Captain America: The First Avenger

Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger is the first stop on our road to Doomsday that puts the story in front of the punching. Everything is dipped in 1940s sepia, the villains' guns shoot blue, and the hero spends the first act as the smallest guy in every room. It's very different from the rest so far, and for an origin story it's the right call.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the most classical superhero there is: he started with a good heart, he gained powers, and he kept the good heart. In D&D terms he's Lawful Good played completely straight, which is usually the most boring thing at the table, and here it isn't. Even when he "loses his way" for a stretch, it isn't his choice; he's a soldier who was told to stay put, so he stays put and does the seemingly useless job he's handed as well as it can be done. Then something better calls, and he moves. That's the whole character, the basis is all there, and the plotline works because of it. One of the strongest superhero characters on this road so far, and I mean the writing, not the bench press.

The man who sees it first is Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci), great from his first scene to his last, the one who tells Steve the night before the needle that the point is to stay a good man, not to become a perfect soldier. Waifu's word for him: he validates Steve. The man who needs convincing is Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), who has a program to run and a line of candidates who can actually finish a push-up. Erskine already wants the skinny kid; the dummy grenade at boot camp, the whole squad scattering and Steve diving onto it, is what makes the Colonel say yes, and even then his exact words are "He's still skinny." Phillips is probably my favorite character here. I've loved Tommy Lee Jones since Men in Black, and this is the same face: it has seen aliens, now it sees a super-soldier, and it still won't crack. The lines coming out of it are just as good.

Then the serum works, the Colonel still won't take him to the front, and the only open door is a senator's: a stage, a costume, a chorus line, and a war-bond tour. Waifu asked the fair question.

My answer: it's his low. He has the new power and no purpose for it, so he takes the one job on offer and does it properly. Bond sales take a ten percent bump in every state he visits, and that buys more bullets. At least that's what the politicians say. Then the tour reaches actual soldiers, who are living the war he's only acting out, and they let him know: "Nice boots, Tinker Bell!" "Bring back the girls!" That scene is the whole point: without the tour there's no contrast, he goes from the needle straight to the front line and there's nothing to climb from. Waifu's own landing: it shows he's a soldier first and foremost, learning the ropes. And The Star-Spangled Man is funny, and Waifu's right that it's catchy too. If it's still in your head a week later, blame Alan Menken.

Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) has the cool moments, plays the character well, and her chemistry with Steve is the quietly interesting kind. Private Lorraine (Natalie Dormer) has just made out with Chris Evans (I was excited to see her, and the Game of Thrones rewatch just sped up on my calendar), Peggy walks in on it, and a little later Steve picks up a shield and asks her what she thinks. She answers with a pistol. "Yes, I think it works." 10/10. Waifu had wondered what Lorraine was even there for, and that's the answer: to show us the side of Peggy you don't mess with. Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) is Waifu's favorite here, "such a great character", and the writing does him well. My first thought at the flying car was "like father, like son".

Bucky (Sebastian Stan) is here, and I'd forgotten he shows up this early; good to see him. His big scene on the train hits harder the less you know about where this series goes. The Howling Commandos are Waifu's point, and a good one: Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough) with the bowler hat, Gabe Jones (Derek Luke) and the rest each get one defining trait, which puts them well ahead of Sif and the Warriors Three, who got a radio joke.

Chris Evans was great, and he almost wasn't here: he turned the part down more than once before he said yes, and Waifu's reaction to that fact was "really? then it's great that he made it work." Some effects are a bit off (in the fighting montage, the glow of an explosion and the light on him don't agree), but that's a small gripe next to skinny Steve, the effect that impressed me most: a whole first act of a man who isn't there. I had to look up how they did it. (Ava says: the scenes were shot three ways, Couch Dad: with Evans, with a scrawnier actor named Leander Deeny, and with nobody in frame. Then Lola VFX shrank the star and often put his head on Deeny's body, which the effects supervisor compared to putting a rhinoceros head on a gazelle. Deeny is on screen at least ten percent of the time, so some of your "Evans was great" was two men.) Whoever it was, very, very good.

Then there's Hydra, and Waifu's objection is technical.

My answer: I've consumed enough pop culture about what Germany was supposedly cooking up back then, and the real limit on technology is power; hand a fantasy story a crazy source like that and accelerated tech is not far-fetched to me. Where we landed: the cube buys the toys, the script skips the homework. Her other note, that everyone in Germany speaks English with an accent, got the answer any movie gives: you can't have them speaking German and ask people to read subtitles, and the cost of that realism is that it's just not enjoyable. She graciously relented: "Yeah, apparently not."

The Red Skull himself is where Waifu and I split. Hugo Weaving is Agent Smith from The Matrix, and the delivery and the character are awesome here too. The accent is the one thing that never clicked for me; since the first watch, something about it has sounded off to my ears. (Ava says: Weaving reportedly built that voice by studying Werner Herzog, an actual German, Couch Dad. Slate made a quiz out of it: twelve clips, Herzog or Red Skull. Good luck.) Then Herzog has some explaining to do. Waifu didn't notice the accent at all and likes Hydra for the concept: cut off one head, two more shall take its place, so this is a villain built to come back, organized and formidable, the kind you expect to see again a few movies down the road. So the actor is good, my ears are under review, and the organization outlasts the argument.

Now the action, because there's plenty once he's allowed near it. The fights are okay, and the battle montage is, to me, necessary and exciting: without it this isn't a superhero movie, it's a war drama with a frisbee. Waifu wanted it shorter: she got the point and didn't need it repeated in all the different places. Then she called the whole gripe minor, since the plot is that good, and her last word is the ruling. What got me giggling is the aim. Hydra's troops are stormtroopers with blue lasers instead of red: every beam finds the shield or nothing, until the fodder army walks in and suddenly everyone's a marksman. Plot armor is OP on the main cast, but it makes for some pretty blue fireworks.

The ending lands, and harder the more you know what the man gave up for it. I won't go further; the last line of this movie deserves to be heard cold. Waifu's plot question of the night is about the same scene, so it stays behind the blur: when the plane is spoilergoing down into the ice, why can't he just leave? Swim away, he's a super-soldier. My answer: the impact knocks him out, he's right there in the front seat. Hers:… I just smirked. We were sleepy by then. Neither of us had a better plan for him, so we moved on.

Then the question I actually asked on the couch: is it possible that when we were younger, we were looking for more action, because that's what you expect from a superhero movie?

I agree. Waifu walked in expecting "just okay" and came out entertained, because the story is clear and takes its time: no skipped steps, nothing hurried, proper storytelling. Easily better than Thor or Iron Man 2, in her book. Story first, action second works here because it's an origin: you have to meet the kid from Brooklyn before the shield means anything. If every origin story started like this, it'd be a drag. This one did, and so far it's the better for it.

Captain America: The First Avenger: the serum built the body, the heart came with the man.