The Star Spangled Man With A Plan

There's something very, very right about the Marvel Studios movies of the last five years. I love Christopher Nolan's Batman Triology, I think they are master films. But somewhere on his quest to create a grim and gritty reality, Chris lost the, well, fun of seeing a guy in tights fight evil.

No fun allowed!

Marvel has yet to lose the fun. Their movies are bright, colorful, fast moving and at that, pretty remarkable bits of film making. Captain America: The First Avenger, directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans as Cap himself, continues well in this vein.

Evans has proven himself in the action adventure field fairly well. In fact, last year I dubbed him "Comic Book Man," having been the only good thing about The Fantastic 4 movies, and playing sell out Lucas Lee in Scott Pilgrim. But he's perfectly in his element as Captain Steve Rogers. CGI'd down to look like a skinny weakling for the first forty five minutes, Evans still shines through as the Brooklyn kid with a heart of gold who just wants to serve his country.

But then things get fun. The fangirl in me loves the Marvel Studio movies because they do very well on the hottie front! Not to sound like a bad stand up, but sometimes you just need a little eye candy, amirightladies? Now even once he's suped up on Dr. Abraham Erksine's (played to lovable perfection by Stanley Tucci) syrum which turns him into the perfect physical soldier, he's no Chris Hemsworth, but Evans is dreamy in that All American, throw a baseball, drink a beer, backseat of a Chevy kind of way. (As opposed to the Broody Norse God running through the rain kind of way...*sigh*)

Seriously, Sexiest.Thing.Ever.

Captain America ups the hottie ante, though, with Sebastian Stan as Roger's best friend James "Bucky" Barnes, and wait for it...Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark!

Close Second

Yes, that's right, not only is Howard Stark a prominent part of the film, but he's played by the absolutely smoldering Cooper, (who I've been mildly obsessed with since I saw him in The History Boys on Broadway.) If this is a fictional universe where Dominic Cooper is Robert Downey Jr.'s father, I WANT TO LIVE IN THIS UNIVERSE!

But back to the movie. Captain America fights The Red Skull, played by Hugo "Agent Smith" Weaving. Seriously, folks, when he opens his mouth even when he's playing an elf king or in this case a deranged Nazi scientist who's face has been mutated to look like a well, red skull, my CSD kicks into high gear and I immediately expect him to start dodging bullets and asking if he can speak to "Mr. Anderson." But still, he was awesome.

Rounding out the cast were Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, um I mean Federal Marshal Sam Gerald...OK look, he was playing Colonel Chester Phillips, but really he was doing his Tommy Lee Jones thing, and doing it real well and Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter. I even almost forgot about that time she went to the fair with Dawson Leary she was so good. (I said almost. This is Dawson's related CSD, the deepest kind)

Of course, like all of these movies, Captain America was a set up. There's an End Game. And that End Game is The Avengers. And that's what's up next. When Steve brought down The Red Skull's plane in the middle of the ocean, his friends searched for him. They found the Tesserae (do I have that right?) but no Steve. He wound up frozen for 70 years, and was awakened in modern New York, by Nick Fury. The credits roll.

But this is Marvel, so you've got to stick around until the very last frame. After the credits we see Steve beating a hanging punching bag, which he then punches right off the ceiling. Fury enters the room and gives Steve a message. "It's time to save the world."

Then we see it in all of it's glory. The trailer for The Avengers, with it's amazing tagline "Some Assembly Required." I was too busy gaping (and I kind of had to pee) to take you through it blow by blow, but it looks fantastic. Plus I got a tingly when I saw Chris Hemsworth as Thor again, so we know that's not a passing thing...

He who is worthy...

Last night I checked out Thor in 3D. Here's the thing...I was going in very skeptical. I love superheroes. I really do. But I really wasn't sure that Thor warranted his own movie. I mean, I get it, they have the list of Avengers that Joss Whedon wants.

Joss wants magic in his comics movies. Also feminism

But really? Did we need a Thor movie? Did we especially need a Thor movie directed by Kenneth Branagh? Somehow I didn't see this working out well.

Something rotten in the state of Marvel.

I will say it when I mean it. I was wrong. This movie was fantastic. I didn't want to punch Natalie Portman in the face, which speaks a lot to how well written her character was, or how Branagh managed to reign her in. Maybe I just didn't know enough about Thor, so I couldn't see how it would work, and how the vision of a guy like Branagh could make it work.

The film begins with Jane Foster (Portman), a brilliant (and mondo hot, this is comics people, its worse than TV with everyone having to be absurdly good looking) astrophysicist on the verge of a huge discovery, racing through the desert with her assistants, Erik Selving (the AWESOME Stellan Skarsgard) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings, basically being every Kat Dennings character). They hit a man who appeared from nowhere. A beautiful, beautiful blonde shirtless man...

Sorry, I drifted off. With one, "Where did he come from?" We're transported to the magical realm of Asgard, and get regaled with Anthony Hopkins telling us about some war that the viking gods once fought against the Frost Giants? Then we meet Thor, his brother Loki, and their warrior friends who decide to go after the Frost Giants themselves, after Asgard is attacked.

After they get back is when I realized that Branagh was the man for the job. After his father Odin expells Thor from Asgard, and Loki finds out he's actually a Frost Giant and goes mega evil, that half of the movie basically becomes about Loki's epic power grab for the throne of Asgard, and Thor and friends trying to stop him. This is subject matter that works for Branagh, since he's a Shakespeare guy.

"Once more into the breach dear friends..."

The other half of the movie consists of Thor wandering around the New Mexico desert being baffled by modern conveniences and helping Jane take the next step in her research.

Also there's a scene where he runs around in the rain looking like this.

Throw in some S.H.E.I.L.D agents, a few throwaway one liners reminding us that the Marvel Film universe is alive and well, like when Loki sends down a destroyer after Thor, the S.H.E.I.L.D agents ask, "Is that one of Stark's?" and another says, "I don't know, he doesn't keep me up to speed." and when S.H.E.I.L.D. agents show up for the first time Erik gets worried, "I knew a scientist once, an expert in Gamma radiation. S.H.E.I.L.D. showed up and he was never heard from again." Don't forget to stay for the credits when we see the ultimate uniting.

The 3D was good, the movie was enjoyable and I'm looking forward the The Avengers. Overall I recommend the experience. It wasn't anywhere as strong as the Ironman movies, but it was definitely on the level with The Incredible Hulk. (The good Edward Norton one). Also there were trailers for Captain America: The First Avenger, Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Green Lantern. It's going to be a really good movie season guys!