the star-spangled man with a plan

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From a pure filmography perspective, Captain America is a beautiful movie. It’s not quite so shiny as Thor, but Joe Johston – who also directed The Rocketeer – has made a film that glows when it should glow, is gritty where it should be gritty, and combines romance and swashbuckling action into a piece that is not unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark (and that’s a compliment). If there is any justice in the world of film awards both Thor and Captain America deserve, at the very least, nods for costume and set designs, not to mention the incredible character animation that puts Benjamin Button to shame.

But the Marvel movies aren’t out to win Oscars. They’re not trying to tell a story that’s never been told before. Superheroes are archetypes. They are our mythological figures. Their stories are grand, sweeping epics, and while their abilities are beyond us, they are still us. That is the draw of the superhero: that all of us can, in some way, relate to them.

Over on Tumblr, timodactyl has written a great series of posts that explore Captain America’s history and characterization in comics: Why Steve Rogers is the greatest superhero in comics, Captain America as a patriot, What his country needs, and What he means to the universe (plus a fairly glowing review of the film).

Steve Rogers does everything out of a sense of duty and responsibility but without compromising his morals and usually accurate sense of right and wrong. His uncanny ability to do this while still nearly unwaveringly obeying the will of the people as a whole and putting aside his own personal life (something he used to fret more about but has seemingly made his peace with more recently) is nothing short of heroic in itself, let alone the scale of things he’s asked to do. It’s important to note here that this is not Thor. He is not blessed with the power of a god. He’s not Wolverine and practically unkillable. He’s not Iron Man in a nearly invincible suit of armor. He’s not Spider-Man with unique powers and skills.

He is a man who, thanks to the serum and his own almost relentless training regimen, can perform at peak physical conditions and has learned to throw a shield really well. He can be killed, he can be maimed, he can be shattered, and he largely is fighting out of his weight class in these world power struggles. So much so, in fact, that the old Avengers comics made a point of saying every damn issue that he was the weakest of the bunch, hardly more than an average man. Yet he comes out every day and does everything that’s needed of him to protect and help the people of his country and, as often as he can, of the world at large. He will always put aside his own needs and desires to aid the people he protects, even if he’s only a few steps ahead of them.

As the good Captain, Steve Rogers is neither vain or cocky. And given his resume up to this point, it makes the choice of Chris Evans for this part seem all the more counterintuitive. But Evans packs away all of the swash and swagger that his other roles have called for and delivers an honest and humble performance. While the nuances of the character don’t always come through the screen, overall the film does a commendable job of bringing Steve Rogers from scrawny to brawny and saving the day in the space of just over two hours.

Without this strong lead, and an equally strong supporting cast, this movie would have been all flash and no substance. But much like Kenneth Branagh did with Thor, Joe Johnston crafted a movie that derives it’s weight from the performances rather than blinding the audience with a cacophony of special effects (I’m looking at you, Michael Bay). Stanley Tucci is wonderful, as ever. Haley Atwell carries the torch as yet another woman in a Marvel movie who is more than just beautiful, but also both smart, strong and wonderfully self-assured. The villain is appropriately scary; even scarier with the mask on – bravo, Hugo Weaving. Dominic Cooper as a young Howard Stark channels Howard Hughes and a little bit of Robert Downy Jr, so that it’s not at all difficult to see the family resemblance. Even Tommy Lee Jones manages to breathe a little fresh air into his trademark “gruff old coot” role.

Captain America is an infinitely enjoyable movie. It’s the last installation we’ll get before the good Captain returns to join Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury in next year’s The Avengers, and there’s a teaser trailer after the Captain America credits that fans will want to stick around and see. The real appeal of The Avengers is not just that a bunch of superheroes get together to fight evil and stuff, but that a group of people with wildly disparate abilities and personalities have to coordinate themselves into something resembling a unified force. We’ve already gotten to know Tony Stark, smug genius extraordinaire. We’ve met Thor, and we know about Bruce Banner’s very particular brand of split-personality disorder. We’ve even gotten glimpses of Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury sprinkled throughout the previous films. What Captain America gives us is the last piece of the puzzle: Steve Rogers. The star-spangled man with a plan.

I can’t wait to see him again.

Marvel at the Movies: Thor & X-Men

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Just this past week I went to see both Thor and X-Men: First Class.

And then I went back to see Thor again, because hello? Tom Hiddleston.

 

Make no mistake about it: the summer of superheros has begun.

 

Thor is a an epic: large in scale, bold in vision and very, very shiny. And it really would be all too easy to go over-the-top with this material, which is what had me quite skeptical about Thor in the beginning. The man wears a cape, carries a giant hammer and can fly. But the film manages to incorporate elements of the source material into the film without once looking like a cartoon. The “rainbow bridge” becomes an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, which is significantly less cheesy, with the added benefit of being scientifically awesome. The city of Asgard itself, floating in space under a canopy of nebulas, is absolutely gorgeous. Jotunheim is a dark and chilling realm, and silly name aside, the Frost Giants are still pretty cool looking. There’s even a brief appearance by Sleipnir that manages not to derail the entire scene with “Hey, look! An eight-legged horse.”

Under the guidance of a more action-centric director, this could easily have become another smash-tastic, explosion-filled summer flick, but I must give credit to Kenneth Branagh‘s moderate hand. For while the film manages to convey all of the scale of Asgard and the Nine Realms, it never once loses the characters within this massive universe. Branagh’s Shakespearean background no doubt helped him to understand that it’s both the romance and the simmering family drama that defines this story. Everything else is just the gilding.

The movie is well-cast. Chris Hemsworth plays a Thor that is more than just handsome and physically imposing but sweet, too (and perhaps ever-so-slightly dense). Natalie Portman is adorable, as ever, and Stellan Skarsgård is awesome, as ever, and it’s nice to the role of someone from Norway being played by someone who is actually from Norway. Crazy, right? And while playing a pagan deity can really lend itself to overacting (as Liam Neeson could tell you), Anthony Hopkins brings a healthy amount of restraint to the role, revealing Odin as a father more than just a god. But the real breakthrough here is Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki with the perfect mix of jealousy, hubris, madness and pathos. He is really quite captivating.

Thor (and Loki) will be returning in The Avengers, and there are a few nods here and there to fellow Avengers Hawkeye, Iron Man, and Bruce Banner. The Avengers won’t be released until next May. I’m counting down already…

 

X-Men: First Class takes a step back from the grand scale of Thor and gives us a rich historical drama that is the predecessor to every other film in the franchise. Set in the early 1960′s, First Class gives us Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr before they were Professor X and Magneto, archenemies extraordinaire. Back when they were friends trying to help fellow mutants find their way in society, trusting each other implicitly while never quite seeing eye-to-eye on the matter. Compared with Thor, First Class is absolutely not a film for children. It’s darker, edgier, and significantly more violent. But like Thor, the significant mythology of the story never manages to overtake the characters.

This is an origin story, not only of a hero, but of a villain. Since we know how it will ultimately end, we’re not so much interested in where they end up, but how it is they got there. James McAvoy plays an excellent young Xavier, but as Erik, Michael Fassbender steals this film. Every scene he was in was absolutely riveting. In fact, had the film been an hour longer and contained only Charles and Erik, I would still have enjoyed every moment of it. Still, the supporting cast is strong, and the 60′s era sets and costumes are just wonderful. FOX has said they envision this film as the first part of a trilogy, and I am more than okay with that. Until then, I will definitely be seeing this for a second time, and probably a third as well.

Because I can never have too much Marvel in my life.

 

Did you know? In addition to being films based on characters in the Marvel universe, both Thor and X-Men: First Class were penned by the same writing team.