perfect soul.
He breaks into a hydra base with nothing but an adamantium pizza on his arm and uses it to knock out a load of nazis and turn a group of prisoners into a fighting force
how? he is just perfect like that.

A character needs his flaws to make him real. His own demons or feelings of pathos or at least a reason why even though he is so powerful but still so subservient. There is nothing interesting about the character and compared to the other movies, the action was quite lacklustre


Maybe I am cynical, that I find a space Viking more believable than a guy whose jingoistic dedication to the military is wrapped in a warm coat of benevolence and beta-complex

and a boozed up womaniser who builds a super-weapon to make up for his past more relatable

As for the Shield? He's just that good. Years and years of practice will do that, and it helps the shield is made of a special alloy that is not only indistructible, but also aborbs energy. Nothing gets through to hurt Cap, and when you know how to block that makes a big difference.

He's just that good.

This line is used to expalain everything about him and it is the laziest thing you can ever do in a superhero movie

Its why Superman has not made a good movie in decades and it should not work on him

Not every hero has to have some crippling social or mental problem. Cap is just a good guy. He's naturally heroic. Why is this a bad thing? Must every hero have to "learn a lesson"? Cap put his life on the line for no better reason than wanting to help people. There is no jingoism; Cap is visibly upset and disgusted with all the promotion they have him do. And he openly defies orders from superiors in order to do what he thinks is right.

Why can Tony build a machine that is decades ahead of its time, in a cave, with a box of scraps? He's just perfect like that. Why can Thor shoot lightning out of his ass and weild a weapon "only the pure of heart and deed" can even lift? He's just perfect like that. All heroes have an element of "better than thou". Thats what makes them heroes.

 

[Nightmonger]

I see the argument for the " overused " world war two setting argument cropping up here a bit and quite honestly shooting some nazi's would be a nice bit of fresh air from the " underused"(sarcasm) modern warfare setting which dosent crop up anywhere at all I mean at least all countries in the world agree Nazi's were the bad guys rather than risk offending a country by depicting them as such e.g Russians or people from the middle east

Bring back the WW2 shooter I say as long as it's done well and not COD

On topic : I loved the captain America film!! Though probably because I'm a big fan of the marvel universe and comics in general. I thought it was a solid action romp with some really really good aesthetics to go sling with that .

 

[CODE-D]

I didnt like the manufacture of magic guns(except when red skull used them)but I liked it
I also liked thor more than i thought

this is surprising as I dont really like marvel.

but theyre better than the green lantern/xmen movies Ive recently watched but out of all of marvel I hate the xmen the most. And they werent cheesy like green lantern.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I actually like the fact that they inverted the usual hero formula:

Usually you have some kinda powerful dude, who then learns responsibility and humility and control and the rest of it through experience.

In cap, the hero already had the experience, he already had the strong sense of right and wrong and responsibility and shiz. It was only afterwards that he got the superficial 'upgrades' to match those qualities.

I liked it best out of the Marvel films so far anyways. Might just be because it's freshest in my memory.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I thought the movie was good because it's a character who represents america without looking like a over patriotic douche bag. Captain America is more concerned with protecting people and their rights rather than looking for a fight with people who are "against" him.

 

[Sovvolf]

Thought it was pretty good and definitely worth a watch. The film came off surprisingly more like a Bond movie than I thought it would. Though the film actually avoids being obnoxiously jingoistic which is what I kind of expected from it while also smiling and winking at some of the campier parts of the comic books.

I also like the reason they give for the suit, it makes a little more sense and stops it from being as stupid as you'd expect. After that the action scenes are pretty good, its got a surprisingly high kill count (though to be expected given the time its set) and a overall good message.

Though the character is rather inconsistent with his own message at times which did bug me a little though I'll avoid mentioning to not give away spoilers.

The film did have a romantic sub-plot which I thought would have been extremely annoying when watching the trailers however it wasn't too bad, it didn't get too much in the way and it helped move the plot along a little rather than slow it down.

The negatives I will give it is that, the skinny version of Rogers just doesn't sound right with the (relatively) deep voice of Chris Evans and also, I found the Red Skull to be scarier with the mask on.

 

[5ilver]

I found most of it funny (yes, I actually laughed out loud at the scenes of prisoners fighting their wardens and the suicidal maniac jumping on a grenade and getting *rewarded* for it), which I can sort of forgive. What I can't forgive are the boring parts- the other 40% of the movie. A bad movie is fine as long as it's entertaining.


PS: Another thing I didn't like is the Cap America himself. The whole character arc of "naive arrogant wimp who doesn't know his place" into "naive arrogant demigod who still doesn't know his place" did not seem compelling in any way to me.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"hell at one point they go inglorious basterds and blow up factories all over europe, and how do they show this? a 30 second scene of them driving with various fireballs, like it wasnt interested"

They really DO have to flesh that out way more in some kind of Director's cut edition.
Overall I agree with you, but somehow I do find myself agreeing with Bob that CA was better than Thor. Can't really put my finger on why. Perhaps it's the underdog thing, which makes you feel attracted to the Cap, plus that *is* a developmental arch right there!