Captain America: The First Avenger

        Out of all the characters in the comic book medium, Captain America has probably the most interesting background. He was created prior to the United States entry to World War 2. Mostly used as propaganda in comic form and then faded into obscurity after the fact. It wasn’t until Marvel had their heyday in the 60s that they brought him back and reinvented him in the contemporary era where he’s a man out of time. This movie is on par with the first Iron Man by showing the man and the origins of the hero.

1. Steve Rogers

        Rounding out the heroes that we’ve seen, it was only natural to introduce the last founding member of the Avengers. We see him small as he attempts to join the armed services. He’s given a chance to try a new serum to be the new super soldier that is needed. Meanwhile, we see the scientific Hydra organization led by Johann Schimdt. They’ve uncovered a new energy source from a cosmic cube which they begin to weaponize it. You know where that whole story thread goes.

        As with Thor, The First Avenger is so different than what the other origin films had going. For one thing it’s a war film fused with a comic book film. That’s why the film has a sepia tone look despite having colors, all of it is muted to reflect the war time. This is one of the examples where it stays true to the time it takes place in. Albeit, there's a more fantastical element since this is a comic book movie, but just the vibe is that it's a war movie.

        Steve Rogers is one of those heroes where he isn’t overtly patriotic, but he simply wants to do good. Seeing his whole story play out as he tries to be enlisted to taking the serum and making a sacrifice is just a clear example of hero that has selfless service written all over him. This isn’t Chris Evans’ first rodeo as far as portraying a hero since he was The Human Torch in Fox’s Fantastic Four duology. He embodies who Rogers is to the T. 

        It was a little jarring seeing Chris Evans’ head in his body double pre-serum. I’ll give credit to the double Leander Denny for at least providing the look. Just the few minutes that we see Steve and his friend Bucky Barnes really emphasize Rogers’ predicament. More so, where in the Stark Expo, we see that Bucky has two girls side by side whereas Steve is just behind him. The little things involving a subtle camera shot to emphasize the underdog nature that Steve has got going for him. 

        For one thing he’s humble even after getting the serum. There are a few scenes of him where he really expands on his personality and it’s the secret sauce to making the people who haven’t heard of him care. For instance, when he meets with the scientist Dr. Erskine, he asks Rogers if he wants to kill Nazis. To which Steve responds that he doesn’t like bullies, it gives us a reason why he wants in. It furthers his character by just having it all be grounded and realistic. Since he's not avenging anyone or humbling up, but that he wants to be a good man. 

        The few moments we see him with Erskine is the most endearing parts. As I mentioned before, we get a reason as to why Steve wants to join the military. Additionally, we see the real reason as to why Erskine chooses him instead of another soldier who’s more physically fit. It showcases in terms of characters just the overall difference between the main hero and the villain. Of course, it’s a trope to have the villain be the opposite, but just the dialogue was good despite having to kill off Erskine. 

        One more thing is that this is probably the only film where it has a great secondary characters. A lot of them are good with what they are given, especially Tommy Lee Jones and Hayley Atwell who portray Colonel Phillips and Agent Carter respectively. I love how Philips was despondent of Rogers that he ultimately earns his respect when he sacrifices himself. Roger’s friend Bucky was good despite having a short appearance, don’t worry he’ll pop up again. 

2. Prop to Hero

        I think the main highlight aside from the action sequences is seeing Steve become a member of the propaganda to prop up morale in the country. To me, it’s utterly ingenious to tie in his beginnings and show how it would happen. Within the context of the story, it makes sense as well once Steve is gifted his newfound strength, how would they apply it?

        Just seeing the montage where he’s sort of nervous and eventually finds his footing with “portraying” Captain America is great. And I love how within the montage we see how it’s more elaborate and we do a hard edit when we see how it doesn’t work within the front lines. It’s clear that Rogers wants to be a hero, but not just a showman. Just seeing him draw a caricature of himself just emphasizes his predicament. 

        The whole act and his own character are representative of his overall character, he’s an underdog. There’s no spectacular background in comparison to his other brethren, he’s just a humble man from Brooklyn who was delt with a bad hand. Once he gets his gift, he’s used to get people to buy war bonds. Just seeing him mount a rescue and confront Schmidt takes a lot of courage. 

        If there’s one detail that I notice whenever he fights against Hydra and their many goons is that the weapons sound like Iron Man’s. I don’t know if that was used as a sort of stock sound effect, but I would be hard pressed to know if they used that sound to eventually set up the differences between Stark and Rogers. We got a lot of ways to go to talk about Cap’s third film, but it’s one of things where I pay close attention and I don’t know if it was deliberate. 

3.     Payoff

        With the films that we just watched, it only begs the question if the following film would pay off. Well, I won't sugar coat what I think about the prior entries, I mean I tore Iron Man 2 to shreds I think, but it's important to note that world building must constantly rely on the characters. Having it be where it's mostly just set up slightly derails the whole approach. What matters more is seeing the characters and prep them up to when they'll meet the others. 

        With the individual characters that was just introduced, it could've gone in any direction. That's why when we invest more in the characters, we see how they gel and how they'll inevitably fight. It's a battle of the egos for one thing and how they will act heroic when the time comes. All of it, I feel is the ultimate payoff with what the franchise went for. It got shaky due to creative meddling, but the fodder was tossed with more character development, which we'll get to come the next film. 

4. Overall

        Captain America: The First Avenger rounds up the introductions to perfectly set up the following film. As a stand-alone it’s a great film but underrated given the context of the first phase of the MCU.