Having never read the comics or whatever, I wanted to watch this ever since I saw the trailer. Looks like a very silly fun time at the movies... and it's set during WWII, can't think of a superhero movie set in that period. Having Nazis as bad guys is always a plus. That and I like Chris Evans.

Really liking Alan Silvestri's score too. Old fashioned muscular orchestra.



Sounds much better than all the other rubbish action scores being churned out nowadays.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jul 28 2011, 09:54 PM

Watched it. Liked it a lot. Interesting to see a superhero movie set in WWII with a radiating Indiana Jones vibe. Of course it's nothing at the level of the first three Indy movies, but Captain America does look refreshingly old fashioned, from its visuals (aside from the obligatory CGI) to the action setpieces which are mostly fashioned from action/adventure movies from many years ago. Even Silvestri's score, which is really good and thankfully mixed rather loud, harks back to an era where a real, propulsive orchestra was used before Zimmer and co arrived. The cast is a blast- Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell (who can hold her own among a sea of men), Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones. Hugo Weaving is a bit underused though, the script shoehorning him into a stock villain role, although he's still entertaining. And the ending caught me by surprise, I did not expect a stupid summer blockbuster to go down that route. That said, I think Captain America himself is a rather limited superhero. He is interesting his backstory unfolds, but once it's out of the way he can be... bland, both personality and ability-wise. Still, a very silly and fun time to be had for 2 hours. Out of this, Thor and X-Men: First Class, Captain America is the best.

But The Avengers trailer was terrible. Looks like a trainwreck waiting to happen.

He's always like that though.

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Jul 31 2011, 01:59 PM

It's part his charms though. That stone-faced I'm-too-old-for-this-couldn't-care-less-don't-give-a-shit look, he's perfected and patented it.

Yeah... and I'm not sure if I like or dislike it. On the one hand it does provide some kind of depth (or an illusion of it). On the other hand it's really a bit of a downer in a stupid fun blockbuster.

Its the teaser trailer for The Avengers.

Funny, I find that a very apt description of Loki in Thor.

Weaving was underused to be sure, but at least there were little 'moments' for his character- like that time when he handed someone his car keys.

Weird, the first movie was heralded for its old school tendencies, which I very much agree on. It was the most unique was probably the best of the recent Marvel bunch of movies.

I still think the first Captain America is the one that stands out most in the recent flurry of Marvel flicks (since Iron Man). It had a very well worn, old school air to it, with a glorious sheen of retro-futurism. And a satisfying villain from Hugo Weaving. The whole thing was rooted in the old days of telling a story, it was old fashioned, everything was black and white. I liked that. The tone was very noticeably different from all the other Marvel fare.

To its credit, the second movie does try to set it self apart too, at least for half of the movie. The first half is refreshingly free of CGI, and the tone is Bourne-lite, with its political sways and thriller sensibilities, complete with shaky cam (still feel only Greengrass truly knows how to employ shaky cam though). The pace was just right, action scenes had a certain something missing to it (some odd staging and framing for me) but entertaining and different nonetheless. But then the second half happened. Suddenly the thriller tone was gone, replaced by the familiar formulaic approach of the Marvel superhero movies ala Avengers, Thor, and Iron Man with full-on CGI spectacles. The major action setpiece feels like a rehash of one of the action sequences from the Avengers. Surely they could have come up with a different setting to set up the main action sequence? That was a major disappointment. Another disappointment was the winter soldier, easily the worst bit of the movie. For a title nemesis he was woefully written, cringe worthily presented, and just an utter bore to experience. There are good ideas behind the character and how it links to Rogers, but the manner in which it's done here... well they might as well not bothered.

Overall I'll give this a 3.5/5 on the strength of the first half. I'm dumbfounded by the stellar ratings this has at RT, as I usually am with many of other highly rated action flicks (most especially those from Marvel).

This post has been edited by QuickFire: Mar 29 2014, 12:39 AM

That title would be a spoiler given that they wanted the hydra plot to be a surprise. Personally while they're still called hydra, I don't see much continuity from the hydra from the first film. Sure, its got to have a political slant now that's its in the modern world, but they could have called it anything else other than hydra and it would still have the same effect. I miss the old hydra.

Ah ok I assumed so but being someone who's never read the comics this doesn't really make me feel anything. When they mentioned hydra I was wishing red skull would appear.