100 Greatest Movies of All Time...That I Own. # 36 ~ Captain America: The First Avenger

Yep, you read the title correctly.

Captain America!

This was the movie that I requested (after the Avengers, natch!) when I was asked at Heroes Con after Iron Man as to what Marvel movie should follow the unprecedented success of Iron Man.

A Captain America movie, set during World War II would be the ideal way to introduce Cap to the Marvel Movie Universe.

Directed by Joe Johnston, who has had a long, varied, and not commercially a huge success at the box office... this and Thor showed that Marvel was moving forward... but at what cost?

Naturally, when the box office receipts were tallied... both were considered successes...until cast in the shadows of Iron Man, Spider-Man, or the Batman franchise.

However, the groundwork to achieve the Avengers was cast in stone, and the world is now a better place.

: )

Of course, when Marvel announced that they had cast Chris Evans as Captain America, I was skeptical.  For starters...that's the wrong hair color.  Plus, he had already made an excellent Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four franchise.

Say what you want, his Torch was great in those films.

That said, I am a huge fan of Chris Evans.  Have been ever since Not Another Teen Movie (which sadly just missed the countdown!).  Most of the time, if he is in the movie, I will definitely give it a whirl.  Heck, he was the best part of the movie The Losers as well, sticking with a comic book theme.

So anyway, Chris totally won me over in his portrayal of Steve Rogers.  From 98 pound weakling to Super Soldier, he handled both parts adeptly.  The two scenes that had me sold on this movie were both during his training:  Capturing the flag, and jumping on the grenade.

That IS Steve Rogers.

At that point, any doubts I had were gone.

Evans was surrounded by a wonderful supporting cast, including Tommy Lee Jones, quoted in the Facebook intro.  Who am I kidding?  I was sold on the film when I heard that commercial.

: )

I'm looking forward to the sequel, and very interested to see what they come up with next.


Tomorrow: A movie that Steve Rogers would have missed seeing in theaters while he was frozen on ice!