Captain America: The First Avenger (Movie Reaction)

Captain America: The First Avenger- Thank you very much for your reaction to the first of my favorite movies within this Marvel Cinematic Universe, Reds!! I had a lot of fun watching this fifth movie within this universe with you, and I'm happy you enjoyed it. Even if it isn't one of your favorite movies so far. I absolutely love this movie! I know that many of the MCU fans don't really care all that much for this first of three Captain America movies. And I think it's mostly because of the special effects and CGI, as well as because this movie's overall story arc is a little weakened due to there being a few montage scenes instead of a few important story plots actually being told. I agree that the special effects within this movie are a little weaker than the effects are in most of these movies. They aren't terrible, but they certainly could have been done a bit better. And again... I do agree that this movie could do with a little less of the montages, so that we could have gotten a little more background story told. I would have loved it if this movie could have been made a bit longer so that we could have gotten more story involving Captain America fighting alongside his closest friend, Bucky, as well as their friends, the rest of the Howling Commandos, as they fight to take down all of Hydra. I also would have loved to see more background story told about Steve and Bucky, so we could have really seen more of their friendship developed. Bucky's death is tragic as it is shown, but if we had gotten more between Bucky and Steve, his death would have been all the more heartbreaking and gut wrenching. However, with all of this being said... For the most part, none of these issues that most fans of the MCU have with this movie bother me too much. Overall... I absolutely love this movie for its major story arcs, its characters, and for the setting and time period in which a majority of this movie is set in. First... I absolutely love that a majority of this movie outside of the very beginning and the very ending, is set within the 1940s, during World War II when Hitler and the Nazis were in power. I love watching movies set within other periods, especially those set within historical periods throughout our history. Even when it's a fictional story, and/or a superhero movie. I love history. I love movies that are set during the times of war, especially during the Nazi invasion. The history during these times is heartbreaking and tragic, making any and all movies set within this time period heartbreaking as well. But I love seeing and learning about the true historical events, even told through a fictional story. And Captain America: The First Avenger is no exception. And through a number of this movie's characters such as Captain America himself, Dr. Erskine, as well as through Johann Schmidt and Doctor Zola, we get a deeper look into just how evil Hitler and the Nazis really were, and how much more Hydra really is evil within this movie. And I really appreciate this. As for this movie's heroes... Steve Rogers is Captain America, and he is played by Chris Evans, an actor I really love in quite a number of his movies. And I absolutely love Chris Evans as Captain America. He's the perfect actor to play this lead role... a character with a good heart, strength of character and high morals, a deep love for his country, and Steve is someone who never backs down from a fight, even when he's outmatched. Captain America is one of my absolute favorite characters throughout all of the MCU because I love everything about his character. He isn't arrogant or selfish like both Tony Stark and Thor can be. And while Steve doesn't need to grow in the ways that both of these other characters in their movies had to, Steve does grow a lot throughout this movie too. His growth just comes in the form of Steve's strength and moral character growing that much stronger, and in him finding the will to continue to save our world from the evils that the Zazis and Hydra brings especially after the loss of his closest friend. And I love Steve for all of this. Bucky Barnes, or James Buchanan Barnes... his nickname, Bucky, coming from his middle name, is played by one of my absolute favorite actors of all time... Sebastian Stan. I absolutely love him as an actor, and I have seen him in a number of movies and TV shows too. Shows such as Once Upon a Time just like you mentioned recognizing him from, in the role of Jefferson, the Mad Hatter. And once again... Sebastian Stan is the perfect actor to play this character here in Captain America: The First Avenger, who really isn't as much a part of this movie as I would have liked for him to be. And yet... Bucky is an incredibly important character, because not only is he Steve's closest friend, but upon Steve learning that Bucky has been taken captive by Hydra along with over a hundred and fifty men from his unit alone, this is what helps Steve find the defiance he needed to go against orders so he could do what was right. So, he could not only save just Bucky, but also the rest of the captured men. And in so doing, Steve winds up saving not just Bucky and the rest of the men of the 107th, but another two hundred and fifty soldiers as well. And all of this is how Steve Rogers comes to be Captain America. Not because of the fame that came from his promotions and movies he made while performing as "Captain America" for the government officials, but because he became a hero to all of these men Steve saved against all odds. And the name of Captain America stuck ever since Bucky praises him using this name to help get the other men excited to praise him as well. Not too much is really talked about Steve's and Bucky's friendship. But we do learn that they have been friends since they were young kids living in Brooklyn, having grown up together. Bucky's death upon him falling from Zola's train while trying to protect Steve from the Hydra agent who shoots the burst of energy that knocks him out of the train, is tragic. Like I said above... I do feel that Bucky's character could have been written a little stronger, and more of his story both with Steve and apart from Steve could have been developed better. If it had, I feel like his death could have made a stronger impact on us as viewers of this movie. Nonetheless, with the story we get for Bucky as it is... Bucky's character is phenomenal, and incredibly acted. And for this, Bucky's death is most certainly heartbreaking for me. Regarding your memory of having seen Sebastian Stan possibly in future movies or shows within this Marvel Cinematic Universe... It's quite possible that you're right. However, I will not tell you anything in regards to how or why he may or may not make any appearances again. I don't want to risk spoiling anything for you. I can only hope that this vague memory you have will be all that you will come to learn about his possible return to this cinematic universe. Peggy Carter is played by actress... Hayley Atwell, an actress I didn't really know until her first appearance here in Captain America: The First Avenger. However, I've really come to like this actress very much ever since, and I absolutely love Peggy Carter. I love her overall story arc as not only Steve's love interest, but as a strong woman who continuously fights for the recognition she deserves as an equal within an army made up of all men. She fights just like every one of them, and stands for what she believes is right. Just like Steve does. Peggy also helps to give Steve the strength he needs to go against his orders when he's told he's worth nothing more than the propaganda that the government officials first used him for after he was first given the serum that turned him into the world's first super soldier. I love Peggy Carter. And I love the love story between Peggy and Steve. And thankfully, she isn't just in this movie. Peggy Carter is actually given her own show that is not a part of the phase four shows that have come out many years later. Agent Carter ran for two seasons before it was sadly cancelled, and began not too long after this movie, as it ran from 2015-2016, after everyone has come to love her character and wanted to see more about her. Agent Carter not only shares a lot more about who Peggy Carter is, but we also get to know more about Howard Stark, who is also a major character within Captain America: The First Avenger, and we are also introduced to Edwin Jarvis, who is Tony Stark's inspiration for creating JARVIS, voiced by Paul Bettany within the Iron Man movies so far. And I absolutely love both Edwin Jarvis and Howard Stark, as well as Peggy in Agent Carter. If you do get the chance to add a new show to your many others, Reds... and if you're interested to get to know these characters, then I absolutely recommend that you watch and react to Agent Carter. If you can. I think you would really enjoy this show. Now as for Howard Stark... We are actually briefly introduced to an older version of Howard in Iron Man 2. If you recall... Howard is talked a bit about by Tony in the first Iron Man movie when he mentions a little bit about wondering what his father might feel about what he and his company, Stark Industries, has grown to become since Howard founded it many years earlier. And then Tony is also shown watching old video footage of his father in Iron Man 2, when Howard finally tells Tony how much he really does love and believe in him, in spite of their rocky relationship. In Iron Man 2, the older version of Howard Stark was played by John Slattery. Here in Captain America: The First Avenger, Howard Stark becomes a much bigger character, and he's actually much younger than the version of the former Howard Stark, given that this movie is mostly set many years earlier than all the other movies within this universe, in the 40s. Here... Howard Stark is played by Dominic Cooper, an actor I only know from two other movies outside of him playing young Howard Stark here and in Agent Carter as well. And I absolutely love him as young Howard Stark. Given that Tony hasn't been born yet, we don't get any hints or mentions of Tony. However, in getting to know Howard when he's younger, we really get to see and understand more as to why Tony Stark is who he is. Both young Howard and Tony have the same characteristics and even mannerisms. Howard is also very cocky when it comes to the machines and weapons he invents for the army, and he is also a bit of a womanizer as well. All just like Tony. However, while Howard is very sure of his inventions and is a bit cocky, Howard also shows us he has a humble side to him as well. At least when it comes to him doing all that he does for the right reasons. And you can really see how much he comes to care about Steve, Peggy, Colonel Phillips, and all of the men whom he creates armor and weapons for. Young Howard Stark is a fantastic character I've really grown to love ever since this movie and Agent Carter. We see this especially in the ending, when Howard is out searching for Steve after Steve crashes the Hydra plane into the ice. Howard and his men find the tesseract in the ocean, then one of the men speak up as he tells Howards that there is no sign of any further wreckage or trace of the plane. Howard sadly tells his men to simply keep looking, revealing to us that he is trying to find Steve. Showing us just how much he really cares about Steve. And I love this about Howard. Outside of Steve and Bucky, as well as Peggy, Howard Stark is easily one of my favorite characters from this movie and from Agent Carter. Colonel Phillips is played by Tommy Lee Jones, whom I've loved in many, many of his movies over the years. And I enjoy him in this movie as well. While Phillips is tough, extremely strict, and is a bit prickly... for lack of a better word, I love him for his dry humor and sarcasm. And he is a good man, which we really come to see more towards the end of the movie. He doesn't believe in Steve at first, even after the serum succeeds in making Steve a super soldier. It takes Steve rescuing the four hundred men he saves from Hydra's prison camp for Phillips to really see the hero Steve Rogers really is and has been all along. But once he comes to see this for himself, he never doubts Steve or his men again. And Phillips remains a great leader of their army unit. Dr. Abraham Erskine is played by Stanley Tucci, another actor I love from a number of his movies, including here in Captain America: The First Avenger. Dr. Erskine is a doctor and scientist who is the first to create the super soldier serum, allowing for Steve to grow in size and strength so that he can come to fight against Hydra and the Nazis. However, in a talk with Steve, Dr. Erskine tells him that his serum not only makes him stronger and bigger in size, but it also strengthens a man's character, making a good man great, and a bad man worse. Erskine talks to Steve about how he had been taken captive by Hitler and handed over to Schmidt so he would be forced to work on the serum for him. However, Erskine wanted nothing to do with the Nazis or Hydra in spite of him being German, and he later is able to escape and flee to the states, where he comes to work with Phillips, Peggy, and Howard. Erskine is a good man, and he was the first to believe in Steve upon overhearing a conversation between Steve and Bucky early on in the movie that reveals Steve's character to Erskine. And in spite of everyone's doubt that Steve can measure up and become the hero they want, Erskine is later proven right all along. His death early on in this movie, is really sad. I really like his overall character and I love how Stanley Tucci plays Dr. Erskine. Finally... We have Captain America's team and brothers in arms, who come to be named the Howling Commandos. The 'Howlies' are made up of James 'Bucky' Barnes, Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan, Gabe Jones, Jim Morita, James Montgomery Falsworth, and Jacques Dernier. I love each one of these characters and the actors who play them. Especially Neal McDonough who plays Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan, whom you recognized from the shows Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow. I love Neal McDonough in a number of movies, as well as from an old TV miniseries I saw him star in some time ago. He's a brilliant actor. These characters, while they are important characters within this movie... they are sadly not in this movie as much as I wish they had been. Just like with Bucky's story arc and the story of his friendship with Steve, I wish this movie would have been longer so that we could have gotten to see more with the Howlies on their missions to take down Hydra. Or I wish this movie would have been written a little differently at least so we could have gotten to know these men a little more. I love what we do get with them. I just wish there was more, because I really love each of these characters. And now for this movie's villains... Johann Schmidt... or better known as the Red Skull, is played by Hugo Weaving, an actor known not only for playing Agent Smith is the Matrix movies like you recognized, but he is also well known for playing Lord Elrond in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies as well. Hugo Weaving is a phenomenal actor, and I really love him, even here in this movie too. Some fans of the MCU don't really care much for the Red Skull as a villain. They find him to be too cartoony. And yes... while I can agree that the makeup and prosthetics used for his red face can appear a little cartoony or like a bad Halloween mask at certain times within the movie, I actually really like this overall character. Not only because of the way Hugo Weaving plays his character, but also because I actually really love that he is a Nazi extremist who comes to believe he's grown beyond Hitler's shadow and that he's become a God. In my opinion, Schmidt's ideals and beliefs, and how he enforces said ideals on all those beneath him and instills fear in his enemies, makes this character that much more frightening and even intriguing to me. And I hate the Red Skull, but in all the ways that we are meant to hate him because he is so evil. I actually really love the Red Skull and all of Hydra as the villains of this movie. And as Captain America's greatest enemies. And then we have Dr. Arnim Zola, played by Toby Jones. Zola is Schmidt's right hand man and a brilliant scientist who works to build all of Hydra's weapons and technology. He's basically an evil version of Howard Stark. However, after Steve's first fight upon becoming a super soldier, when he attempts to capture the Hydra agent who kills Dr. Erskine, Howard tells Phillips, Peggy, Steve, and others that the mini submarine this agent had tried to escape from Captain America in is technology that is above him. That this technology in the sub shouldn't even exist yet. This tells us that Dr. Zola is smarter than even Howard Stark, who is known to be one of the smartest people known within the MCU, and the smartest man that Nick Fury ever knew, as he tells Tony in Iron Man 2. Zola builds all of the energy weapons and technology with help from the tesseract's (the glowing blue cube) energy. It is also revealed that Zola had been experimenting on a number of the prisoners Hydra had captured before Captain America rescues them all. Prisoners that included Bucky, whom Steve found and rescued from Zola's lab after he had been experimented on. It's not revealed what he did to Bucky or the others, but it is revealed that Bucky had been the only survivor of Zola's experiments, so whatever he did to them all, it was clearly really bad and twisted. Which explains Bucky's poor conditions when Steve finds him bound to the lab's table. It isn't revealed what Zola had done to Bucky or the others. However, I really wish we could have seen more of the after affects in Bucky that came from him being experimented on. So that we would have been able to learn more about the kind of experiments Zola performed on him. Instead, it appears that Bucky mostly recovered far too quickly, as he is shown to be fine, and walking on his own again in the very next moment he's seen just seconds after he's saved by Steve. Again... another missed opportunity that should have been written into this movie, that would have helped to make it even better. Nonetheless... I really like Zola's character throughout this movie as well. He appears as a slimy weaselly character who appears to be a bit afraid of Hydra and especially of the Red Skull. However, in the scene between Zola and Colonel Phillips when Phillips is interrogating him after his capture from the train, Zola is very excited by Schmidt's plans to destroy the world so that Hydra can rise to its full power. Revealing to us that Zola believes as much in Hydra's cause as Schmidt does. And his mind and ability to create the weapons he's created for Hydra, make him very dangerous. And now, as for this movie's overall story arcs and its introduction to Captain America... While there are certainly storylines that could have been improved through the writing of the overall script, I absolutely love most everything within this movie. Captain America's introduction and his overall story arc is phenomenal, and I love everything about his character. And I really love all the rest of this movie's characters who help Steve Rogers grow into becoming Captain America. Especially Bucky, Peggy, and young Howard Stark. I also really love the music played throughout this movie as well. I especially love the theme song music played for Captain America. Not the music playing when Steve is acting as propaganda for the government officials, but the main theme music played throughout the movie for Steve's character. It's powerful, and patriotic. Just as it should be. And the costumes for each of the characters are really great too. Peggy's costumes are incredible, and I love her overall looks throughout this movie. And I especially love the costumes that Bucky and each one of the Howling Commandos are wearing upon them becoming a team. And Captain America's suit... While some fans of these movies feel that his costume is cheesy, I actually really love it as well. Not only does the suit fit his character because he is Captain America, but I really love the story that tells us why Steve chooses to continue wearing a costume similar to the one he wears while acting as a dancing monkey for the government officials. A story that adds character and strength to Steve's and Bucky's friendship, because Bucky inspires him to continue wearing the stars and stripes so he can continue acting as a symbol of hope and patriotism. Even if Bucky was trying to tease Steve out of fun about the costume Steve was wearing when he came to rescue him and all the men in this moment. Bucky had also been the first person to call him Captain America and meant it as a show of him being a true hero. Plus... Steve's costume was also redesigned by Howard Stark too, which makes it even better than the cheap original costume he had worn during the shows he performed in. If there is one part, or scene within this movie that I don't like... it's definitely the scene when Steve acts as propaganda. His acting in this scene is cringey. And I don't mean Chris Evans' acting, but Captain America's acting, as well as the acting from all of the rest of the show's actors. Because Chris Evans is supposed to act cringey. I just don't care about this overall scene at all. I absolutely understand why this scene is important to this movie, because it helps to build Steve's overall character, as this whole experience shows us how much Steve really struggles with becoming the hero he truly wants to be. I just don't care much for the overall scene simply because it is cringey. And lastly... While there are more montage scenes than maybe there should have been, and they do hinder the writing within this movie a little, I actually enjoy some of the montage scenes. I especially really love the whole montage showing us Captain America, Bucky, and the rest of the Howling Commandos taking out the Hydra bases and Schmidt's men. I still wish we could have gotten actual scenes and dialogue written to help expand on Steve's, Bucky's, and the Howlies' characters, and their overall fights against Hydra. We get to see what a few of the men do within the group. We see that Bucky is the team's sniper, as he is shown shooting a Hydra agent attempting to sneak up behind Captain America with his gun drawn on him, and we see one of the Howlies running ahead with a bomb in hand as he quickly attaches it beneath one of Hydra's tanks, causing it to blow up. This shows us that this Howlie (Jacques Dernier) is an explosions expert. I just really would have loved to see more about each one of these men fighting alongside Captain America. Overall... I absolutely love this movie for its characters and the overall story. And I love the time period that the majority of this movie is set in as well. This movie has its flaws like every other movie, but as a whole, it is one of my favorite movies throughout the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Especially because of its characters, including the villains of this movie. Oh... I am so sorry that I forgot to warn you of the flash preview of the first Avengers movie coming up for you to watch next month. I completely forgot about it. If I remembered, I could have told you to skip watching this one end credit scene altogether, because this scene is actually replayed and extended on in The Avengers, and I feel bad that you might have caught glimpses of things to come in The Avengers. Thank you once again for watching and reacting to Captain America: The First Avenger for me, Reds!! Again... I loved watching your reaction for it, and I am happy you enjoyed it too! And now... I can't wait for your reaction for The Avengers coming up for September's movie request!!! You're amazing! I wish you the best of luck with all of your reactions, and especially with all you have to do day to day in your home life!! :) Sincerely, Heidi

Heidi Elizabeth Marcum