CAPTAIN AMERICA finally settles on its lead
CAPTAIN AMERICA finally settles on its lead
Mar 23
That’s right, Chris Evans has officially accepted the role of Steve Rogers / Captain America in Marvel’s upcoming superhero flick. Yeah, Chris Evans was in the Fantastic Four movies, but because they weren’t produced by Marvel, and because they’re getting rebooted anyway, apparently Chris Evans is allowed to also be Steve Rogers without causing the Marvel multiverse to implode upon itself. Or something. Anyway this Captain America flick is going to be prefixed The First Avenger, in order for Marvel to be able to bring the Hulk, Iron Man, and next year’s Thor together with Captain America in a big old Avengers flick in a couple of years’ time. Yup, Marvel’s got big plans, and they’re definitely moving on them.
Wait a minute — isn’t Chris Evans a terrible actor? You’d be forgiven for thinking this if you’ve only seen him in Fantastic Four and Push and The Nanny Diaries, but under the right direction Evans is more than a pretty set of abs: see Danny Boyle’s best film Sunshine for evidence of this. He doesn’t even get his shirt off in the whole movie. It’s that serious! So that’s good news, but then I remembered who’s in charge of directing this Captain America flick — Joe Johnston. His last good movies were 20 years ago: Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and The Rocketeer. His more recent efforts are less impressive: Jumanji, Jurassic Park 3, Hidalgo, The Wolf Man — it’s like a calling-card of mediocrity. Considering what crimes he committed especially in Jurassic Park 3, and The Wolf Man, it’s likely that even Captain America’s hallowed source material won’t be treated right. There’s a pattern here, and it doesn’t bode well for Captain America.
Back to that Avengers business — remember when Samuel L Jackson appeared in Tony Stark’s apartment in the stinger for Iron Man? And how Robert Downey Jr. rocks up at the bar at the end of the rebooted The Incredible Hulk? They’re trying to plant seeds early and build up a consistent and homogenous comic book universe in film which is, as far as I know, an entirely new and untested trick as far as Hollywood is concerned. Building subtle links between movies like this almost guarantees flow-on business as consumers flock to the new movie because it’s kind of like a sequel, and in this case, The Avengers is going to come out last and act as a sequel of sorts to Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. Big bucks for Marvel, and an interesting experiece for us humble movie-goers. We’ve had direct sequels and even spin-offs before, but never chronologically consistent and complimentary films from various individual franchises tie together like this. It’ll be interesting to see how it comes along.
Finally, you might be wondering what Captain America is all about, especially if you, like me, don’t live in America and consequently find the character a little bit tacky and a tiny bit racist. Well, story goes that Steve Rogers (a quintessentially American name if ever there was one) is a sickly, frail bloke who gets injected with some super-serum to make him big and tough and manly and more American, and he’s then used as a secret weapon to turn the tide of World War II in favour of the “good guys”. Captain America has an indestructible shield (symbolism!) which he uses both defensively and offensively, but besides his super strength, martial arts prowess and increased tactical intelligence no other super powers are mentioned. Gung-ho patriotism and worldwide warfare don’t go well together any more, especially since Saving Private Ryan showed us what war was actually like, so I don’t know how well the WWII sequences in the Captain America film will play out, and I can only guess how they’ll be received by the public.
Either way, Captain America will generate a lot of business and will be an interesting watch, especially for international viewers. Here’s hoping Johnston pulls his head in and works closely to a well-written script, there’s no need to repeat the Wolf Man debacle.
Captain America begins shooting at the end of June in the UK; expect a mid-2011 release
If you have seen any of Kevin Smith's early films, such as Chasing Amy, Mall Rats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, there are references to fictional places, such as Mooby's, pop-culture icons, like Bluntman and Chronic, and characters, like Jay and Silent Bob, that keep appearing to help set up a “Kevin Smith” universe where pretty much all his films are set. I think it's sort of what marvel is doing now, and I think its a great idea. As a comic-book reader myself, it is not uncommon for Spider-man to swing into an X-men comic, or DareDevil to get into fights with the Punisher (why haven't they made a good movie with either of those characters yet!), so it seems right that they know each other in the movies too. Even Batman and Superman help eachother out, so we could see the same thing happen to the DC universe.
Yeah I've noticed that in comics there's a consistent universe, which is a fun idea. Seen Iron Man 2 yet? Plenty of that going on.