[Analysis & Review] Captain America: The First Avenger
Hello!!
Logan was great! Going to have to write that one up too lol
This time it’s analysis and review of the first film in the Captain America series!!! A proper classic~~
Right, let’s go!
So it opens in the present day~~
This scene follows the setup from the comics.
Captain America is a character who only exists because World War II (WW2) happened.
The MCU had the problem of how to make Cap fit into the 2010s, and I think they landed it beautifully.
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In the comics there’s a hero who finds Cap.
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That’s the hero above. Namor the Sub-Mariner.
His abilities:
- Swims underwater at 80 km/h
- Strong enough to lift 100 tons on land
- Special lungs that let him breathe both in water and in air
- Flight
- Electric shock (an electric eel-style ability; once he discharges it he needs time to recharge)
- He can communicate to a degree with dolphins, orcas, sharks and the like
That’s him.
One of the real old guard of the Marvel world, and it’s a shame he still hasn’t made it to live action~
Would love to see him show up soon.
The setting is 1942, wartime.
The old man in that run-down building is played by David Bradley, best known as Filch in Harry Potter.
And in walks the leader of HYDRA, Johann Schmidt — the Red Skull.
He’s played by Hugo Weaving.
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Elrond in The Lord of the Rings and Agent Smith in The Matrix lol
And this is the first film to mention the Infinity Stones!!
Quick explanation: they are a reeeeeally important item in the MCU!!
Here it’s the one called the Cosmic Cube!
Meanwhile, in New York.
A young Steve Rogers.
That footage is CG, and the quality is superb lol
America was in the thick of the war, but with a body that frail there’s no medicine to spare on sending you out there, so of course the enlistment gets rejected
Propaganda~~
Huge amounts of it got made back around 1940!!
Even Disney was making propaganda!
And Captain America himself was propaganda. The history runs long — the first comic came out in 1941.
A-amazing lol
Mmm~~
The scene that hints at the shield — the prototype of Cap’s own.
So good…
And Bucky as well I cried
Lovely~
The Expo turned up in Iron Man 2 as well!!
But that was a much more weathered Howard Stark.
This Expo has the far younger Howard Stark.
Blood will tell, apparently — looks like he has the same weakness for women lol
The actress in the middle!!
Her name is Jenna-Louise Coleman, and she was a regular on Doctor Who, a show I love!
Highly recommend that series too!!
These two really are the closest of friends.
And when you think about what comes later…
Textbook stuff around here.
Cap’s “good American” spirit is the American ideal.
Arnim Zola.
Getting the Cosmic Cube this far into practical use is honestly too impressive.
Here’s the comics version.
His face is projected on the big display in his chest.
That’s because his mind was transferred into a machine body.
The machine-body idea gets used in the sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Carter’s first appearance.
The heroine of this film, and Cap’s eternal love…
She goes on to do very well for herself, becoming a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D., the secret organisation that protects America and the Earth.
She got popular too, and happily she earned a spin-off of her own.
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It’s on Hulu and the like, so worth a look if the interest is there lol
Tony’s father.
Howard Stark turns up too!
The dangerous part of a grenade is the flying shrapnel.
So throwing yourself over it like this really does stop the fragments spraying out.
Of course it kills you in the process, so it’s not something many people could do lol
Kingsman had the same thing early on.
The Nazis genuinely did research the occult, so this premise isn’t a stretch at all~
A super-soldier serum that amplifies whatever a person essentially is
Rogers had a genuinely magnificent spirit, so it turned out well.
But…
Rogers did have a habit of telling small lies, like fudging where he was from
It feels like that gets paid off near the end of Captain America: Civil War, which makes this one of my favourite scenes
Really like this cut too.
So the serum is blue.
Just like the old spy films — a spy always finishes himself off with the poison hidden in a tooth lol
That face Zola pulls lol
Captures the “oh no, what have I walked into” feeling perfectly lol
“Heil Hydra!!!”
German to the core, I suppose lol
Now, the secret society HYDRA — season 3 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reveals that it didn’t actually come out of the Nazis at all!
There was another, far bigger purpose behind it…
Used absolutely full-on as war propaganda.
Love this dated old musical number~
Back in America at the time, Captain America really was a comic like the one below lol
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Doing propaganda in an actual war zone though — not sure I follow that one lol
This is the scene where he talks about his dream and his choices.
It connects straight to the ending of the film, which makes it an extremely important moment.
The group heading in unseen to rescue Bucky.
Jumping out of the plane into enemy territory happens in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as well.
And Howard Stark…
They look like proper friends and it’s lovely~
Would love to show this to his son Tony lol
Whether something had been done to this Bucky is answered in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The Red Skull finally takes the mask off!!!
The comics accuracy is off the charts lol
In the comics he pulls the outrageous move of implanting his own consciousness into a clone of Cap to make himself young again.
Stark Industries was already in the arms business back then.
In Iron Man 2 it’s Tony being handed an award. Fun to see the two set against each other.
The only man I’m following
is the one who’s weak and still won’t run
that “scrawny punk”
That moment of resolve, knowing they probably aren’t coming back alive, is great!
An aside: one of the actors in this group plays the main villain of season 4 of Arrow.
It’s DC rather than Marvel, but it’s a hugely enjoyable comic-book show and well worth recommending.
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Is this the point where it starts?
The scene where Howard takes an interest in the Cube.
From Iron Man 2
Howard kept researching the Tesseract after this, as Iron Man 2 makes clear.
First appearance of Cap’s shield.
They call the material vibranium, but strictly it’s an alloy of vibranium plus other metals, and Howard produced it by accident.
Still the strongest metal in the MCU so far.
Incidentally, vibranium is mined in Wakanda, the fictional country where the film Black Panther is set
This might be the only scene where Cap uses a gun.
Bucky…
He comes back into it in Captain America: The Winter Soldier…
In the end Zola turns and hands his information over to America.
But Captain America: The Winter Soldier reveals something astonishing about Zola…
The enemy was… yeah… weaker than expected lol
Cap plus a motorbike plus the shield — feels like that combination shows up a lot lol
Captain America, fighting on for “justice” no matter what.
Watching him question the meaning of that for himself, film after film, is genuinely moving.
Probably the second kiss of his life.
The moment he and Carter admit the feeling is mutual.
With death right in front of them, was that when they both saw clearly how they felt?
And knowing that in this film they never get to meet again makes the scene hit hard.
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Is that the Giganto from the anime Future Boy Conan? lol
This is where he lays out his dream.
Conquering and ruling the world sounds like an enormous hassle though… lol
The Red Skull grabs the Tesseract, an Infinity Stone, with his bare hands and is wiped out of existence.
Guardians of the Galaxy had a similar scene.
Was it this something spreading out across the universe that let Thanos locate the Infinity Stones?
If so, calling the Red Skull the root cause of the entire MCU would hardly be an exaggeration lol
And then Infinity War drops a shocking fact….
[Analysis & Review] Avengers: Infinity War [Impressions & Trivia]
This scene really does get to me.
The two of them make a promise to dance that can never be kept…
And Cap saying that this was his own choice — that part is perfect too.
So sad…
Howard really does look after his friends.
That lands pretty hard in Captain America: Civil War.
Never imagined the Tesseract would become such a huge presence in The Avengers.
Captain America — or rather Steve Rogers — is dead.
He started out as this frail young man.
But that heart for justice saved the world.
What a strange fate he ended up walking.
So sad…
Or so you’d think…
Where is this?…
That’s right!!!
He was alive!!!
Good, good!!!
But this is the present day.
The friends he had 70 years ago…
Almost certainly none of them are still alive…
Maybe that’s what crosses his mind when he says “I had a date…”
A great scene.
His time stopped at that promise of a date.
Continued in The Avengers…
Overall
Being the first film, the characters aren’t fully grown into themselves yet, so anyone who came to Captain America through The Avengers and then watched this one might not find it all that interesting.
But watch it after the second and third Captain America films and it changes. Howard and Cap’s relationship. Cap’s roots. The fact that Code 13 at the end is a nod to Agent 13, the heroine of the second film. And everything he feels for Carter. It all soaks in gradually. Oh, how sad. Has WW2 really not ended inside Cap yet? His friends are all gone and he must feel so utterly alone. This is the film that sets those thoughts off.
In that sense I really do love this one.
