Re: Marvel Cinematic Universe by Slider_Quinn21
I haven't seen Black Panther yet. I hope to see it soon.
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I've recently been watching the MCU films with my fiancee. She's not into comic books or superheroes, and as I've said many times on this board, I think the MCU is very accessible to people who don't typically like comic books. We finally got up to Captain America: the First Avenger, and I was surprised by it. I hadn't seen it since it came out, and I'd resigned it to the pile of "worst MCU movies". Whenever it's brought up here, it's regularly mentioned as a movie that worked only as a preview to Avengers and not able to stand on its own.
Watching it again....I really disagree.
It's not a movie without its flaws. My fiancee certainly wasn't wowed by it or the character of Captain America, but I think it works on a lot of levels. Steve is a very compelling protagonist that you're rooting for from the first frame he's in. You believe in his friendship with Bucky (which will become more important in later movies), and the world that's built feels real and genuine.
Does the movie set up the Avengers? Sort of? The Tesseract is both the McGuffin here and in the Avengers, and the ending certainly sets up the idea that Captain America is in the modern times, but I didn't get the impression that those two things were really enough to de-rail the movie. The emotional thrust of the film is still Steve and his friends, and that's pretty resolved before any of the future stuff even happens. Even then, Steve isn't wowed by the future or the potential of joining a team of superheroes...he's sad about Peggy.
There's stuff I didn't like. I don't understand why Steve was so easily turned into a caricature. He starts the movie so desperate to join the war effort that he's willing to commit perjury to try again and again. Even if the Senator was a great salesman, Steve wasn't interested in helping domestically - he wanted to lay his life on the line. If General Tommy Lee Jones didn't want him, I'd figure he'd simply enlist with his new body - there didn't seem to be anything stopping him.
I also didn't understand why General Tommy Lee Jones didn't want Steve. Sure, he'd be disappointed that the super-soldier program only produced one guy....but it produced one guy. Why not use him? Or even *see if he's worth using* before just dumping him. Steve literally changes the course of the war all by himself. Even if he was just a great soldier, I thought it was crazy to turn him into a song and dance man, and I don't see what that really did for his arc.
And I get that Steve is now a top specimen, but the movie actually shows him running into a window because he's not used to being so big/strong/fast. This wasn't a Neo situation and skills were downloaded into him. He's the same scrawny kid in a small body. I don't understand how he can, all of the sudden, fight. And ride a motorcycle. And shoot guns. And fly planes. He had the training at the base, but he was shown to be pretty below average. He's small, but if he's beaten up as much as he is, he clearly can't fight either (and those are two different things I'm talking about). He shouldn't have any of those skills.
SQ21 Edit - Skip the song and dance stuff. Everyone involved immediately understands that Steve is a very powerful weapon. But 1) he can't fight and 2) he's too important to be risked on anything but the most important missions. He's sent to train (willingly) and gets trained by the best. Meanwhile, different parts of the war effort keep asking to use him, but it's always rejected - not important enough. When the POWs held by Red Skull are mentioned, it's declined. And that's when Steve decides to take matters into his own hands, and the movie can continue from there.
All in all, it's not a great movie. But while I went in thinking it's one of the worst Phase 1 movies, I think it's actually better than everything but the first Iron Man. That's not saying much because Phase One is the weakest one, but I found myself really enjoying it.