Captain America: Not bad for a 2-hour trailer! (Updated)
What could lure us out of the house on a rainy Sunday afternoon best spent at home in bed with the NYRB edition of Fortunes of War, The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning, with breaks for ensaymada and hot chocolate?
Chris Evans, that’s what! We’re all Chris Evans fans—some of us since Cellular, some since the singularly non-fantastic Fantastic Four, and myself since Sunshine, the Danny Boyle movie in which they fly to the sun to turn it back on. Our admiration of Chris has survived stuff like The Loss of A Teardrop Diamond, London, The Losers—which had me a little worried because he was playing the third banana, and that psychic powers movie where Dakota Fanning wiped the floor with him. But with Captain America Chris is back in the lead, in the title role, in a hit which would beget a franchise if it weren’t obviously a trailer for The Avengers.
Yes it is a two-hour trailer for The Avengers directed by our beloved Joss Whedon. We should’ve guessed from the title Captain America: The First Avenger. But it is a highly enjoyable trailer, and 1,000 times better than Green Lantern—DC should weep. Chris plays puny Steve Rogers who wants to fight Nazis but can’t get into the US Army because he’s so scrawny. Fortunately scientist Stanley Tucci has created an amazing potion etc etc etc. Tommy Lee Jones throws in some deadpan lines and Hayley Atwell is the feisty love interest. Hugo Weaving, whom we recently heard as the overacting Megatron in Transformers 3: The Last One, We Promise, is the overacting evil Nazi Red Skull. Sebastian Stan is Bucky the obligatory superhero bro. We’re always happy to see Dominic Cooper, but we were especially pleased to see him playing Howard Stark.
The World War II setting and the period costumes reminded me of the Indiana Jones movies, which reminded me of the Indiana Jones theme music by John Williams. Remember when movie themes were memorable? You can’t think of Indiana Jones being chased by a boulder or dispatching a sword-wielding goon without going “Dun da dan dan dun da daaan—” (but quietly because people will look at you). The music of Captain America and just about every movie I’ve seen since Up (wonderful theme by Michael Giacchino) feels generic, as if it had been written by a machine.
Digital effects are generally used to make someone look amazing, but here they’re used to make Chris Evans puny. Because the real-life Chris already looks like a superhero. By the way Miguel Ramos of National Bookstore saw him at Comic-Con. Miguel was waiting to meet with publishers or something when some guys turned up and said, “Would you mind if we stand here for a bit?” They were going to appear at a panel and they wanted a moment to breathe before pandemonium broke out. Miguel looked up from his comics…and it was Chris Evans. It’s Captain America! Miguel thought. I’ll ask him to sign my comic book! No wait, this is his only quiet time before the chaos, I should give him his privacy. But Captain America must sign my comic book! And while Miguel wrestled with his conscience Chris Evans went to his panel.
Since Iron Man we’ve learned to sit through the end credits to await the teaser. We got a preview of The Avengers ending with Robert Downey Jr patting Chris Hemsworth’s ginormous bicep. Then the screen went black and the movie theatre muzak came on—that mushy song that starts, “Can I touch you..?”
Manny and I recalled the theme from the primitive Captain America cartoon:
And that’s not the worst of the bunch. My sister and I used to sing our own version of The Incredible Hulk theme: “Doctor Banner/Affected by gamma rays/Turns into the Hulk, Pretty and glamorous!” By the way Mark Ruffalo takes over as The Hulk in The Avengers, with Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. These are excellent actors of human dimensions. How will Chrisses Evans and Hemsworth fit on the same screen?! It must be IMAX.
I’ve mentioned my four-year-old niece Mika, right? We don’t get along because she demands adoration and I think she’s the return of Koba Stalin. But it turns out we have something in common. Her favorite movie is Thor. Ask her why, and she’ll say, “Thor!” and clap. Well my sister took her to see Captain America, and during the first 20 minutes when Steve Rogers was wimpy Mika kept fidgeting and turning around in her seat to chat up some kids in the next row (She’s very sociable). But when Steve Rogers got his musculature Mika clapped and said, “Yay!” We do have the same genes.
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CORRECTION. According to my sister, Mika did not only applaud big, ripped Captain America—when he saves the prisoners she gave him a standing ovation, cried “I love you, Captain America!” and blew him a kiss. Bakla ang pamangkin ko.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 1st, 2011 at 17:21
Love your niece! If given the chance, I’m sure she’ll clap at those billboards along EDSA too.
August 1st, 2011 at 19:54
I’ve been a Chris Evans fan since that doltish Not Another Teen Movie (I tried to convince myself it was ‘nice’ parody/pastiche but it was ostensibly the whipped cream scene that made me stick around) and I liked Loss of a Teardrop Diamond–I remember queueing for it when everybody else was watching a Transformers flick.
It (Loss) had Bryce Dallas Howard and Ann-Margret and The Meryl’s daughter, so I said I needed to watch it, apart from it being Tennessee Williams’s brainchild of course. And I remember seeing it alone since my friends ALL declined despite my promises of paying for their tickets. Yeah, some friends, hah.
Haven’t seen London though. Will watch Captain tomorrow! Not alone this time.
August 1st, 2011 at 22:43
It still does not compute that Cap and The Human Torch are the same person. I don’t really care whether or not the Fantastic Four movies were terrible, I liked them anyway.
August 2nd, 2011 at 13:33
“All those who chose to oppose his shield must wieeeeeld!”
Nag-nostalgia trip ako when I saw the retro Capt. America intro–spent two hours searching youtube for more of those old cartoon clips from the 90’s. The internet is not going to let us be grownups.