MCU Rewatch Part 3 - First and Other Avengers

Captain America: The First Avenger is where the Marvel Cinematic Universe really starts to come together, especially when it comes to the tone. That tone is there in Thor, but that movie still feels like Marvel Studios inching closer to “comic book” storytelling while still feeling like a 2000-2008 superhero movie when it comes to realism and production design. Coincidentally or not, Disney acquired Marvel at very end of 2009, and this was the first film to start shooting after that transition. The First Avenger begins to move away from Favreau and towards something that feels more like classic Marvel comics.

Beyond producer Kevin Feige, there are four ‘architects’ of the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first is Jon Favreau, as Iron Man laid the groundwork and the success to allow them to push further. Two of the others are writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote this film, the other two Captain America films, Thor: The Dark World, did a script polish on the first Guardians of the Galaxy, and also wrote Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame before exiting the MCU. Joss Whedon is the fourth, as he did revisions on The First Avenger, wrote and directed the first two Avengers movies, and a bunch of coordinating work behind the scenes during Phase 2 between his two Avengers.

Having positioned The First Avenger as a period piece about Steve Rogers’ (Chris Evans) adventures during World War II, and Markus and McFeely use the opportunity to flesh out the history of the MCU.

The most important of these may be including young Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper, here) as a supporting character. We see an exhibition–similar to the Stark Expo we saw in Iron Man 2–where Stark shows off a hovercar, which helps to pave the way for the more fantastical elements of this and any other film to take place after. But even more impactful is his presence during Cap’s rescue mission. Here, we see him as the womanizing thrill-seeker we know his son to be. It’s an interesting wrinkle that not only retroactively adds some more complexity to the older version we see in Iron Man 2, but having the elder Stark and Captain America interact also directly sets up a a good chunk of the Iron Man-Captain America relationship in the future films. It’s a deft bit of world-building, and manages to avoid that prequel feeling of ‘coincidentally they were connected the whole time’ by including it with Cap’s first appearance.

As for the rest of the film, Joe Johnston was absolutely the correct choice to direct. Beyond his work on Star Wars, not only was he the art director for Raiders of the Lost Ark, but he also directed The Rocketeer, which was also a 1930s period action film with a key fantastical element. All of these films share a dieselpunk aesthetic, featuring machines that resemble the creations of history, as well as a strong sense of pulp adventure that drops cynicism from the equation in order to balance the inherent darkness of World War II. This extends to the casting choices, as Chris Evans’ Captain America (and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes) perfectly embodies this contrast, while also not being too naive. Cap chooses to fight because of how important it is, rather than personal glory. Sure, he’s a wide-eyed kid from Brooklyn, but it is his moral and ethic code that requires him to go to war more than any other factor. Of course, that is what makes him a hero, even before he gets the super-soldier serum.

Johnston and Marvel put a lot of care into making sure this movie worked. Arguably one of the riskiest films in this whole series given the period setting and the concern that general audiences would be bored by Captain America’s lack of complexity. So Marvel went and got the big guns for supporting roles. The first act of this film heavily relies on Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones to deliver a huge amount of exposition, but also ground a film that has to move quickly in order to hit all of the story being covered. Both are restrained (even with Tucci’s thick German accent), and Jones manages to get just enough out of the strock ‘army commander who doesn’t have the patience for bull’ to ground the more outlandish elements of the film in the realistic war scenario. He’s like a crabby uncle that doesn’t have time for this nonsense, but he still clearly cares for those around him. He’s also a great foil for Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull, even if they never share a scene (it comes out best when he tears into a steak in front of Toby Jones’ Arnim Zola) in the way they view war and power. 

Each of these supporting characters has their own story, but Peggy Carter is the most interesting of them all. Hayley Atwell is a great choice, and is able to show a few different aspects to the character over the course of the film. Yes, she develops romantic feeling for Steve Rogers, but she also demonstrates her frustration with how women are treated in this time period, as well as an unflappable confidence. It keeps her character from feeling like she is there as the love interest, and again, allows the story to develop this idea, until we get to the heartbreaking moments at the end of the film. The romantic and sexual tension between Steve and Peggy is palpable, and one of the reasons The First Avenger remains one of my favorite MCU entires is because of their chemistry. Their desire for each other is palpable, and it only underscores how few of these movies have romantic plots, let alone ones that work and don’t have the women come off as cold (Thor is maybe the other great one, but I wish the sequels had done a better job with that).  

This film sets out to accomplish so much, and the fact that it succeeds as well as it does is impressive even 7 years later. This includes the effect of pre-transformation Steve, which still looks great. The rushed pacing results is a bit of overusing montage, but it is hard to argue against having such a long first act, especially given it is establishing a character that needs to carry across so many films. 

The Avengers is still my pick for the best superhero movie since 1977’s Superman. It manages to capture the spirit and functionality of comic books, yet that spirit is translated to cinema in a way that is appropriate for this medium. Not only does this film prove that Marvel’s “shared universe” (a thing they also basically invented in comics) was a bet worth making, from both creative and box office standards, but it also started a sort of shared universe arms race that has only been successfully replicated once since the release of this film, by DC Comics…on The CW. If anything, that proves how difficult this is to accomplish. 

And the trick that The Avengers pulls is that it is essentially a long first two acts of exposition followed by a third act comprising mostly of one of the greatest action sequences ever committed to film. We open with a prologue that establishes the villain (Loki), and the scale of the threat (the Tesseract can rip open holes in space, regular humans barely escape with their lives). Then we move onto getting the team together, and establishing the relationships between our heroes. None of which go smoothly, of course. Whedon’s skill as an ensemble cast writer is seen in getting the fundamental nature of these relationships down perfectly. 

Even as a comics fan, the relationship between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner (now played by Mark Ruffalo) is a revelation. While many of Marvel’s superheroes are the byproduct of science-based accidents (save Thor), Stark seeing them each as people who carry a burden but handle them differently is a brilliant insight. And with or without Loki’s influence, Steve and Tony’s relationship is the core of these films from this point forward. They have opposing points of view, and by the time of Civil War, have reversed positions entirely in a way that feels believable, with Cap even more cynical about government power, and Tony feeling even more helpless in the face of what he sees as a huge responsibility. While one could dismiss much of Whedon’s dialogue as overly quippy, all of the verbal jabs are grounded in each character and their own perspective. 

And then there’s the third act in New York. It is still the best action sequence in any superhero film, with an excellent sense of geography and a perfect mix of thrills and character moments. Seeing the team come together before our eyes remains extremely satisfying. And while Whedon’s script gives them all a personal grudge against Loki, their priority remains saving civilians from threats that regular people can’t contend with. It’s an aspect of the genre too often forgotten (even in Marvel’s own films) when trying to give finale’s emotional stakes for the heroics. But also, a big contrast that is noticeable going back to this movie now is how unpolished these characters are. There’s no superhero landings, and they feel like a scrappy team up against actually impossible odds. I can’t remember the last time I felt that the heroes were underdogs in these movies.

The entire film was shot in 1.85:1, as decided by Whedon cinematographer Seamus McGarvey (Atonement, Anna Karenina, The Hours), which gives a less wide picture, but helps capture everyone from the Hulk to Scarlett Johansson within the same frame. But it also helps to keep the literal height of the battlefield in scope as the camera zips around midtown Manhattan. From the streets up to the rooftops, those pans where we move from Hawkeye to Hulk, to Iron Man, to Captain America, it is easy to reference where everyone is in relation to each other. 

While not a flawless film entirely (some of the costume choices are already looking a little less modern than perhaps intended, I’m looking at you, Thor), there’s no way to convince me that The Avengers is not a perfect movie. 

Ranking after this viewing: