We are so close to the end of Phase One!! We’ve been introduced to Iron Man, Thor, the Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye! Now it’s time to meet the final Avenger, and Marvel saved the best for last! This week we are looking at Captain America!!!
Plot
Steve Rogers is a small guy with one desire: to fight for his country. However, Steve is riddled with health issues and can’t enlist in the army. All that changes though when he meets a scientist by the name of Dr. Abraham Erksine who selects Steve to participate in a Super Soldier experiment. With this experiment, not only could Steve’s life change, but so could the course of the second world war!
Villain
The villain is the leader of HYDRA (the scientific research division of the Nazi regime) the Red Skull aka Johanne Schmidt. Besides being the leader of HYDRA, Red Skull is a competent fighter in his own right. He was the original subject for the Super Soldier experiment. The experiment went awry though and Schmidt was deformed into the Red Skull. Although he was deformed, Red Skull was still a brilliant strategist and an excellent leader for HYDRA. Red Skull found the glowing blue cube known as the Tesseract which brought limitless power and almost succeeded in using it to help the Hitler win World War II. Although Red Skull did become the origin of multiple memes, Red Skull never really got a worthy finish. Besides one brief encounter with Captain America, Red Skull doesn’t really have much of a connection with the American hero. Even their final fight is underwhelming. The two fight for a few moments and then Red Skull is disintegrated by the Tesseract. There has been speculation as to whether or not Red Skull died, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing him again any time soon.
Best Scene
The best scene from Captain America isn’t an action scene by any means. Although the film has great action, I think the best scene of the film is the final interaction between Captain America and Agent Carter. Throughout the entire film, Steve mentions how he has never asked a girl to dance because he hasn’t found the “right partner.” It’s completely obvious though that Steve and Agent Carter are meant to be. At the end of the film though after Captain America has stopped Red Skull, the only way that he can save the world is by crashing the HYDRA ship into the ocean. Captain America says goodbye to Agent Carter and it makes for one of the saddest scenes the MCU has ever conceived. The two never got that dance together… *sobs uncontrollably*
Stan Lee Cameo
This one is quite comical. When Steve finally gets enlisted into the war, it isn’t exactly as he wanted. Instead of becoming an actual soldier, Steve becomes Captain America: a character created to sell war bonds. After leading a private mission to save his friend Bucky Barnes and other Allies, Captain America is unable to make his future tour dates. One of his meetings though didn’t get the memo and they make the embarrassing mistake of introducing Captain America who is a no show. The man making the introduction is met by a smaller coworker and when he walks out, Stan Lee (who is an American general) says “I thought he’d be taller” thinking the man who came out was in fact Captain America.
Post Credits Scene
This actually should be called the Post Credits trailer because although it does show a singular scene, the post credits actually show a brief trailer of what’s to come in the next Marvel film, The Avengers! Beginning with the actual post credits scene, Captain America is seen hitting a punching bag until Nick Fury arrives. Captain asks if Fury is “trying to get him back into the world,” and Nick states he’s simply, “trying to save it.” We are then shown a mini trailer of scenes from the upcoming Avengers movie and it is purely glorious! This was the point that the MCU was finally going to see its worth. Marvel had made multiple successful superhero movies up until this point, but the main objective was to see how profitable a shared universe could be. Spoiler, the answer is “extremely successful.”
Final Thoughts
Many think of Iron Man as one of the best MCU origin movies, but I’m here to tell you that Captain America: The First Avenger is superior to Iron Man. Not only does it create a great origin story, it also adds more emotional impact than any other MCU movie had up until this point! Along with that, there are plenty of great performances in this film. Besides the obviously great performance in Steve Roger, Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hugo Weaving also steal the show! Although Chris Evans is heralded as the hero of the movie, the other star of the movie is Hayley Atwell’s Agent Peggy Carter. Agent Carter was such a memorable character that she got her own TV series that was cut way shorter than it should’ve! There is plenty to love with Captain America: The First Avenger and I think it was the best preview for Avengers that Marvel could’ve hoped for! Next to Iron Man, there’s no better Avenger than Captain America!
The Magical World of Dids 