Desert West Media

Captain America: "The First Avenger"
Rating: PG-13
In Theaters Now!!!

Updated 7-24-2011:

I had the pleasure of watching this movie last night (Saturday, July 23, 2011). First and foremost, the last couple of movies I've seen in the theater, people are applauding when the movie starts, when something funny is said and when the movie ends (I don't mind laughter, but applause, the people on the screen can't hear it! That's why we applaud? Plus as I'm trying to let the movie take me to the end, that's why there's music, importance in what's being shown, said, etc.). It makes me furious. Why? Usually I miss what is said after and being that I like to sit in the forefront of the theater so I don't have to see people texting during a movie, the movie audio is louder in the front (which drowns out popcorn eating, etc.), when people applaud, it is really annoying. This isn't a Broadway musical, piano performance or a ballet recital. People didn't use to do this, and no, it wasn't a theater packed full of kids, most (I'd say 90% were adults). Absolutely ruins a movie experience.

Anyways, without spoiling too much, before the movie, there was a preview that announced to stay after the credits for more Captain America, something extra special. I stayed and recommend you stay too.

The movie overall, was alright. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars. However, I have production quality complaints and I will list them here. I did study Digital Animation, Compositing (not composting!), Cinematography in college, I literally know how it's all done, which sometimes can ruin a movie for me when there are simple mistakes everyone in film is supposed to avoid. You can't just rewrite the rules, make blunders and call it "creative".

WARNING, SPOILER: First, lens flares. There are way too many lens flares in this movie. In the old days, lens flares were avoided like the plague. Nowadays, when I see too many lens-flares, I also know somebody in "post" (post-production) are covering up things, trying to blind your eye a bit or take the focus off of something else. There are several big battle scenes where the bad guys have phasers that vaporize people, but when you see them in a battlefield, about 15-20 of them all have lens flares shooting off their guns, even the ones that are really, really far away. Overkill. Yeah.

Second, I noticed the movie started off well enough but about half way through, it went through a two minute montage (without music), just like fast film cuts and then the movie story was somewhere else.

In the credits (which I normally sit through anyways) had many different production houses that worked on various Visual FX, six of seven different ones and I could tell when I watched the movie. I figure they split it all up to get through post-production faster, but then you have workarounds being done by one group that ruins another groups work if they don't communicate and collaborate correctly (IMHO) which is what I feel happened in the Visual Effects of this movie. Too disconnected.

For example, when the movie went through an action montage, there was a scene where Captain America (Chris Evans) was on top of a battle tank, he tears off the turret entry way, throws some explosives down the hatch, jumps off as it explodes. When he jumped off, the tank looked like it was 200 feet tall and he was really tiny as he flew away from the explosion. One of the worst composite shots in the entire movie. I can't believe somebody let that get through into the final cut.

More bad compositing mistakes, when, let's just call him the "red head", the arch-enemy of Captain America aka bad guy, about 15 mins before the end of the movie, the bad guy stands before an army and his stealth bomber looking plane, the close up on his torso had glittering composite noise like somebody did a really bad compositing shot. You see, in compositing, if you are using a green screen or blue screen matte (there are also expensive reflective screens you can buy too), if the actor isn't lit properly, or there is a color or a hue to close to the color on his person or clothing that is too close of a hue (e.g. if your actor has a green screen behind them, you don't want them to wear a green shirt), but there was a terrible shot in the movie, not only did the jet behind him look way too big (like 4-5 times the size it was), but the lighting was off too. Terrible. However! There are ways (if you have the money) to correct compositing mistakes such as this, and they didn't do it.

Previously...

Marvel Studios opened up its own shop a couple of years ago to begin to produce it's feature films from their comics. That's why we had "The Hulk", then the "Incredible Hulk". Since Marvel took the reigns, Marvel movies have just been getting better.

In their next saga, comes Captain America, "The First Avenger". Another awesome fictional character goes from paper to the silver screen. How old is Captain America? Where has he been? According to wikipedia, Captain America's first comic book issue was published in 1941. Wow. That means he should look 60 years old, right? Of course not.

According to Yahoo! Movies, Chris Evans will play the role of Captain America. This isn't his first venture however into the super hero category. Without spoiling too much, Evans is also set to play in "The Avengers" which has a release date for 2012. More information on his filmography can be found here at Yahoo!. According to the Huffington Post, Chris Evans is considered to be one of the "25" most fit actors in Hollywood today.

According to other online sources, Marvel believes so strongly in the impact Captain America "The First Avenger" will have on the box office and that it will easily bring a flood of new fans to theaters. Marvel has already laid out the blueprints for a sequel for Captain America and a sequel for the recently released Marvel movie "Thor". Thor is yet another 'marvel' (pun), ahem, a Marvel Studios paper to film transformation which is stunning and worth your $10 bucks to watch.

Captain America is set to have a MPAA rating of PG-13. Although PG-13 has a way of scaring some people from watching movies, after watching the promo trailer during super bowl and the newly released trailer here, wow. Keeping in mind the trailer is a blip of what's to come and this new trailer packs a punch.The visuals look great, the action looks incredible, it's set in the time period of World War II--personally I can't wait to see the movie. If I had a shield, I'd bet it Captain America will avenge the box office.

About the writer: Aaron Conaway is a web designer, photographer, video producer, video editor, screen-writer and a solo musician. For more on him please visit his site at www.turbowebguy.com

Disclaimer: Marvel Studios, Captain America: "The First Avenger", "Thor", Yahoo!, Huffington Post, Apple have no affiliation with Desert West Media. This article is intended for informational purposes only.