Escape to the Movies: Captain America

[Cowabungaa]

Hm, this review seems to be a bit too fan-biased.

Not to mention that he's American, and at least I am not. Not sure how the patriotism will rub off on me. Still, I'm going to see it (if it plays in the theatres nearby) mainly for the action and Red Skull. I hope the patriotism won't be too much.

 

[TwikTwok]

I have to ask why some are concerned about you being expected to have seen a previous movie.

They are effectively a series. We've know this since Iron Man 1, we've known this with the stinger of each film and the carry over characters. We've know this if we've read any news on the movies at all.

This isn't a case of reading a comic and having a tie-in story in another comic you weren't told about.

This is akin to going to see Deathly Hallows 2 and being confused that you needed to see Half Blood Prince or any of the other films to make full sense of it.

Wanted to post to say basically what you just did.

And to the posters who are vehemently against this idea and feel the need to gripe about it, do you simply hate all series of films? is Return of the Jedi a terrible movie because you need to see Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back to fully understand it? It feels like some people just don't like the direction marvel is taking with their films and feel the need to try and find flaws, however minute.

Honestly people if that's how you feel just don't go see the movies, the strongest message you can send would be your money not reaching their pockets. Oh and stop griping about it, you don't like series of films being made, amazing, some of us do and its quite unlikely you will change anyone's opinions.

 

[Wiiiiiiilliam]

He never really addressed this in the review but I'm hoping someone else can anwser me.

Since I am not american and I don't really know the character of captain america will that hurt my experiance watching this movie?

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I'm gonna go ahead and presume that all that praise for "portraying Captain america as a no-irony, perfect, american good guy"....is a very distinctly American viewpoint. I just wanna know if Non-americans will hate it (or at-least find it overratedly cheesy/ corny/ cliched/ dumb) as much as I think they will.....

But atleast it's a good film so I'll have fun whilst finding out.

 

[Littaly]

Comes out the 12th of August over here, I'm actually kind of excited for it. Maybe I should wait to see it until Thor comes out on DVD, since I missed it while it was in the theaters.

Also, Chris Evans? Is he really that good?

 

[1337mokro]

I'm gonna go ahead and presume that all that praise for "portraying Captain america as a no-irony, perfect, american good guy"....is a very distinctly American viewpoint. I just wanna know if Non-americans will hate it (or at-least find it overratedly cheesy/ corny/ cliched/ dumb) as much as I think they will.....

But atleast it's a good film so I'll have fun whilst finding out.

Same here man.

The fact that the movie will at least entertain you judging by the amount of action means I will probably go see it when it hits theatres. If nothing else I will walk out of the theatre having watched a good superhero action movie.

Though I am holding my praise in check until I actually see it. Just being a good action movie does not earn you praise from me. I paid for a ticket to be entertained. So succeeding to do so is not something to pat yourself on the shoulder over.

My main concern is that being non-American, I just won't get the same connection seeing as I never read a single comic book or seen a single cartoon with Captain America in it. At most I have watched some reviews about bad Captain America movies. This will be pretty much the first form of media I see Captain America in where he is not being ridiculed by a guy sitting in a chair in front of a camera.

Plus, American patriotism might not seem douche baggy from an American point of view, but that doesn't mean it will sit well foreign audiences.

I mean come on America is the only country on earth having made songs about how they will save everyone and everything. You never see Belgium or Norway strum the guitar singing about how great they are compared to the rest of the world.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

So basically what you're telling me is...

the movie sucked?

No, seriously, glad to here it came out well. I'm looking forward to seeing this movie sometime.

 

[The Great JT]

Pretty much everything I thought while watching this, Bob has stated outright. In otherwords...

GO WATCH THIS MOVIE

 

[r_Chance]

Sounds interesting... But will anyone care outside America?

Since about 1/4 of the posts before yours were complaining that it wasn't out yet (they aren't in the US) I'd say it has caught the interest of people outside the US. Comic nerdom is an international thing

 

[TWEWER]

Great super hero movie, pretty bad Captain America movie. It wasn't nearly douchebag-y enough. In a movie called Captain America, I kind of want to see some "gar I love America" antics. I mean, they couldn't even have the Cap fight nazis because nazis might offend somebody. By the time the crazy action scenes picked up, I was already lost.

I am surprised that Bob didn't mention some of the choppy directing towards the end, like when that montage of Captain America and his friends beating up Hydra came out of nowhere.

 

[tomtom94]

I guess there are only two concerns in my mind.
1) Will I, a European, "get" the patriotism of this movie?
2) Will Harry Potter and Cars 2 destroy it at the box office?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

meh, still not interested. Marvel's films have been painfully lackluster ever since Iron Man 2 was revealed to be a directionless bore due to Marvel being far too much in love with the Avengers.

And no Bob, the Avengers is not working. Hate to break it to ya, but not explaining something in a movie with the hand-waving of "oh, it was explained in ANOTHER movie!" is unacceptable. Films will never be comics and your love of comics refuses to admit that. Here's an analogy: this is like if they had a vitally important scene for a comic mini-series explained in a tie-in issue without TELLING YOU.

They do that a lot.

Which is exactly why I brought it up

 

[paladork]

To all the people worried about over the top patriotism and tie in movie goodness, fear not.

The thing I've loved about Captain America as far back as I can remember is he stands for more than being an American and a patriot, not to say that he isn't and that isn't one of his founding principals, he was a propaganda tool after all, but he stands for something more.

Chris Evans portrayal of Steve Rogers really brings this across, he's is what we should aspire to be, something more than the average citizen and I think people of all nations can relate to this ideal.

There is some good ol' American yahooing and some points, but by and by its a comic book movie that I think everyone can enjoy equally.

Now to address the whole other movie tie ins, yeah it helps to have seen some of the other movies to get the bigger picture and the grand scheme thats at play in the background, but as a stand alone film it works superbly, and its not like the tie in bits are that hard to understand in the first place. You can walk into the movie having never seen any of the other Avengers movies and still be completely in the loop and feel like you know whats going on throughout.

tl;dr Captain America is great fun to watch no matter who you are or what other movies you've seen

 

[Luke Cartner]

What I want to know is it patriotic to the point of alienating non Americans?

 

[KillerMort]

I guess there are only two concerns in my mind.
1) Will I, a European, "get" the patriotism of this movie?
2) Will Harry Potter and Cars 2 destroy it at the box office?

well there's only one area that actually involves American patriotism and it's about bonds everything else that depicts cap is his perfect-soldier attitude not the patriotic.
B) probably

 

[Technicolor]

What I want to know is it patriotic to the point of alienating non Americans?

I guess that is a somewhat subjective question, but I wouldn't think this movie is patroitic to the point of alienation.

There is little to no discussion of politics at all, and the movie does not focus on the progress of America in the war.

That is because this movie is about the little guy, and how the value of heart & true courage surpasses that of sheer brute force.

I think anybody from any nation can relate. Just understand that this is an alternate reality WWII, kind of like Inglorious Basterds but with Jetpack Nazis.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Not gonna lie, I was hoping this would suck, just cause Bob wanted to give the green lantern such an undressing (not that it was a great movie, but still, for kharma).

well, first I have to go see Winnie the Pooh.

Then I may see this.

 

[Technicolor]

meh, still not interested. Marvel's films have been painfully lackluster ever since Iron Man 2 was revealed to be a directionless bore due to Marvel being far too much in love with the Avengers.

And no Bob, the Avengers is not working. Hate to break it to ya, but not explaining something in a movie with the hand-waving of "oh, it was explained in ANOTHER movie!" is unacceptable. Films will never be comics and your love of comics refuses to admit that. Here's an analogy: this is like if they had a vitally important scene for a comic mini-series explained in a tie-in issue without TELLING YOU.

They do that a lot.

Which is exactly why I brought it up

To be honest, I've seen this film alongside the other 4 Marvel films and there is absolutely nothing in Captain America that requires viewing of the previous four.

What MovieBob is referring to is a magic macguffin, that just so happens to be a reference to the Thor movie (Infact its such an obscure reference only the comic book fans would pick it up). That being said, the magic macguffin could have been the Ark of the Covenant from Indiana Jones and the plot would've not changed in the slightest.

It was just thrown in there to make comic fans (I.E, Moviebob), go "I see what you did there Marvel", it in no way adds, nor detracts from the film

 

[PrinceofPersia]

Anyone else hearing The Avengers theme "Fight as One" in their heads? Cause I am and it IS AWESOME!