Re: The First Avenger: Captain America Discussion Thread
The footage from the Joe Johnston-directed Captain America: The First Avenger opened with a clip set in the present day, which basically answers our long-festering question of whether we'd see Captain America's frozen body being discovered in this movie or whether they'd wait until The Avengers next year. (For those who haven't read the comics, the Avengers were the ones who found Cap's iceberg in the Arctic Ocean then quickly made him their leader.)
The first clip is essentially how the movie opens with two military men meeting someone out in the colds of the Arctic and being led to an enormous egg-like object protruding out from the snow; the camera pulls away to show that it's been found in a fairly remote area with nothing around. We don't want to say too much about this opening scene except that Captain America won't be encased in an iceberg like he was in the comics, as they're going for a more realistic approach to how he gets from the WWII era to today. We will say that the scene ends with the men finding Cap's trademark shield covered in ice.
The second clip is basically the extended scene from which the trailer was taken of puny Steve Rogers--played by Chris Evans using some interesting CG techniques that may be similar to Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button--being transformed into the muscle-bound Captain America we know and love. We have to assume we'll get a lot more time with Steve Rogers in his pre-Cap state before the transformation, but the scene introduced many of the major characters including Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter who leads Steve into the laboratory where Stanley Tucci's Abraham Erskine and Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark will administer the process to turn him into a super soldier. In this scene, we also meet Tommy Lee Jones' Colonel Chester Phillips glad-handing with a visitor Senator who complains about being dragged out to a basement in Brooklyn and how they've tapped into the local power grid to power the experiment. (There is also a mention of the evil organization Hydra in their conversation, which makes us think they will play a large part in the movie as the bad guys, rather than just garden variety Nazis.)
This scene is very much about Stanley Tucci and his ability as an actor to sell the idea of scientist being able to transform an ordinary man into a muscle-bound superhuman, and it's a far more involved process than just sticking him with a needle filled with Super Soldier Serum as in the comics. As Steve is strapped into the table, there are actually multiple injections and Stark mans the controls to administer them, then the table tilts upwards and closes into something that resembles an iron maiden and Stark starts the process of blasting Rogers with something called a "Vita-Ray." Again, we won't get into specifics of the scene, but it ends with the casing opening to reveal the muscle-bound Steve Rogers. (Showing both of the lead actors shirtless seems to be the connecting thread between the two movies, possibly to attract the women who don't read comics.) Atwell's character is the first to approach him and ask how he feels, essentially the interaction from the trailer, followed by the military men, who come down from the viewing area to congratulate Erskine and Stark. One of them leaves something in his seat and when he gets downstairs, he pulls out a lighter and blows up the viewing area and in the confusion, grabs the last vial of super serum.
In the next clip, we get to see Rogers' relationships with those around him following the experiment, particularly the sexual tension between Evans and Atwell, something we see when she catches him smooching with Howard Stark's secretary - the smitten young woman wanting to reward the hunky hero for his job well-done in the field. After Carter and Rogers change barbs, he's led into Howard Stark's lab and we get to see some of the camaraderie between Rogers and Stark, who plays a fairly major role in the creation of Captain America. Stark walks Rogers through his lab showing him prototypes for a shield he can use in battle - we even briefly see the cool '40s style shield Cap used to carry before it was replaced with the circular shield that was better suited for throwing. Rogers picks up a shiny metal round shield and Stark tells him that it's a prototype made out of vibranium*, a rare metal that is impervious to anything, and when Peggy walks in, Cap asks her what she thinks and as in the trailer, she picks up a gun and shoots at him then comments, "It works." This interaction is even funnier when seen in context with the sexual tension established earlier between Evans and Atwell. (*Along with the mention of Wakanda in Iron Man 2, this certainly looks promising for Marvel doing something with Black Panther in the future, assuming of course that it wasn't part of Fox's Fantastic Four deal.)
Following those three clips, we got see a montage of action scenes from the movie, many of which we see briefly in the trailer, but there's also a scene of Captain America on his motorcycle being chased by Nazis or Hydra agents, we're not sure which.
Overall, the footage we were shown was terrific and it has gotten us even more excited for both movies. From what we saw of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, we think both movies are looking to be on par with the first Iron Man, though they each have their own identity and a unique way to approach telling a superhero origin story.
You got that right!
