Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Directed by Joe Johnston
During World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of an organization that intends to use a mysterious device of untold powers for world domination.
31 connections found
View:
31 films that influenced this film
What critics say influenced Captain America: The First Avenger
To have a character offhandedly refer to other Nazis looking for occult relics in the desert is appropriate and fun; Johnston did effects on “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” To steal a major scene from that film for an ending, though, isn’t an homage; it’s like showing your hostess how much you liked her party by pilfering a teaspoon.
With its World War II setting and devilish German villains, Captain America immediately brings to mind Raiders of the Lost Ark and director Joe Johnston's earlier effort The Rocketeer.
Between the old-fashioned, gung-ho score by Alan Silvestri and the loving attention to WWII period detail, Captain America at times recalls (without ever being as good as) Steven Spielberg's wartime adventure yarn Raiders of the Lost Ark .
Most of the big moments from the trailer are actually part of a brief montage in the film, but there is a nice aerial attack sequence which pays homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark (additionally there’s an all-too-obvious Wilhelm Scream in the film) and a few nice smaller moments that keep the blood flowing.
“Captain America: The First Avenger” is a high-spirited, gee-whiz adventure in the tradition of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the matinee serials that inspired it.
Director Joe Johnston may have used Raiders of the Lost Ark as a template in regards to keeping a 40’s serial feel about the film, but he avoided anything that could be considered a ripoff or a tired cliches.
His hordes of robotic super-troopers recall both Star Wars and Universal Soldier.
The film's director, Joe Johnston, began his career as a Star Wars designer, going on to work on the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park series.
Visual chicanery comes into play with Hugo Weaving, whose Red Skull looks like something out of the Star Wars cantina.
Comparisons to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sagas are inevitable given both the serial-style nature of Captain America as well as some of the content (namely a motorcycle chase that echoes the speeder bike pursuit from Return of the Jedi, and a climactic scene that recalls the face-melting finale of Raiders of the Lost Ark); however, in borrowing from the best, director Johnston and company turn out an adventure that also stands shoulder to shoulder beside them.
Then again, perhaps Hollywood didn't quite forget, since Johnston got a second chance at a traditional period superhero story with the 2011 picture Captain America: The First Avenger.
Oh, and Joe Johnston (“Captain America: The First Avenger”) directs “The Rocketeer,” about a young pilot who ends up taking on a Nazi spy and his henchmen--which, for Johnston, at least, makes Captain America the second avenger.
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (co-writers of "The Chronicles of Narnia" series) wrote the screenplay, and Joe Johnston ("The Rocketeer," "Jumanji," "October Sky") directed it.
What also came as a surprise in “The First Avenger” was how similar the film felt to director Joe Johnston’s first comic book movie, 1991′s “The Rocketeer.”
Instead director Joe Johnston, who made the better and more focused “The Rocketeer,” seems intent on impressing us with larger and larger sets and populating the screen with armies foreign to any known battlefield let alone the product of the WWII period.
While his remake of The Wolfman was critically blasted (with the exception of this humble critic), Johnston’ 1991 film The Rocketeer still stands as an underrated WWII era tale of adventure, heroism, and good vs evil.
The action sequences recall everything from Carol Reed 's "Night Train to Munich," in scenes involving derring-do in the Alps, to Alfred Hitchcock 's "Foreign Correspondent," as in the climactic air battle pitting America Himself against the Red Skull high over the Atlantic.
Advertisement
Alan Silvestri’s music reminded me of John Williams’ soaring score for the 1978 “Superman,” while director Johnston’s frequent collaborator Shelly Johnson’s cinematography captured nicely the period design work by big budget production designer Rick Heinricks.
At first, it seems as though the latest such entry in the current superhero cycle, "Captain America: The First Avenger" has just such a secret ingredient in its cheerfully old-fashioned approach in regards to both its World War II-era setting and the kind of wholeheartedly innocent and uncynical take on the material not seen in this kind of film since the original "Superman" way back in 1978.
The action sequences recall everything from Carol Reed 's "Night Train to Munich," in scenes involving derring-do in the Alps, to Alfred Hitchcock 's "Foreign Correspondent," as in the climactic air battle pitting America Himself against the Red Skull high over the Atlantic.
There are percentage of people who feel that these movies need to have an edge to them, as if there would be anyone willing to bankroll a Captain America movie that channels the spirit of Inglourious Basterds.
There are borrowings from the superior Raiders of the Lost Ark (for which Captain America's director won a visual effects Oscar) and it's altogether inferior to Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
An anarchic spirit was needed in its revisionist treatment of WWIIthink Quentin Tarantino's 2009 masterwork " Inglourious Basterds "but here it's simply rendered vague and flavorless.
Of course, costume designer Anna B. Sheppard (who recently dressed Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds) knows enough to avoid directly recreating the Captain America costume, with its blue tights, red pirate boots, U.S. flag torso, and silly headpiece with the little wings on the temples.
Set in the 1940s (with brief contemporary based bookend segments), it's yet another "origins" story and is something of a companion piece to "Inglourious Basterds" in terms of reimagining WWII.
I should confess upfront, although I like Chris Evans and thought he was great as Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four , I wasn’t sure how to feel about his casting as Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in the new Marvel film Captain America: The First Avenger …
Stepping up to wear the red, white and blue is Chris Evans, previously seen in similar fare such as The Fantastic Four and The Losers.
Advertisement
I thought I even caught a whiff of one of my favorite films, Preston Sturges’s Hail the Conquering Hero, which also centers on a 4F who dreams of fighting in World War II — but doesn’t have a scientist to pump him full of supersizing chemicals.
On the other hand, the best superhero films of recent years have been the ones that have included an extra ingredient to the mix to set them apart from the others--the quirky Robert Downey Jr. performance in "Iron Man," the gritty, heist film aesthetic of "The Dark Knight" and the retro-cool Swinging 60's vibe of "X-Men: First Class" to name three of the most obvious examples.
Yet, something about the flick makes it feel somewhat second-rate compared to the best entries of its genre (it's no original "Superman" for pure adaptation or "The Dark Knight" for taking comic book movies to a new level).
For what it’s worth, “Cap” is better than “Thor” and not as well-acted as “X-Men: First Class” but not remotely in the league of “The Dark Knight” or “Spider-Man 2,” if you go by the Official Comic Book Movie Rankings, a scale debated over Big Gulps of Mountain Dew in countless parents’ basements worldwide.
That sentiment, the idea that even when made inhumanly powerful he will retain his compassion and aspire to be “not a perfect soldier, but a good man,” is a tonic change from the bleak vision of The Dark Knight and the unpleasant overdogging of Green Lantern.
Taking a cue from successful direction in superhero films such as The Dark Knight, Johnston always keeps the audience focused on the characters.