basics...
The final Marvel movie before next years super-hero team up, The Avengers, Captain America stands out through being set in World War II, with Nazi bad guys, and a super patriotic hero in the form of... weedy Steve Rogers. Transformed into a buff (hello Chris Evans' pecs), fast healing 'super-soldier', he must defeat the dasterdly Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) before he takes over the world.
brilliant...
Captain America's biggest asset is its cast, which includes the charmingly hunky Chris Evans, gruff and funny Tommy Lee Jones, villainous Hugo Weaving, slimy Toby Jones, winsome Hayley Atwell, cute young Dominic Cooper, and best of all, Stanley Tucci with a German accent! What's not to love? It also helps that the characters exist in a different era as well as a different place, and there are other variations on the superhero theme that contribute to an enjoyable movie, aside from the action setpieces. For a start, Steve Rogers is well known to the world as Captain America, there's no secret identity here, although in a hilarious and knowing sequence, the Captain is initially just a propaganda tool, someone used alongside scantily glad chorus girls touring the country to sell War Bonds. In a neat touch, he also has his own comic book! There's enough originality and window-dressing to make this standard hero origin tale an enjoyable addition to the genre.
but...
In a year that's already seen Thor, X-Men: First Class, the Green Lantern and probably a couple others I can't remember in cinemas, Captain America's story suffers a little from 'been there, seen that' syndrome. We all know the basic super-hero origin story tropes, and here the Captain sometimes feels like he's going through the motions. And on top of that, I never once thought that our hero was in any way threatened by Red Skull and his Nazi henchmen, defeating him was all a little too easy. Steve Rogers is a bit too perfect too, where are his flaws? Thor has anger issues, Tony Stark is a hedonistic mess... maybe Rogers' issues will come to the surface now that he's thawed out in the present day, and all those he saved back in the 1940s are long gone.
briefly...
In spite of the feeling of superhero deja vu, Captain America's cast and enthusiasm, along with some genre twists, make it one of the better comic book movies. Although, not as good as Thor.
I love an X-Men movie so there's no surprise that I enjoyed the latest in the series, First Class, just as much as the others. While it doesn't beat X-Men 2 as the best of the bunch, it's certainly a credit to the X-Men name, full of spectacular effects and action, with a massive cast of mutants. I especially like the gay/mutant allegory, which is occasionally made explicit such as when 'don't ask don't tell' is uttered by Hank (The Beast) here in reference to the fact that his mutation cannot be seen, so he keeps quiet about it. Don't ask don't tell being the US Army's old method of dealing with gay soldiers.
First Class is a prequel to the rest of the series, featuring a young Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik (Michael Fassbender), plus Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) and a hilarious cameo from Wolverine himself (not to mention 'older' Mystique, Rebecca Romijn), along with a whole host of previously unseen mutants both young and old. It's a shame that there's almost too much plot going on for a few more meaty character scenes would have added to the whole, but everything breezes along with laughs, thrills and spills.
Kevin Bacon is a fun bad guy, and he really seems to enjoy the role, while Fassbender is tremendous as pre-Magneto, his trek around the world to find the man who murdered his mother giving a Bond-like air to proceedings that is not dispelled by the 1960's stylings. First Class is not a perfect movie, but it's a thoroughly enjoyable one, faults and all.
Interestingly, First Class shares an actress, Rose Byrne, with Bridesmaids, which we saw a couple of days previously. Plus, here's Mad Men's Betty Draper (January Jones), and who was that bedding the lead in Bridesmaids? Oh yes, Don Draper (Jon Hamm)!
It felt so much different than other Marvel or even DC movies, pitched at just the right level between funny and dramatic, Kenneth Branagh's steady hand kept things from getting ridiculous - and with the subject matter, costumes and themes it was an ever-present danger that it could have all gone a bit Flash Gordon. Instead I was rivetted to the Shakespearean themes, of Thor (a buff and surprisingly funny Chris Hemsworth) and his rivallry with brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who had more layers than I expected, and both have complex relationships with dad Odin, a marvel-lous Anthony Hopkins.
I thought that the movie would start in Thor's far off home-land of Asgard and then transfer to present day USA for the rest of the running time, but both locations co-existed throughout, and the drama in Asgard was countered with a lighter touch in smalltown USA, where Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård and Kat Dennings played the scientists who find Thor in the middle of the desert, after Odin has banished him from Asgard. There are some hilarious fish-out-of-water-moments, especially when Thor's friends turn up to find him. A few knowing references to other Marvel heroes and another cracking Stan Lee cameo, plus a post-credits Samuel L. Jackson headfuck were the cherries on top of a refreshing, dramatic and joyful addition to the comic book hero canon.
Before we made a trip to the cinema to see Iron Man 2 last weekend we revisited the original on DVD, the first time I'd rewatched it since my birthday in 2008, and it's just as good as I remember. And then the sequel turned out to be as good if not better than the first, so I was very pleased.
I'm a big fan of Robert Downey Jr and his unique style, and I think he works really well as Tony Stark/Iron Man, bringing to the movies a sense of humour and lightness that is lacking from comic book tales like the new Batmans. I don't mind 'dark' in my superhero movies, but it's nice to have a bit of variety. I'm surprised to find that my favourite non-Iron Man character in the two movies is played by Gwyneth Paltrow, namely Stark's assistant and then CEO of his company, Pepper Potts. Paltrow doesn't normally do much for me (probably since I saw her in Shakespeare in Love, which I found completely awful) but here she's a revelation in what could easily have been a role for a D-lister, not a Hollywood A-lister with an Oscar.
Perhaps it's the playing against type that helps Paltrow excel as Pepper, mostly I think it's the terrific banter and chemistry she has with Downey Jr that makes her stand out. In Iron Man 2 I also found myself liking Scarlett Johansson too, another actress who if I know she's in something usually means I'll give it a wide berth (I've been stung by the pretentious Lost in Translation and the boring Ghost World). Here, in a relatively minor role, Johansson is by turns sexy, mysterious, and eventually, completely kick-ass awesome!
There were some excellent fight scenes in both movies, particularly the end battle at the Stark Expo (wonderfully parodying Walt Disney's Epcot, especially in the footage of Stark's father - Cooper from Mad Men! - that directly reference's Disney's presentational style on his TV shows) when the metal-on-metal action is kinetic and you feel every jolt and collision. When Stark's friend, Lt Col James Rhodes, suits up in an old Iron Man erm, suit, in the sequel it improves the character, as does the fact that he's now portrayed by Don Cheadle. In the first movie Rhodes didn't really make much of an impression.
Going back to the beginning of the first movie, it was an interesting move to begin with an extended piece set in Afghanistan, and echoes the beginning of X-Men when Magneto's youth during Nazi Germany sketches a harrowing background for the character. These meetings of real life and comic book worlds could be awful, but they really help ground the more fantastical elements of the stories. Thankfully there are also laugh out loud moments as well though, so it's not all unremittingly grim.
With Samuel L. Jackson's extended cameo in Iron Man 2, I'm looking forward to both the next Iron Man movie, and the Avengers movie that will unite Tony Stark, Black Widow (Johansson), Hulk, Thor and others. I do love comic book movies.
