Captain America: The First Avenger
The Flag Waver. The Old Dude with the Shield. Et cetera.
Three years after The Incredible Hulk, the MCU came perilously close to getting its second commercial flop. In this case, however, said result — $371m off a $140m budget — was more understandable beforehand, even if subsequent box office has rendered it seemingly inexplicable. In a poetic coincidence, this was roughly the performance of Batman Begins (2005), another first entry superhero film which needed, badly, to win over a sceptical audience.
In 2011, Captain America, being largely unknown to mainstream popular culture, had the distinct whiff of being some kind of jingoistic, propagandistic figure. Even now, the sequels’ takings lean more towards North America than overseas — hence the failure of Civil War to overtake Iron Man 3.
It’s also why The First Avenger almost goes overboard in its first half-hour to explain how Steve Rogers is not, in fact, the Flag Waver the Netflix shows dub him. The scepticism isn’t just out-of-universe, either, with Rogers pushed into selling bonds once his powers are acquired. Even once he’s Captain America, he’s nothing but apologetic about the collateral damage he’s causing — something which would fade a little with subsequent films. And once he’s in action, rescuing prisoners, they’re still certain the man in the spangly outfit is not of use. “Who are you?” gets the response “I’m… Captain America”, which doesn’t get the cheer it would by Civil War.
It’s a fair effort, though. Perhaps less justifiable is the attempts to sell the Red Skull as evil, despite HYDRA defecting from the Nazis because they’re too moderate. Hugo Weaving sells it, though, as does Toby Jones as Arnim Zola (“his target… is everywhere”). Weaving goes right ahead and goes full Weaving, because the Red Skull might be among the better villains of Phase 1, but not even potentially amongst the most subtle.
The attempt to sell Peggy Carter as a badass, meanwhile, is more tempered (her being a supporting character and all). And, of course, it worked — as shown by the three (and counting) subsequent film appearances and the TV series.
Watching in 2017, what’s striking about The First Avenger is its general sense of being a one-off. As mentioned, Peggy will return, but almost everyone else doesn’t, despite the occasional fan theories. The Howling Commandos are thus a little short-changed, forming as they do around the halfway point and hence getting the screentime of a TV episode, compared to the series-length treatment other characters get. Similarly, we’re never seeing Nathalie Dormer in the MCU again, for better or worse. Many, many characters fall by the wayside.
The period setting also means we’re never getting the same production design either, except in flashback (small hints of the analogue work their way into Ant-Man). Joe Johnson, given a budget probably double that (inflation-adjusted) of The Rocketeer (1991) and modern CGI, manages to properly justify his entry in the 21st Century Hollywood onslaught of Teal and Orange. It helps knowing that every HYDRA weapon is based on genuine Nazi superweapons, making details like the beyond-bonkers helicopter-jet-rocket work utterly.
Overall, Captain America: The First Avenger is second-best amongst the pre-Avengers films. It’s funny, it’s engaging, but it doesn’t quite rise to the level of classic. It’s a little too uncynical, a little too one-sided. Subsequent films would add a bit more motivation to Steve Rogers, beyond “he’s a really good guy who means well”. As a basis and justification for those films, though, The First Avenger is hard to argue with.
High Points: the newly-created Captain America chases down a HYDRA agent, whilst needing to pee (not that the film emphasises it). As with Thor, highlights often arrive with the signature weapon.
Low Points: the montage showing the Red Skull’s origin is kinda terrible. Johann Schmidt waving a gun, Abraham Erskine shaking his head in slow-motion — it’s all a bit weird and cartoonish.
Curios: Steve Rogers’ “climbing” of the flagpole renders the whole ‘cut the wire’ argument in the next film a bit weird.
Flagrant Product Placement: very little indeed, apart from the meta-placement of Captain America comics, Times Square (if that counts), and possibly the remark “someone get that kid a sandwich”. Erskine’s schnapps is unbranded, and the Red Skull is apparently too proud to drive a Mercedes, like mere mortal Hitler.
Connections to Elsewhere: Howard Stark as a walking, talking gun-on-the-mantelpiece, Peggy Carter as a future two-season show, and the Tesseract as a link to Thor.
Stan Lee Cameo: “I thought he’d be taller”. Eh, it’s funny I guess. (6/10)
End Credits: an actual, literal trailer for The Avengers, which is a massive cheat — but who really cares? (8/10)
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Next: The Avengers (2012)
