It’s been a while since I’ve seen a lot of these films, and Captain America: First Avenger has been quite a while as well. So how did it stack up against what I had remembered and where it was in my MCU Movie Rankings that I did after Endgame came out. Obviously, I need to rewatch everything again to see if anything else is going to shift around, but the quick summary is that I enjoyed watching Captain America: First Avenger again. I don’t think it’s without it’s flaws and compared to the origins of Iron Man and Thor, I think that it’s weaker. There will be spoilers, but this movie has been out for a long time.

I think that this movie starts off strong. I like the story of Steve Rogers and how he becomes Captain America. The whole time he’s applying for army, you feel for him, and you get a good idea of how loyal he is and how strong his convictions are. And then getting stuck encouraging people to buy bonds feels like something that would legitimately happen. I think the only part of the story to that point that feels a bit odd is the Hydra Agent blowing up everything, mainly I feel like that part of the opening of the movie was a bit rushed. Beyond that though, up through rescuing Bucky and the others is great. Unfortunately the movie starts to fall apart for me there.

What really makes it feel off is the montage sequence. If you don’t remember, it’s a sequence where Captain America and the Howling Commandos, that’s what the group run by Dum Dum Dugan is called, are just running around and punching Hydra Agents again and again. For a montage sequence to work well, you need to feel like the character is progressing towards a goal or learning something, and in this case, the montage doesn’t really provide that. You’re supposed to be getting the idea that they are cornering the Red Skull, but it doesn’t feel that way. It’s just punching some anonymous bad guys and cheering because Captain America is a hero who is beating up the bad guys. This could be a bit of nod to the fact that he punched an anonymous Hitler over and over again with the War Bond shows he was putting on, but it didn’t feel that way, it just felt like rah rah hero fighting without any purpose to it.

That’s where it starts to come apart for me, and then it continues with the actual getting to the Red Skull. Again too much punching of anonymous bad guys. Then getting captured and then getting rescued. I think the issue I have is less about that, but instead because you don’t feel like by the end of the montage that the Red Skull is much of a threat at all. I mean, we all knew that Captain America was going to win anyways, but they had done a decent job building Red Skull early in the movie, but at the end, you feel almost like he’s just another anonymous bad guy for Captain America to beat up.

Now, all of this seems like a lot of a knock on the movie. And I do think it makes it one of the weaker movies, but it’s easy to pick out what you don’t like in the film. I do want to go back and talk some things that I really want to point out how good they are. Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter works so well, and you feel like she has feelings for Steve Rogers, more so after he’s Captain America and not tiny and scrawny, but she clearly respected him and liked his attitude better than any of the other large guys who they were training, and she liked the fact that his personality didn’t change. Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones were also good in their roles. I wish we could have had more time with Tucci on the screen, but when he was on the screen he was great. It makes sense why his character died and it was needed. Finally, Howard Stark, played by Dominic Cooper is really enjoyable. You feel like the confidence that he exudes and his cockiness and you can see why Tony Stark would end up the way he did based off of Howard’s portrayal.

And I realize that I forgot one, Toby Jones as Dr. Arnim Zola, I don’t think I had realized how well he played his character. I wonder if they were planning that he’d infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning or not, but if they did, he played that out well on screen and you can see some of his quirks that I hadn’t paid that much attention to before. In particular, I like how you can see into his mind with how he has no qualms about building weapons for people to kill people with, but he doesn’t want to see them used. His character feels like he’s, in some ways, as much in control as Red Skull is, which in some ways plays out in a future movie, but I’ll save that for that review. Toby Jones just does a great job of playing that brilliant and almost scared character.

Finally, I think that the CGI and special effects hold up well in this film. I was a little bit surprised considering how much they’ve advanced or seemed to advance in the past few years. But Captain America still looks good, and putting Chris Evans head on the scrawny body works. It didn’t feel uncanny and it didn’t look like it was poor CGI. I had thought that it might not hold up with the Red Skull or something like that, but I feel like, and this was obviously when Marvel was still ramping up, it did a good job for what had to have been a pretty small budget.

So, like I said, I don’t know that this movie is going to move up. As much as I remembered how well I liked the first half of the film, the second half falls apart some for me. And I think, like we’ll see with Thor soon, Chris Evans has to grow into the role of Captain America. I also wish, with the future films, they had done a call back to something that Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci’s character) had said, about how the super soldier serum doesn’t just make you bigger and stronger, but it makes you more of who you were before. And I think that’s something that they could have leaned into a whole lot more, especially with Captain America: Civil War. I also think that if we were to get this film now, the film would be stronger, because they know what they are doing better, but also because they wouldn’t be as worried about leaning into a 1940’s aesthetic and tropes, which I feel like they did once in a while, but generally felt a bit out of place when they did.

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So what would I want in a Fantastic Four film?

First, I don’t think I want an origin story. I think it would be cool if they were the ones who bought Stark/Avengers Tower in New York City. It would make a lot of sense to get them loosely tied into something. I also think it would be interesting to have the Avengers Tower, or Baxter Building as it would be known now, to come under attack with someone looking for something that Stark or the Avengers had left there. We get the idea that Reed Richard, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and The Thing have just been doing their thing, but are now being pulled into the world, I’d even give Reed and Sue their kids in the film, so we get something a bit different into the MCU, the actual family of powers. For a villain, I’d go with The Thinker or The Mad Thinker. The reason is that he’s tech related, and it would make sense for him to be after the Fantastic Four, but also interested in something left in Stark/Avengers Tower/Baxter Building.

So let’s get to casting, who would I want to play the various members of the Fantastic Four?

Reed Richards
What I’m Looking For – Someone who is a bit older to fill in this roll. I want them to have kids, and for me, Reed Richards should be older than Sue Storm by a little bit.

Sue Storm
What I’m looking For – I want someone who gives off some mother vibes, but also can be a fun character. Someone who can play supportive for Reed Richards and her kids, but also be impulsive enough to go off and do her own thing.

Johnny Storm
What I’m Looking For – Johnny Storm should be someone who is brash. Someone who has that swagger on the screen whether they’ve earned it or not, because they think they are awesome.

The Thing/Ben Grimm
What I’m Looking For – This should be portrayed by an actor who can get the depth of The Thing right. Someone who can see the Ben Grimm through The Thing, since The Thing isn’t just a monster.

Let’s get these characters cast…

Ben Grimm/The Thing – Ron Perlman
He’s the original Hellboy and I think that he’d be able to nail the gruff while tragic character. I like Perlman’s work generally, and think that he’d be able to pull it off. He can also be that deadpan character when need be for humor purposes.

Johnny Storm – Zac Efron
Probably too big a name to play Johnny Storm, but I think that he’d make a lot of sense in the roll. He plays that overconfident character well and Johnny is meant to be a bit comedic, but mainly just overconfident, and Efron seems like an actor who would make that work well.

Sue Storm – Kristen Bell
She just plays such sweet characters now. But we’ve seen her play that headstrong character in Veronica Mars. I think between Veronica Mars and now her sweet character, but still independent character in The Good Place, she’d fill the roll nicely. Now, she and Efron don’t look a ton alike, but even in the comics Sue and Johnny don’t look a ton like siblings.

Reed Richards – Andrew Lincoln
You know him from The Walking Dead, but he has the look that I think you’d want for Reed Richards, that serious character. He needs to be able to play the family man, but also someone who is smart and not always socially adept. I haven’t seen much of The Walking Dead, but I think that Andrew Lincoln would work quite well.

How about the Villains?

What you are really wondering about is Doctor Doom, The Silver Surfer and Galactus. I don’t think think we’ll get any of those characters in the first film, so I’m going to stick with my choice for a villain, The Thinker, with a bonus of Doctor Doom who might be hinted at.

The Thinker – Stanley Tucci
Tucci just seems to do well in most roles, and I see this as a one off role for him. He would be able to overact it a little bit, which would be fine for the sort of movie I want it to be.

Doctor Doom – Jeffrey Dean Morgan
When I made this pick, I didn’t realize he was the actor who played Negan in The Walking Dead, but I think he’d make a good Fantastic Four foil from his work as The Comedian in Watchmen. He just has that larger than life presence on the screen without being too much.

So what do you think about the casting? Who would you want in the main four roles or playing Doctor Doom?

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