America has a rich history. We've been making Films about Captain America since the 1970s, with various breaks in between.
What is the best one?
Well, a life-long fanboy with free time and a Blog is here to answer that question!
Honorable Mention: There's a Serial, but it was licensed for free (with the President of the Company at the time figuring that the Publicity was enough) to make.
It has nothing to do with the Comics, save for the name.
Now then, on with the List!
6. Captain America II- Death Too Soon: A Sequel that should have improved things. This is the 2nd (of two) Reb Brown Films as Cap. Now that the Origin is done, they can go all out, right?
Nope- let's spend what feels like 5 hours having him hang around a small Town to uncover the hidden bad guy (Christopher Lee).
What's with 2nd Films that pair these two? It's this and Howling II!
5. Captain America (The Reb Brown One): Arguably worse, but also arguably better than the Sequel.
With this being an Origin (and a Backdoor Pilot), I can excuse many of the issues that also plague the Sequel.
That said, you get a more serious threat (with a letdown final fight) and the promise of him in costume doing cool stuff. As you saw above, it doesn't deliver.
4.Captain America (1990): While it sucks in many ways, it *feels* like a promising start, at least in theory.
The Canon Films Version has many things going for it. A good (all things considered) suit. A good Plot (again- in theory). The Red Skull.
It just muddies all of that up (Skull is an Italian War Victim?!?), strips away the cool stuff (Red Skull gets his face fixed for Act 2-3) and doesn't live up to what it could be.
3. Captain America- Civil War: The top 3 is a real tough call and this one might move from 2-3 depending on the day.
Without an Origin Story to tell, they deliver a big-scale MCU Showdown, moral gray areas and a pitch perfect Cap.
It's biggest draw- the Avengers vs. Avengers Plot- is arguably its greatest flaw, however, as so much happens in a condensed run-time. It's alot, for better or for worse.
2. Captain America- The First Avenger: An Origin Story done right!
As a life long fan, I had to wait a LONG time for this. It was worth it.
Chris Evans is a perfect Cap, Red Skull is evil and it all works.
1. Captain America- The Winter Soldier: They take everything and get 'real' with it.
Taking nothing away from the #2 Film, this one feels especially-grounded and shows that the MCU can evolve with its Films.
This is a clear attempt to be an action-packed version of a '70s Political Intrigue Film. They even got the Star of many of those- Robert Redford- to be in it!
Is there a better Cap Film than this?
Is your List different than mine?
I can't imagine that the bottom 3 take the top 3 spots though.
Happy 4th of July.
Take us away, foreign Captain America II Poster!
USA.
I entirely agree.
ReplyDeleteI could *almost* argue for putting Death too Soon above the original Reb Brown film just because you can almost kindasorta ignore the fact that they entirely changed Cap's origin if you're watching the sequel, but...they're both awful, so who really cares?
Like you, I might put Civil War above The First Avenger or below it depending on the day. Civil War has some crazy battles and genuinely great emotional moments, especially between Cap and Tony, but the First Avenger was just such a wonderful thing to see - someone *finally* doing the Cap origin story *right* after, as your list shows, some perfectly awful prior attempts.
Winter Soldier is unquestionably the best of them, though, and remains my favorite of *all* the Marvel films, including all the Avengers films. (Don't get me wrong, those are all awesome - this isn't a knock on them. It's an expression of just how amazingly good Winter Soldier is.)
It's amazing what a yawning chasm there is on this list in terms of quality between #4 and #3.