New OK MCU Media Diary Part 2: Playing the Endgame

//Just this start of my deep dive into the Avengers: Endgame ended up being over two A4's long so I decided to release this as it's own thing. This is me watching the film, without going too much into the details. But there are SPOILERS//

I don’t think I ever was this excited for a film. I mean sure just a year before I was extremely excited for Avengers: Infinity War (2018) but after that ended with such a powerful cliffhanger it definitely lifted the hype for a sequel. How could Marvel Studios ever top such an amazing action adventure that represented 10 years of their film making?

I don’t often do plans ahead because commitment gives me anxiety. For the first time ever I bought a movie ticket the minute they became available. I wanted to see the new film as soon as possible. It was crazy, I was disappointed to notice later Finnkino adding more screenings for the premiere day. One of which was earlier than the one I had my ticket for. I seriously considered buying another ticket for that earlier screening. I didn’t, but it tells you how much I wanted to see this film.

Despite hating being in a crowd I chose a pretty nice people from a screening that would soon be almost filled. When waiting for the film I was anxious about million things. What if I get anxiety attack middle of the crowd? What if I get some stomache issues and have to go out? Can I survive without peeing for a film that is over 3 hours long? All these thoughts bother me all the time and especially as I was about to see the most important film ever.

I finally got to my seat maybe a minute before commercials started playing. I enjoyed the atmosphere in the theater. Especially the kids who were speculating, laughing for theories of Ant-Man in Thanos’ anus. Many were wearing Marvel related clothes (I was representing daddy Captain America). As the commercials kept going I was still nervous. I was getting anxious, wishing that it wouldn’t get unbearable.

The film begins. Everybody gets silent. I forgot all of my anxiety. I’m watching a new Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film. I laugh with the audience. I tear up time and again. I’m enjoying myself. I applaud first time in my life in a movie theater with the audience just as invested as I am. I cry with people. I feel the energy of maybe 200 other fans in the room.

Avengers: Endgame (2019) is everything I needed it to be. It’s everything I wanted it to be and so much more. It is bigger than Infinity War. Avengers: Endgame is a true celebration of 11 years of the MCU. The bigger fan you are the more it rewards you for it. It made me go through the emotions from full laugher, to devastating sadness to the child-like excitement of awesome action. 

I don’t know if I ever have the exact words to describe my experience, but I try my best. I will touch on possible flaws too, but above anything else this is my love letter to the film. For me Avengers: Endgame is perfect.

3 hours and 2 minutes of Avenging

Three hours is ridiculous length for a film. For most film ideal is around 1h 40 min to 2h 20 min in my personal experience. Depending on how it’s paced and what kind of scenes it’s filled with. But Avengers: Endgame justifies it’s runtime. I’ve seen it twice as I write this and honestly both times the time just flew.

It’s an incredible achievement really. It speaks to my love for these characters that I’m happy to sit there and just listen and watch what’s going on with them. Because Avengers: Endgame takes it’s time with them. After a quick beginning of action the film calms down and slows down for a while. It shows us what is going on with all the characters and how the recent events they experienced have affected them. Reviews I’ve seen have also pointed it out how in this film, perhaps more than ever, these superheroes are allowed to feel more human than ever.

Then when it’s time to get into the action, it truly feels deserved. We feel the stakes when the original six Avengers and few others are finally back together again and ready for their new journey. And what a glorious journey it is. The time travel offers the film a chance to visit the previous installments of the MCU. It makes the previous films all feel important, telling me that I didn’t keep rewatching them again and again for nothing. All the past films seem more important now.

As the characters visit the history of the franchise I get new perspectives to the old films. There are hilarious jokes told and more is learned of the characters. And there are a lot of surprise returns. And also a big, big heartbreaking lost that I honestly did not see coming. Definitely well told and story-wise deserved character death that definitely made me cry. Or tear up. Honestly I’m going to call it crying because that is what I was feeling.

After the amazing “time heist”, as the characters call it, it’s time for the final showdown. And I say wow. It might be all cg and green screen or whatever, I don’t give a fuck. That is the most glorious battle of the cinema history (is it better than for example the airport scene of Captain America: Civil War? Maybe not in all ways, but definitely more emotional). It’s a war against the forces of evil that sees all the heroes (still alive) from 21 previous films combining their forces to get the job done.

Battle is full of iconic moments that made me want to scream out of pure joy. Action film fan in me was happy. Marvel Comics fan in me was happy. Fan of MCU in me was happy. Moment after moment all the characters get their chance to shine. After the film I just wanted to say all the people “your favorite character is a badass” because it truly felt like every character was a star.

And then the battle ends with cinema world’s biggest superhero taking down the villain who killed half of the population of the universe. And that superhero dies for it. I heard so many people crying with me as we were saying goodbye to a friend whose adventures we had followed for so long time. But while it was sad, it was also happy. For just like with the previous character death, this too was deserved by 11 years of cinematic storytelling.

As the film wrapped up, more or less all the characters got some kind of closure. And the last scene had my favorite character getting the happy ending he always deserved. As the credits begun to roll I was incredibly satisfied. 

I sat there watching the names of the actors who brought alive these dear characters of mine. Every single one of them a huge star who could easily carry their own films. Then the six original Avengers get their names shown with their signatures as the Avengers theme tune plays loudly respecting the work these six did for us. It was an amazing experience. 

As the second part of the credits started rolling, I just sat there thinking about the experience I had. It truly was the definitive ending Marvel Studios president and producer of all their films, Kevin Feige had promised. World truly was different after the Endgame.

There was no after credit-scene. Just the beautiful red and white Marvel Studios logo with a sound of an engineer hammering a suit of armor.

Love and respect each other.

- O.K.

New OK MCU Media Diary Part 1: OK Assemble

//So I was thinking of repurposing this old course blog of mine in order to write about Avengers: Endgame. However just the first part ended up this long so consider this a sort of a prologue to the actual post. I will later ad a post about Avengers: Endgame and then sort of a look into the future of MCU. Feel free not to comment on any of my old posts, especially the "homework" ones as I'm not super sure about their quality...

More thoughts about MCU Phase 2 and 3 films can be found at my instagram (at)okspamslife //

Phase One

I actually took a pee break when I first saw Iron Man (2008) in the cinemas. One of the only two times in my life I had to take break from a film I was watching in cinemas (the second happened quite recently with Capernaum). When I first saw Iron Man I didn’t yet know how big of a deal it really was. It was an awesome superhero film for sure, but I wasn’t jumping on to the comics and I didn’t know to stay for the end-credits.

Two years later I saw Iron Man 2 (2010) and thought it was as awesome as the first one. This time I was with friends who were more aware of what was going on with Marvel Studios so we stayed for the end-credit scene. “What the fuck was up with the hammer?” My friends informed me that there was a plan to do a team-up film about a superhero group called The Avengers. Films about Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America would lead to it. That sounded way too much for me. A fucking Thor? Superhero based on an old viking god? Sounded like homework for a film. Overwhelming.

In 2011 me and my friend had both just finished our summer jobs and were able to go see more films than ever before. And 2011 was surprisingly full of superhero films. As we were watching films like Green Lantern and X-Men: First Class this trailer kept popping up. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)look amazing to my eyes. While the “America” part in the name is immediate turn off to many, brightly colored costume and World War II aesthetics of the trailer made me look past that. This film looked really fun.

I remembered how turned off I initially was about the thought of watching films for homework but trailer had me. I looked into it and Thor (2011) still had some screenings left in Helsinki. I forgot my ridiculous prejudice against these ridiculously fun ideas and rushed into a late evening screening of the film. With so little expectations I ended up really loving the film. How could such a mix work so well?

Later me and my friend saw The First Avenger as planned and as the end-credit scene it had a literal teaser trailer for The Avengers (2012). Had I ever been as hyped for a movie? Maybe with The Return of the King or Revenge of the Sith but that year of waiting was certainly new.

I did my research and found out that I had missed one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, The Incredible Hulk (2011). I watched it as it was part of the series and certainly took notice of how different it was to other films. I still think people should give it another shot as it really stands out among other Phase One (MCU films from Iron Man to The Avengers, 2008-2012) films.

I also forced my sibling to watch all the films with me and got them excited as well. I remember that we ended our marathon a night before The Avengers premiere and I went to bed wonder how the hell could I get any sleep. It’s weird because I have such a strong image of us the next day literally running through the streets of Arabianranta. And we were 19 and 18 so you know that we didn’t. But that is what these films do to you. They speak to that child in your heart that never left and never should. That is kind of why I happily still call these films for children.

The Avengers obviously blew my mind. All these weird characters from their own different adventures came together and fought the good fight together. And it was beautiful. And in the mid-credit scene this weird purple space guy smiled at us promising that these heroes would need to do it all over again. I was ready for the ride of a lifetime.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 1

Phase Two

Through the next years I got deeper and deeper into the world of Marvel. Thanks to my sibling I got introduced to the Marvel Comics and fell in love with the colorful superheroes even more. Comics provided all kinds of possibilities where films could take these characters and what kind of characters could be introduced into the mix. Marvel Studios announced their slate for the Phase Two, that would run from 2013 to 2015, consisting of six films.

Iron Man 3 (2013) showed me big time superhero dealing with anxiety attacks as I was starting to deal with my own anxiety issues at the very first time as I had just moved to Raahe. It also showed me how bitchy comics fans can be if they don’t get what they want (The Mandarin Twist). Thor: The Dark World (2013) showed me how annoying it is to live in a little town as for the first time I had to travel to another city to see it.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) was the first time since The Incredible Hulk that I completely missed MCU film in the cinemas. I was doing my internship in Basque Country and only option there was the Spanish dub of the film. Later that year I made my record of seeing a film five times in theaters with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) which blew my mind as Marvel Studios showed they really can get away with anything (as long as the lead was a white man like wtf?)

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) was the first time I noticed that maybe not everyone shares this unconditional love for this franchise as I do. This was a big disappointment as I kind of do love sharing this with other people. But! Later that year, as Marvel Studios showed they can handle a change of director month before production with Ant-Man (2015), I took my little brother to see the film with me. At the same time I was also dealing with lot of uncertainty as I had just graduated and didn’t get into any universities (I ended up staying in Raahe for another vocational degree.)

Captain America: Civil War (2016) welcomed my favorite comic book character (at least at the time, currently I’m not sure which is my favorite) Spider-Man to the MCU. And he was done right. Funny enough I almost missed Civil War too like I did The Winter Soldier because of exchange. Luckily we left week after the premiere this time.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2

Phase Three

Later Doctor Strange (2016) showed me that Marvel Studios can have the most amazing films but at the same time make very regrettable decisions as they had a huge whitewashing controversy with the character of The Ancient One. Of course Age of Ultron had similar problem but controversy never was big enough to actually be heard outside of Tumblr with that one. In the long run it did make me more critical of the things I love and also taught me that things don’t have to be perfect for me to love them.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017) made me probably even stronger impact than the first at least retrospectively as I still might get teary eyed as I think of the crying raccoon or the song Father and Son.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) I saw in all three screenings Raahe had to offer. Maybe more than any other of these films I felt like “my character” had been done right as I enjoyed this superhero film set in high-school.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) blew my mind with it’s combination of silly humor and ballsy politics I didn’t even realize were there on the first viewing.

Black Panther (2018) I got to follow as it became a global phenomenon. The power of representation was celebrated while superhero genre kept proving it’s potential and diversity. It made me invested in the Academy Awards unnecessarily hard like people do with sports. I mean WHAT THE FUCK? FUCKING GREEN BOOK? Green Book has a scene of white man teaching black man to eat fried chicken.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) was gigantic mega event that was felt around the world. Hype and wait for it was unlike for any other film. It became a huge presentation of the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was ballsy and left people completely silent when the credit started rolling. Could this ever be topped (SPOILER, it did. It’s called Avengers: Endgame)

In summer of 2018 I was dealing again with a lot of uncertainty and anxiety in life. I had graduated from my second vocational studies and I was on a reserve place for a university in Tampere. Waiting to know if I’d get in (Spoiler: I did get in). Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) was a smaller superhero comedy after magnificent Infinity War but for me in my weakened state it became a much needed escape from reality. I truly love it.

Finally March of this year, Marvel Studios released it’s first film with a solo female lead Captain Marvel (2019). Like many other films it was a nice escape from hard first year of university. It also reminded me of the toxicity of some comic book fans, who can’t handle the fact that films are made for some other people in mind as well as them. Captain Marvel was the first MCU film I saw in Tampere, and as it’s much easier here, I saw it three times.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3 (sans Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home)

Highlights

For fun, I figured I highlight a one scene from every film. Just what comes to mind first when I think of them or what really defines the film for me. Or just was funny. Let's not take this too seriously XD
Obviously SPOILERS for the films.

Iron Man: Final line: "I am Iron Man."
The Incredible Hulk: Emil Blonsky juiced with super soldier serum trying to take on the Hulk at the university.
Iron Man 2: Iron Man and War Machine fighting back to back.
Thor: Thor getting his hammer, Mjölnir, back after getting hit by the Destroyer
Captain America: The First Avenger: "I don't want to kill anybody. I just don't like bullies" or basically every scene between Steve Rogers and Doctor Abraham Erskine.
The Avengers: That iconic shot of The Avengers in a circle or the whole Battle of New York.
Iron Man 3: Iron Man saving all the people who dropped from the plain, despite having only strenght to carry four.
Thor: The Dark World: Frigga's death and funeral.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Captain America and Winter Soldier fighting in the helicarrier "To the end of the line"
Guardians of the Galaxy: Groot (Sr.) sacrificing himself, "We are Groot"
Avengers: Age of Ultron: "Like the old man said... together", Avengers coming together to fight Ultron.
Ant-Man: Ant-Man vs. Falcon
Captain America: Civil War: Airport battle scene
Doctor Strange: "It's not about you", Ancient One's final words to Doctor Strange
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2: Yondu's death and funeral
Spider-Man: Homecoming: "Come on Spider-Man!", the scene of Spider-Man getting up under the collapsed builing
Thor: Ragnarok: Thor going full God of Thunder as he starts to take on Hela's forces on the rainbow bridge
Black Panther: "Bury me to ocean like my ancestors who knew death was better than life in bondage", Killmonger's final words.
Avengers: Infinity War: Spider-Man dying in Tony Stark's arms.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Bill Foster staying with Ghost in the end.
Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers shooting Yon-Rogg in the face at the end.

All of this has lead to Avengers: Endgame (2019.) I’m writing this four nights after the premiere and I’ve already seen it twice. My next post will be a deep dive into what I think of the films, all the things I loved about it. And I love all of it. I will touch on at least one major flaw too, but mostly it’s about love.

Love and respect each other

- OK

Final Task: Fandom Wars

I got the idea for this final task from one of the many things in fandom culture that frustrates me. The pointless arguing about whether thing A or B is better. I mean there's nothing wrong about talking what you like and don't like or disagreeing with people, but it's gotten ridiculous. For example year ago when Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released, the people who didn't like the film got so mad they started to threaten and harass the creators of the film.

While the Last Jedi case is one extreme example of this,  I keep seeing these pointless fights going on. What is the better console? Who makes the best superhero films or comics? While there might be some good points too, mostly it's been just as pointless as fighting whether blue or red is the best colour. 

In this one page comic I try to illustrate what I'm seeing. The arguments people have online are represented by an physical fight in my comic. Both participant thinks of themselves as a huge and powerful warrior, fighting for the most important thing in their life. However, in the end we see that the two are actually pretty much the same, with their preferred choice of colour being the only visible difference.

Process

My process of making the comic was pretty simple. I used Adobe Photoshop and Wacom drawing tablet at school. I'm not especially great at painting or drawing, but I had good time doing it.

1. Sketching. I draw a quick simple version of the panel

2. Coloured shapes. Under the sketch I paint the characters.

3. Shadows and lights. I simply use Photoshop's dodge and burn tools to give some life to the characters. 

4. Faces. I give the characters facial features and their glasses.

5. The rest. I create the needed effects or weapons and make the simple backgrounds.

The paintings are not perfect but I'm pretty happy with the results.

Fandoms represented

Should be mentioned that the comic is based on my own experience in the past with reading things online and meeting people in real life during these 25 years I've lived. So if you haven't personally witnessed these arguments it doesn't really matter.

• Naruto vs. One Piece. Japanese comics. Represented by throwing star and stretching arm respectively
• DC Comics vs. Marvel Comics. The two big companies telling superhero stories. DC represented by Batman's bat-shaped throwing stars and Marvel by shield of Captain America
• American comics vs. Japanese comics. First represented by cape and heat vision of Superman, the second by Kamehameha-wave from Dragon Ball
• Star Wars sequel trilogy vs. Star Wars prequel trilogy. Sequels represented by crossguard lightsaber of Kylo Ren and prequels by double bladed lightsaber of Darth Maul. CALM THE FUCK DOWN.

The Comic

Here it finally is: 

Hah, that sure was silly.

Final Words

Just maybe instead of yelling about whether strawberry or raspberry is the superior berry, just celebrate how much cool stuff we have available for us? And if someone else likes something you don't try to be happy for them and get yourself something else. And have fun. And most of all love and respect each other <3

-OK

OK MCU Media Diary Part 6: Day Unlike Any Other... (The Avengers, 2012)

In 2012 when I was in full Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) mode. I had watched all the films and even forced my younger sibling to watch them as well. We were super excited for the upcoming team up film. The characters were so fun that even if the film would end up bad, it would still be good time. I know we didn't, but in my memories I see us running excited to the cinema.

The Avengers did not dissappoint. It was exactly what I wanted from a big team up movie. Lot of fun action for sure but most importantly a group of different colorful superheroes coming together and interacting with each other.

Through the years I've seen The Avengers again and again. Always loving it. It still does the job, even if I can see some flaws in it too.

The Avengers

Directed by: Joss Whedon
Screenplay by: Joss Whedon
Story by: Zak Penn, Joss Whedon
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson
Based on a team created by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

The Avengers is the sixth film in the MCU. When Asgardian god Loki (Tom Hiddleston) proves too big of a challenge for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D, Fury assembles team of superheroes to fight the battle regular humans couldn't. Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) must overcome their differences and unite in order to beat Loki and his evil alien army.

The Avengers is a blast. Superheroes from their own individual movies coming together and interacting is a blast to see. The actors play excellently together. The action in this film is just blast. Many have described it as taking your action figures as a child and makinh them fight. And that's a beautiful idea.

Avengers Assembled

The most important thing about the big team up movie is seeing your favorite heroes interact. Even though it takes about 30 minutes to get the characters together, it really is worth the wait. The whole cast does a great job portraying their characters and the quippy dialogue compliments their talent.

Especially the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans, as Tony Stark/Iron Man and Steve Rogers/Captain America respectively, is a joy to watch. The verbal clash and the contrast between modern tech genius and a soldier from the past is really great to watch and it's truly satisfying when they join forces in the end.

All the other players do good job as well. Mark Ruffalo takes the role of Bruce Banner/Hulk from Edward Norton and does a really great job bringing certain every-mannes to the role. Scarlett Johansson gets a bit more to do as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, especially the intense interrigation scene with Tom Hiddleston is great.

The Big Brawl

The Avengers is filled with action. It starts with a car chase which maybe isn't that exciting way to start a superhero film, but later when heroes get to fight it's fantastic.

The geekiest of comic book readers have always been arguing whether Hulk or Thor is the strongest Avenger, so of course film has them fighting against each other. Hulk fighting had never looked this good before.

The most important action scene is the end when all six Avengers are together fighting an army of aliens together. It's a huge long celebration of all the work Marvel Studios had done to get to this point. And it's a blast to watch.

Seeing the heroes work together all with their different power sets makes the fight really enjoyable. It doesn't matter whether each one of them has a power set as strong as the other as long as they look different enough. Some use martial arts, one uses arrows and one lightning. The feeling of unity and togethernes really comed through. And it's always great too heroes saving people why they fight.


Universe building

The Avengers is where all the previous films were aiming for. In that sense the film is more about playing in the universe the previous films set up. It still does work pretty well as it's own thing, even though they don't get stuck on who's who for long.

For the future of the franchise The Avengers introduces Thanos in the mid-credits scene. He's only seen for a moment as the bigger bad who gave Loki his weapon and army for this film. Thanos would be teased as the big bad of the whole MCU for years to come, until he finally became the main character of Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

In the comics...

The big difference that first comes to mind comparing The Avengers film and the first issue of The Avengers comic book is the team line up. Iron Man, Hulk and Thor can be found in both, but comic book also had Ant-Man and the Wasp. Captain America joined in issue #4, Hawkeye a bit later and Black Widow way later. Since then all of them have become recurring members with Captain America, Iron Man and Thor being considered the core three.

Team line up had changed a lot through the years and there have been several different Avenger teams and comic book series. Personally I've enjoyed New Avengers by Brian Bendis, Mighty Avengers by Al Ewing, All-New, All-Different Avengers by Mark Waid and countless others.

Like the film, Avengers comics are all about bringing your favorite characters together to interract. Sometimes they don't get along, sometimes they do and it's always joy to see them together and fight their way to victory in the end.

Speaking of the end

Avengers still holds up in my books. It was a never before seen phenomena that made all the other studios want to make their own cinematic universes.

The movie can be viewed as a pure spectacle, but it really is also about coming together for bigger cause. I think it's never a bad time to remind people the importance of working together.


Now next time... I'm writing something else. Watching my favoite films as homework feeled like a great idea, but made watching them and writing about them too big deal. So I'll focus on something else in my next blog posts. Maybe some other films I'm watching or game I'm playing. We'll see.

As always, have fun, love and respect each other.

-O.K.

P.S. No pictures or videos today. I wrote this on my phone. Sorry about the possible quality drop.

OK MCU Media Diary Part 5: A Good Man (Captain America: The First Avenger, 2011)

//I started writing this about a week ago. Because of reasons my blog writing has had some problems and the text might be bit weird because I wrote it a few sections at a time during few days.

Also I feel like I should mention the death of Stan Lee. Stan Lee made the Marvel Comics universe what it is today. He also cocreated ton of characters we all know now. Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Black Panther and many others. Without him I wouldn't be talking about these films, I wouldn't be myself without his characters. All the thanks for him, I hope he's in better place now//

Back in 2011 trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger got me so excited I decided to do my MCU homework and went to see Thor and started to prepare for The Avengers.

The World War II superhero film looked so much fun for me. Sure I had my prejudices against a hero who dresses like the flag of U.S.A. but it looked fun and colorful enough to look past that.

I really liked the movie first seeing it. It was pretty much the period piece superhero action I wanted to see. Through the years my love for the film has only grown. Steve Rogers, Captain America has become one of my favorite characters in comics and film.

Captain America: The First Avenger

Directed by: Joe Johnston
Screenplay by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Starring: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke and Stanley Tucci
Based on a character created by: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby



Captain America: The First Avenger is the fifth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's the first period piece in the MCU, with film taking place during the second World War almost entirely. In the film, Steve Rogers, physically weak and little man with a heart of gold joins the army and through experiment becomes Captain America, world's first superhero. In the WWII Steve goes against Nazi science division Hydra and it's leader Johann Schmidt a.k.a. The Red Skull.

For most people the first Captain America seems to be the necessary Captain America -movie Marvel had to make before The Avengers. Many also felt disappointed and felt like everything "cool" happened in a montage. Personally I don't see it that way. The First Avengers does a great job introducing the great character that is Steve Rogers. The film gives the world of MCU more history. It has really nice style and great soundtrack. Action is fun too.

The Boy Scout

Character of Captain America is often seen as too perfect to be relatable. For me the film challenges this view in a great way. It spends a quite a lot time with Steve Rogers before he gets injected with super soldier serum. During these times we see a character whose physically weak, but still wants to do his part in helping others. We see his kindness, his bravery and his compassion. Everybody who wants to help and be a good person should be able to relate to the experiences Steve is going through.

"I don't like bullies." This scene shows really well what I so love about this movie.

When Steve finally does get his super powers and sweet body of Chris Evans, we are happy for him and can admire how he still is able to stay good and not let the powers change him. Steve Rogers is different from other characters, for he doesn't change that much in the course of this film or the others. He's a character who always tries to do the right thing, despite what it might cause for him. I think that's why we need characters like him.

Helping the character come to life, is the actor Chris Evans. He does a really great job portraying what character is going through. His awkwardness when talking to his crush, his confidence and determination when going into a battle, and his sadness at the end of the movie. His performance isn't as "fun" as Robert Downey Jr's as Tony Stark, it's more calm and subtle compared to his fellow Avenger-star. I think it's especially the fun part that often makes people dismiss Evans when comparing the two.

Historical Figures

Captain America: The First Avenger has a ton of side characters helping or going against Steve Rogers. Most of them are left on the side, but few stand out.

Hayley Atwell playis Agent Peggy Carter. She's a British spy and a member of Strategic Scientific Reserve (S.S.R.), group behind the super soldier initiative. Agent Carter helps train the soldiers in program and becomes the love interest for Steve.

Atwell does great job portraying the tough female spy who doesn't give a shit about your sexist attitudes. She also works really well in the more emotional scenes and chemistry between her and Evans is great. It's no wonder she's one of the most popular characters in this film.

Hayley Atwell would later reprise her role as Agent Peggy Carter in other MCU film as well as the MCU tv-show Agent Carter that ran for two seasons. Both seasons of Agent Carter can be found on Finnish Netflix.

The villain Johann Schmidt a.k.a. Red Skull is played by Hugo Weaving. He does also pretty good job, especially considering how much make up is on him in his Red Skull form. Weaving is strong in his performance but not necessarily mind blowing. I think the film could've made the character a bit more menacing, Red Skull is one of the most evil characters in the comics. I mean he is pretty much a Nazi (even though he does distance himself from the actual Nazi's in the film.)

In the film Steve Rogers gets support from "Howling Commandos", a diverse group of soldiers he rescued from a Hydra base. They do a good job portraying the different people fighting in World War II against the Nazis, but they are there mostly for Steve not to be alone in the action scenes and make it feel more like a war movie. I would've liked to see more of them. Especially Steve's best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) could've used more screen time, considering his importance in the future MCU films.

Captain America and his Howling Commandos. Howling Commandos were led by Sergeant Nick Fury, who later became the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Good Old Times

Captain America: The First Avenger does a really great job presenting the 1940s of the MCU. While I'm not an expert on the subject, everything looks like it should for the forties. The way people dress, the cars, weapons, uniforms all make you feel like you're watching a film about the past.

Film also does a really good job bringing more fantastical elements of a superhero film to the period. The final suit of Captain America fits the scenes and so do the magically powered weapons the Hydra agents use. In the blu-ray extras I also learned to appreciate things like the vehicle design. The submarine in the beginning, Red Skull's big ass car and the plane where the final battle takes place all bring some fantasy to the film without looking like they don't belong.

Another part that really does it for me, is the music in the film. Composer Alan Silvestri did a really good job setting the heroic and nostalgic mood for the film. I find myself humming the themes of Captain America all the time and the propaganda song used in a scene that introduces Captain America -character to the world is just a blast.

During the song the film also does a homage to Cap's comic book suit and the cover of Captain America Comics #1

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer

Blu-ray of the film comes with another "Marvel One-Shot" short film called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer. Directed by Leythum and written by Eric Pearson, the short film tell's, well, about a funny thing that happened when Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) was on his way to Thor's hammer during Iron Man 2 and Thor.

The film is basically just Coulson stopping to fill up the gas tank of his car and buying some donuts. Few robbers try to rob the gas station and Coulson beats them up. It's a simple but kind of fun scene that shows the audience that the friendly faced Agent Coulson can actually take care of shit. It's a fun little extra, though maybe not super necessary.

Universe building

Captain America: The First Avenger is the first period piece in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It does a great job giving some history to that world by asking the question "what did WWII with superheroes look like?" Sure Captain America is the only superhero in the movie but with that comes the super villain and the fantastical weapons and technologies. It makes the MCU feel bigger and more real. A world with it's own actual history.

The movie connects strongly to previous films in the MCU as well. The object that gives Hydra weapons their power, Tesseract, is said to be of Odin's collection and it was shown in the post-credits scene of Thor -film. Also father of Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) has an important role in the film as a person who gives Steve Rogers the iconic shield of his.

In later films we found out that the S.S.R. introduced in this movie later became the spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. founded by Howard Stark and Agent Peggy Carter. Speaking of S.H.I.E.L.D, there is of course cameo by the Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) at the end as the film jumps back to 21st century.

All of these cameos and connections work really well for the film. None of them feel forced or weight down the movie. They are fun things for people who watch more MCU films and for people just watching this film they all feel like they belong.

Post-credits scene of Captain America: The First Avenger is actually just a teaser for The Avengers film. It was one to see that one time in the theater, but has lost it's meaning. Now it's just an add.

In the comics...

The first issue of Captain America Comics was released in the United States in 1940, a year before U.S. entered the second World War. The cover had hero dressed in the colors of the American flag punching Adolf Hitler like a Nazi bastard deserves to be punched. It's interesting that while the comic was great success, it did have lot of people opposing it. The political views (saying that massmurdering racist maniacs are bad) of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby resulted the pair getting death threads and needing to hire security for themselves. I bring this up because it's interesting how people complain how comics have become lately political, when they have been that for at least 70 years.

I read the origin story of Steve Rogers that was reprinted on one of the Captain America comics I own. It only included the part about Steve becoming Captain America. The First Avenger is pretty faithful to that story having the same small guy taking part in an army experiment. Nazis intervene and a new super hero is born. There are small differences like the doctor who did the experiment and the lack of Agent Carter in the comic book. Some of those elements were introduced later in the comic books.

Captain America showing how to greet a Nazi.

Big difference between original comics and film is the character of Bucky Barnes. In the comics he originally was Captain Amerca's kid sidekick, Robin to his Batman. In the film Bucky, played by Sebastian Stan, is same age as Steve Rogers, his best friend before the war and a fellow soldier. This was due to the fact that in modern times showing a kid running around the war is kind of horrible idea. Comics too later changed history of Bucky. He was no longer just a kid sidekick, but a teenager who was trained to become Captain America's partner. He's job was to do the dirty work, like the assassinations and sabotages flag wearing character couldn't.

I haven't read much of the early Captain America comics, but I really like the character. I own around 30 Captain America trade paper backs including works of Ed Brubaker, Rick Remender and Nick Spencer. The character who's always there for people to look up to, defending those who can't defend themselves really appeals to me. This is present in the comics very often, showing Steve Rogers who does what he needs to but knows compassion and has polite, wise manner to him.

From Captain America #695 by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee

Nazi punching good times

Captain America: The First Avengers is still one of my favorite films in the MCU's "Phase 1", meaning the films from 2008 to 2012. The idea of an good man who gets and chance to help people and actually does it really speaks to me. The character of Steve Rogers is the kind I think we need more of and should really look up to. Also in these dark times we're living in, it's always good to see a Nazi getting punched (even if you could debate whether Hydra actually are Nazis or not).

Next time I'll be tackling the last film in MCU's Phase 1, The Avengers (2012)

Have fun. Love and respect each other.

- O.K.