The Big Picture · Discussion
March 29, 2019/ 75 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda open a five-film Marvel Month with the phase-one outlier: the WWII period piece Marvel tried once and never repeated.
15 films across 1 segment.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Marvel Month: 'Captain America: The First Avenger'Amanda's pick to kick off the MCU series
The pick. A Paramount-era, phase-one WWII movie, war picture and spy picture and doomed romance in one, that Marvel never tried again. Joe Johnston directs in full Rocketeer mode; a digitally shrunk Chris Evans goes into the machine and comes out greased and enormous.
Where the Cap films stop being about Cap and become about the Avengers; Bucky's turn.
The further pivot from solo hero to ensemble and moral dilemma.
The first Disney release; the tesseract gets uttered 50 times more and the merchandising machine turns on.
Cap's clapped-for entrance; Red Skull reappears guarding the Soul Stone, played by a different actor.
The looming three-hour finale the whole series is built to sell, and likely Evans's exit.
Downey's alcoholic-genius template, the internal conflict Steve Rogers pointedly lacks.
One of the four pre-Avengers Paramount films.
Released just before this one; introduced a then-unknown Chris Hemsworth.
The Norton/Leterrier entry, technically canon but now largely ignored after the Ruffalo recast.
The kind of wooly, weird MCU Amanda finds harder to engage with than a war movie.
The then-current fight over when women get to headline these movies.
Held up as evidence of how much the MCU grew past by-the-numbers punching.
Cited as the global, weird register this movie never reaches.
Another entry in the daddy-issues catalog of hero motivations.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Joe Johnston directed Honey, I Shrunk the KidsThe RocketeerJumanjiJurassic Park III
Chris Evans elsewhere Not Another Teen MovieScott Pilgrim vs. the WorldGifted
Sebastian Stan elsewhere I, Tonya
Old-Hollywood touchstones The Lady EveIt Happened One NightHis Girl FridayI Was a Male War Bride
In passing Inglourious BasterdsWonder WomanTitanicVenomDeadpoolThe Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonMission: Impossible - FalloutAquamanTriple FrontierDiane
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Game of ThronesAgent CarterGossip GirlStranger ThingsHowards End