Marvel Watch: Captain America - The First Avenger (2011)

Watched:  12/31/2022

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  ha ha....  no idea

Director:  Joe Johnston

This was actually the last movie I watched in 2022.  I have cedar fever something fierce, so it was not really time to watch something new I'd never seen before.  So in between naps, I watched a favorite.

The movie has flaws, and maybe even feels like it's part of a wave of movies that came before the Marvel-era, which makes sense.  Directed by Hollywood staple Joe Johnston and with an eye toward what I'd consider the 1960's-era of WWII movies which inspired the Howling Commando comics it borrows from, it's also got a terrific old school story about a guy with a good heart and the girl who believes in him.  I recall concern when the movie was being made and headed to release that Captain America was too old fashioned and not in line with the view of today - not like hip, wise-cracking Tony Stark - and that's missing the point of Cap.  And the line Cap draws from what we know and acknowledge as outright evil in humanity worth fighting, and that that brand of heroism and clarity of purpose is something that absolutely makes sense in any era.

It's a Marvel villain who is truly villainous, not someone with a perspective worth considering - from the comics, I have wanted to hit the Red Skull with a sledgehammer for years before the movie, and the movie *nails it*.  

The pacing of the movie is also flatly incredible.  A two-hour run-time, it covers over a year of time, something other Marvel films don't ever really do, even if they include flashbacks (see: Captain Marvel).  I kept trying to find a place to pause the movie to do things that needed doing, and suddenly I was looking at the flying wing and knew we were in the last twenty minutes.  

And, of course, an all-star cast, which is maybe the secret-sauce to Marvel Phases 1 and 2.  Sure, Chris Evans was somewhat known, and Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper unknowns here, but Tommy Lee Jones, Toby Jones, Stanley Tucci and Hugo Weaving?  Not a bad foundation of talent to make sure the kids knew what was what.  Throw in Neal McDonough as Dum-Dum and the rest of the Howling Commandos, and it's a fascinating mix.  

Anyway - this movie also produced one of the longer podcasts we did early on.