Saw Captain America, finally. Or, at least, I *tried* to see it. At least two different families, for some insane reason, chose to bring their toddlers along to the film. The little ones were wholly unconcerned with Captain America or the nearly-full house who’d come out on a Monday evening to see him. They did not use their indoor voices. Although the parents did try and keep them quiet, two-year olds are going to be two-year olds. I absolutely despise going to the movies, and I was distracted and angry—just like a two-year old— all through Captain America.
Look, I know times are tight and sitters cost, but staying home with the wee little ones is the price you pay for your thoughtless and likely drunken impulsive screwing. People who don’t want to be parents should find some discipline to protect themselves, and parents should come to grips with the fact that children literally take over the entirety of your life. Nobody stood up and screamed at these people, but, even in the dark, I could clearly see how tense the audience was at the utter selfishness of these people.
I was actually going to walk out after the first act but I fell asleep instead. All the action stuff just bored me to tears. I thought the reimagining of certain details of Cap’s origin worked quite nicely for the most part, but every time I looked at the actor playing Steve Rogers—though quite capable and awash with earnestness—I kept seeing Matt Damon and a much better performance.
Tommy Lee Jones was wasted, the whole Bucky Barnes B-story was a waste. It wasn’t the worst super- hero movie I’d seen, but we would have rather had Matt Damon, whose raw acting skill would have added much-needed depth to the main character. Like most other super-hero flicks I’ve seen, the central character was nowhere near as fascinating to watch as Downey’s Tony Stark. It’s as if the creators of these subsequent films hadn’t seen Iron Man.
Chris Evans is a fine actor and he did a credible job, but he lacked the gravity well of Downey’s self-absorption. In Iron Man, every cutaway from Downey was a chore. I couldn’t wait to get back to Downey to see what whacky thing Stark would do next. The same was true in The Dark Knight, only that sentiment applied not to the hero but the ensorcelled performance of Heath Ledger as the villain. Thus far only Downey has made the hero of these hero films insatiably compelling. Somebody should sit with the writers and help them to understand that concept: the hero must be not only worth watching, but so compelling you can’t take your eyes off him.
Of this summer’s crop of films, I’ve not cared one whit whether or not Thor got his powers back or if Hal Jordan lived or died. I didn’t care, at all, about any of the New Mutants in X-Men: First Class, and, past the amazing Skinny Guy special effect of the first act, I didn’t care what happened to Captain America. These are fatal flaws of these films. They are formulaic and extremely predictable. In every case, once the hero puts the costume on, the film runs out of interesting places to take us. The notable exception is, again, the first Iron Man, where the costume itself was a character, and the more he wore it, the more that armor changed the character inside it.
Early on, real soldiers laugh at Captain America’s costume. There should have been a point where, once he’d grown and changed internally, once he’d proven himself to these men, that the costume itself ceased being a joke to the men and instead became an inspiration to them. Maybe I slept through that shot, but I didn’t see it. Evans’s was not a bad performance by any stretch, I just didn’t care whether the Red Skull iced him or not—a consistent complaint of this rush of films and even the very good Bat films.
Make me care about the hero. Stop allowing him to be upstaged by the villains. You’d think this would be elementary, screen writing 101. I am terrified that, in the rush to make production dates and in the euphoria of this digital effects age, that already DC and Marvel are forgetting what made these heroes heroes in the first place.
Great Blog. I totally agree. Matt Damon should have been Steve Rogers. He was perfect.
The problem with it, is that Matt Damon would have overshadowed everything, not Steve Rogers. Instead of seeing Cap on the screen, you would have seen Jason Bourne in a flag suit. I agree with you that Steve needs to be more compelling, but disagree that he was as boring as Hal Jordan was in the Green Lantern movie.
I do also agree that once he’s in the suit, the movie hits some pretty redundant and predictable action movie beats. I chose to look past all that (thankfully I saw it in a theater where the annoying kids were all over the age of 8, and were actually jazzed about seeing Cap onscreen, so it was infectious) and see it as a story about skinny Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter. Curious what you thought of Tony Stark’s dad…
“Jason Bourne in a flag suit.” YES. This is EXACTLY what I meant. That would have rocked. The difference between a great actor and an okay actor is what he does when he has no lines to speak. But I can’t imagine Damon putting on the costume and I further can’t imagine Marvel paying Matt Damon Money. I am quite sure they want to move toward relative unknowns to keep costs down and build these franchises, which is the smart move. Downey, OTOH, will continue to be quite expensive. Stark Dad was okay, needed more screen time.
The problem with Captain America is in the source – Steve Rogers is simply not as interesting as a drinking, skirt chasing, devil may care, billionaire, armor building super genius with daddy issues and a new found sense of responsibility.
As for cheaper actors – Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Green Lantern, Catwoman, Electra, and lots of other superhero movies disprove the theory that star power = bigger box office.
Chris Helmsworth’s Thor did fine as did the minor stars of X-Men: FC and Captain America (if Chris Evans was anything but the Human Torch before I’ve never seen it). For me what really surprised me was HL’s Joker – I only saw him in the crappy Knights Tale. And that’s what a Matt Damon WOULDN’T do – surprise anyone.
Also a Tom Cruise or other A-lister simply isn’t needed when a second stringer will do if he matches the part well. Even Downey was in a career slump. I liked him in In Dreams and loved Kiss Kiss Bang Bang but he was a trivia question to most people before Iron Man. He’s a rare thing – an actor that can do comedy, drama, action, and then risk his career with Tropic Thunder, There’s only a dozen or so on his level so when a superhero park comes up – why not an unknown that fits the part?
Unless it’s Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.
Another thing about the price point of the actors was that it was pretty clear they were casting these movies with an eye towards the Avengers. While they could afford to give each movie a Big Name Star, they probably couldn’t justify the sort of all-star cast that would give them on the Avengers. So you get some of the bigger names as supporting characters who won’t be in Avengers (Tommy Lee Jones in Cap, Anthony Hopkins in Thor) and cast the mains with midlisters or even no-names.
I wasn’t plugging Damon for his star power, I was plugging him for his acting skill and boyish Iowa good looks. I thought the writing was pretty thin in CAP, though there were lots of smart moves and bug fixes to comics continuity that I liked a great deal–espec. the character’s origin being a promotional carnival act. I just thought Damon could do more with the down time, the lag between lines of dialogue where actual acting would normally go.
I haven’t seen the film but there was nothing in the trailers I saw that made me want to see it. What I want to see with Captain America is what will probably be done in the Avengers movie and in future sequels. Start with the WWII origin and stuff, then being frozen and reanimated in the present and struggling with life in the new world.