Captain America: The First Avenger

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Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It is the fifth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and stars Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, and Stanley Tucci. The film tells the story of Steve Rogers, a sickly man from Brooklyn who is transformed into super soldier Captain America to help the war effort. Captain America must also stop Red Skull, Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry and leader of a terrorist organization, who intends to use a mysterious tesseract energy-source for world domination.

Captain America: The First Avenger began as a concept in 1997, and was scheduled to be distributed by Artisan Entertainment. However, a lawsuit, not settled until September 2003, disrupted the project. After Marvel Studios received a grant from Merrill Lynch, the project was set up at Paramount Pictures. Directors Jon Favreau and Louis Leterrier were interested in directing the project before Johnston was approached in 2008. The principal characters were cast between March 2010, and June 2010. Production of Captain America: The First Avenger began in June 2010, and filming took place in London, Manchester and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and Los Angeles in the United States. The film was converted to 3D in post-production.

Captain America: The First Avenger premiered in Hollywood on July 19, 2011, and was released in the United States on July 22, 2011. The film became a critical and financial success, and has grossed $210.6 million worldwide as of early August 2011.

Plot
In the present day, scientists in the Arctic uncover a circular object with a red, white and blue motif. In March 1942, Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his men invade Tønsberg, Norway, to steal a mysterious tesseract possessing untold powers. In New York City, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is rejected for World War II military duty due to various health and physical issues. While attending an exhibition of future technologies with his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Rogers again attempts to enlist. Having overheard Rogers' conversation with Barnes about wanting to help in the war, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) allows Rogers to enlist. Rogers is recruited as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under Erskine, Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Phillips is unconvinced of Erskine's claims that Rogers is the right person for the procedure but relents after seeing Rogers commit an act of self-sacrificing bravery. The night before the treatment, Erskine reveals to Rogers that Schmidt underwent an imperfect version of the treatment, and suffered side-effects.

In Europe, Schmidt and Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) successfully harness the energies of the tesseract, intending to use the power to fuel Zola's inventions. Schmidt, having discovered Erskine's location, dispatches an assassin to kill him. In America, Erskine subjects Rogers to the super-soldier treatment, injecting him with a special serum and dosing him with "vita-rays". After Rogers emerges from the experiment taller and muscular, one of the attendees kills Erskine, revealing himself as Schmidt's assassin Heinz Kruger (Richard Armitage). Rogers pursues and captures Kruger but the assassin commits suicide via cyanide capsule before he can be interrogated.

With Erskine's death the super-soldier formula is lost. U.S. Senator Brandt (Michael Brandon) has Rogers tour the nation in a colorful costume as "Captain America" to promote war bonds rather than be confined to a lab while scientists attempt to rediscover Erskine's formula. In Italy 1943, while touring to active servicemen, Rogers learns that Barnes' unit was lost in battle against Schmidt's forces. Refusing to believe Barnes is dead, Rogers mounts a solo rescue attempt with Carter and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) flying him behind enemy lines. Rogers infiltrates the fortress belonging to Schmidt's HYDRA organization, freeing Barnes and the other captured soldiers. Rogers confronts Schmidt who reveals his face to be a mask, removing it to display the red-colored, skull-like face that earned him the sobriquet the Red Skull. Schmidt escapes and Rogers returns to base with the freed soldiers.

Rogers recruits Barnes, Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), James Montgomery Falsworth (J. J. Feild), and Jacques Dernier (Bruno Ricci) to attack the other known bases belonging to Hydra. Stark provides Rogers with a new outfit and a new, circular shield made of vibranium, which negates large amounts of damage by absorbing vibrations. Rogers and his team attack and destroy all of the known bases. The team later attacks a train carrying Zola. During the assault Zola is captured but Barnes falls from the train and is lost. Using information gathered from Zola, Rogers leads an attack on Schmidt's final base to stop him from using WMDs against American cities. Rogers clambers aboard Schmidt's jet before it takes off, and during the fight with Schmidt, Rogers damages the tesseract's container. Schmidt physically handles the tesseract, causing him to dissolve in a bright light. The tesseract falls to the floor of the plane, melting through the surface and falling to Earth.

Seeing no way to safely land the plane without risking its weapons detonating, Rogers crashes it in the Arctic. Stark later recovers the tesseract from the floor of the ocean but the aircraft and Rogers remain undiscovered at the time.

Rogers awakens in a hospital room. Deducing that something is wrong, he flees outside into what is revealed to be present-day Times Square. There Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) informs him he has been "asleep" for nearly 70 years.

In a post-credits scene, Fury approaches Rogers, proposing a mission with worldwide ramifications.

Cast

 * Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America:
 * A frail, sickly young man who is enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort. Evans, who previously worked with Marvel as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four film series, said he declined the part three times before signing a six-picture deal with Marvel, explaining that, "At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, 'If the movie bombs, I'm fucked. If the movie hits, I'm fucked! I was just scared. I realized my whole decision-making process was fear-based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear. I can't believe I was almost too chicken to play Captain America". He ultimately agreed to the role, saying, "I think Marvel is doing a lot of good things right now, and it's a fun character. ... I think the story of Steve Rogers is great. He's a great guy. Even if it [were] just a script about anybody, I would probably want to do it. So it wasn't necessarily about the comic itself." Regarding the extent of the character's abilities Evans remarked, "He would crush the Olympics. Any Olympic sport he's gonna dominate. He can jump higher, run faster, lift stronger weight, but he can be injured. He could roll an ankle and be out for the season. He's not perfect, he's not untouchable. So a lot of the effects, if I'm going to punch someone they're not going to put them on a cable and fly them back 50 feet, but he's going to go down, probably not getting back up, which I think humanizes it. It makes it something that, again, I think everyone can relate to a little bit more, which I really like."


 * Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter:
 * An officer with the Strategic Scientific Reserve and the love interest of Captain America. Regarding her preparation for the role, she said, "I'm training at the moment six days a week to make her a bit more military and make it convincing that I could kick butt." About the character Atwell stated, "I likened her character to that famous Ginger Rogers quote. She can do everything Captain America can do, but backwards and in high heels. She's an English soldier through and through, although she always looks fabulous. She might stand there with a machine-gun shooting Nazis, but she's obviously gone to the loo beforehand and applied a bit of lipstick. She doesn't need to be rescued. That's exciting to me – her strength". "I think she's quite stubborn, a slightly frustrated woman who struggles with being a woman in that time. But more importantly she's a modern woman and she sees something in Captain America that she relates to, and becomes kindred spirits. He treats her very differently to how she's been treated by lots of men, in this kind of dominated world she lives in. So she's very much a fighter."


 * Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull:
 * Captain America's nemesis and Adolf Hitler's head of advanced weaponry, whose own plan for world domination involves a magical object known as the Tesseract.  In the film, Red Skull is also the commander of the terrorist organization HYDRA. Weaving stated that he patterned Red Skull's accent on those of Werner Herzog and Klaus Maria Brandauer. About the character Weaving remarked, "I think the major difference between Skull and Cap, they've both had the serum, and the serum seems to augment certain qualities that each of them have. Cap is much more in tune with other people I think. Schmidt is in tune with himself, and his own needs, and his own ego, so I suppose it augments that. From that point of view, they're quite opposite."


 * Sebastian Stan as Sgt. James "Bucky" Barnes:
 * Steve Rogers' best friend. Stan has signed on for "five or six pictures". Stan revealed that he didn't know anything about the comic books but watched a lot of documentaries and films about World War II in preparation for the role, calling Band of Brothers "very helpful". About the role, Stan stated, "Steve Rogers and Bucky are both orphans and kind of like brothers. They kind of grow up together and look after each other. It's a very human, relatable thing.... I also wanted to look out for how their relationship changes once Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. There's always a competition and they're always one-upping each other. I paid attention to how Bucky is affected by Steve's change and suddenly Steve is this leader".


 * Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips:
 * In the early comics, Phillips recruited Steve Rogers to join Project Rebirth, the secret experiment that created the Super Soldier known as Captain America. The character was updated for the film. Jones described his character as "the one you've seen in a thousand movies: the gruff, skeptical officer overseeing a team of talented, slightly sarcastic, specially talented soldiers".


 * Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark:
 * The father of Tony Stark, who worked on various government projects dating back to the World War II era. Rogers, unsatisfied with his USO-issued Captain America costume, turns to Stark to design a sensible ensemble made of sophisticated fabrics. About the role Cooper stated, "It's an opportunity where you can see his future because I know the guy who becomes my son and I see myself as an older version in Iron Man 2 which is great for an actor to have those tools. All I know of him is that he's a fantastic engineer and inventor and a very slick Howard Hughes type that's into aviation and women!"


 * Neal McDonough as Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan:
 * A member of Steve Rogers' squad of commandos. McDonough said he grew Dugan's trademark mustache and wore the character's signature bowler hat. About his role in film he remarked, "Oh, I'm going to see a lot of action. [I'm] the go-to guy, so I'm very happy with that".


 * Derek Luke as Gabe Jones:
 * An African-American member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Luke said he was cast without a script or much of a description of the character. As to why he took the part, "I just believed that Marvel was doing some really great work, great messages in films. The good versus evil and I was just like, 'How can I be down?


 * Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine:
 * The scientist who created the Super Soldier Serum. Tucci said that what drew him to the role was the opportunity to do a German accent, which was something he always wanted to try.


 * Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita:
 * A Japanese-American member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Choi said he was the last actor to audition for the part and that he read sides from Saving Private Ryan. About his preparation for the role, Choi said, "[I] did a lot of WWII research especially in regards to the "Nisei" soldiers, or Japanese-American soldiers. I wanted to get as much true, real-life information for a guy like Jim Morita fighting in WWII. I felt that if I had built a factual basis for him, I could then let go and permit the character to exist in the Marvel Universe, which allows for a lot of imaginative circumstances.


 * Bruno Ricci as Jacques Dernier:
 * A French member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Ricci auditioned for and got the part while filming the French series The Hawk.
 * J. J. Feild as James Montgomery Falsworth:
 * A British member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Feild called his part in the film "a very physical job. I play one of the Captain's sidekicks so I've been running around shooting things and blowing things up and trying to look cool for about a year."

Additionally, Toby Jones was cast as Arnim Zola, a biochemist for the Nazi party. Richard Armitage portrays Heinz Kruger, the Red Skull's top assassin. Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as Nick Fury, the director of the super-spy agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. Stan Lee has a cameo appearance as a general.

Development
In April 1997, Marvel was in negotiations with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce Captain America. In addition, Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem were set to write a script. In May 2000, Marvel teamed with Artisan Entertainment to help finance the film. However, a lawsuit arose between Marvel Comics and Joe Simon over the ownership of Captain America copyrights, disrupting the development process of the film. The lawsuit was eventually settled in September 2003. In 2005, Marvel received a $525 million investment from Merrill Lynch, allowing them to independently produce ten films, including Captain America. Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film.

Originally, the film would stand alone; producer Kevin Feige said "about half" the movie would be set during World War II before moving into the modern day. Producer Avi Arad said, "The biggest opportunity with Captain America is as a man 'out of time', coming back today, looking at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town United States. Sixty years go by, and who are we today? Are we better?" He cited the Back to the Future trilogy as an influence, and claimed he had "someone in mind to be the star, and definitely someone in mind to be the director". In February 2006, Arad hoped to have a summer 2008 theatrical release date. Jon Favreau approached Arad to direct the film as a comedy, but he chose to make Iron Man instead. In July 2006, David Self was hired to write the script. He explained Captain America was his favorite superhero as a child because "my dad told me I could one day be Captain America". Joe Johnston met with Marvel to discuss directing the film.

Captain America was put on hold during the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. However, in January 2008, Marvel Entertainment reached an interim comprehensive agreement with the Writers Guild of America that would put writers immediately back to work on various projects that were under the company's development. On May 5, 2008, (after the success of Iron Man), Marvel announced the film The First Avenger: Captain America for a May 6, 2011 release (before being slightly pushed back to July 22). The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier viewed some of the concept art being created for the film, and was impressed enough to offer his services, but Marvel turned him down. Johnston finally signed on in November 2008, and he hired Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to rewrite. Feige cited Johnston's directorial work on October Sky and The Rocketeer and his special effects work on the original Star Wars trilogy as to why he was an appropriate choice. Raiders of the Lost Ark will be an influence on the film, because they hope the film will not feel like a period piece.

When asked whether anti-U.S. sentiments would affect the film's box office, Feige said, "Marvel is perceived pretty well around the world right now, and I think putting another uber-Marvel hero into the worldwide box office would be a good thing. [...] We have to deal with much the same way that Captain America, when thawed from the Arctic ice, entered a world that he didn't recognize," similar to the way Stan Lee and Jack Kirby reintroduced the character in the 1960s. Likewise, Arad noted, "Captain America stands for freedom for all democracies, for hope all around the world. He was created to stop tyranny and the idea of stopping tyranny is important today as it was then and unfortunately it's not going to change because that's how the world works. So I think that we will have some interesting challenges but at the end of the day if the movie is terrific and the movie talks to the world, it's not about one place, it's about the world and I think [on] that basis it will be very successful." Later, after the election of US President Barack Obama, Feige commented, "The idea of change and hope has permeated the country, regardless of politics, and that includes Hollywood. Discussions in all our development meetings include the Zeitgeist and how it's changed in the last two weeks. Things are being adjusted".

Pre-production
In December 2009, director Joe Johnston indicated he planned to start filming in April 2010. In a separate interview that month, he described the film's pre-production: "Rick Heinrichs is production-designing and we're set up down in Manhattan Beach[, California]. ... We have eight or ten really talented artists, and we all just sit around all day and draw pictures and say, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we could do this?' It's that phase of the production where money doesn't matter: 'Let's put all the greatest stuff up on the wall and [then later] see what we can afford.'" The film, he said, will begin "in 1942, 1943" during World War II. "The stuff in the '60s and '70s [comic books] we're sort of avoiding. We're going back to the '40s, and then forward to what they're doing with Captain America now." Johnston confirmed that the Red Skull would be the film's primary antagonist. In February 2010, he stated that the World War II-era super team the Invaders will appear in "the entire second half" of the film, though in November he shot down speculation that the Sub-Mariner, an Invaders team-member in the comics, would be included. He later explained that "the Invaders" had been discussed simply as a possible name for the squad of commandos Captain America leads in the film.

Variety reported in March 2010, that Chris Evans was cast as Captain America, and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull.

In April 2010, Sebastian Stan, who had been mentioned in media accounts as a possibility to play the title role of Captain America, was cast as Bucky Barnes. Stan is contracted for multiple films. Also in April it was announced that Hayley Atwell had been cast as Peggy Carter as well as the changing of the film's name from The First Avenger: Captain America to Captain America: The First Avenger. The next day it was reported that Joss Whedon would be re-writing the script for Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger as part of his negotiation to write and direct The Avengers. However the extent of Whedon's polish on Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely's script remained unknown. Whedon later clarified in an August interview that "I just got to make some character connections. The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit — and some of the other characters — and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit". Samuel L. Jackson revealed in an interview that he will reprise his role as Nick Fury in the film. Kevin Fiege later confirmed that Fury's elite special unit of US Army Rangers, the Howling Commandos would also appear. Screenwriter Markus later explained that the unnamed group of commandos Rogers leads was "called the Howling Commandos in the script, but no one says that out loud." Director Johnston said the group at one point was to have been called the Invaders, which led to fan speculation that the Marvel superhero team of that name would appear in the film.

In May 2010, Marvel Studios confirmed Hugo Weaving will play the Red Skull. Toby Jones entered final negotiations to play Arnim Zola. Iron Man director Jon Favreau said a younger Howard Stark would appear in the film, played by Dominic Cooper. Hayley Atwell revealed that Tommy Lee Jones will have a role in the film. By June, Neal McDonough was in talks to play Dum Dum Dugan. Four days later, McDonough confirmed he was taking the part. On the same day, Stanley Tucci joined the cast as Dr. Abraham Erskine, the scientist who created the Super Soldier Serum.

Filming
Production began on June 28, 2010. The same day, Marvel confirmed that actor Tommy Lee Jones had been cast to play US Army Colonel Chester Phillips. The next day Marvel confirmed Dominic Cooper will portray the younger version of Howard Stark, the character played by John Slattery in Iron Man 2. The film was announced to shoot in London, England, in late July, and was expected to include scenes featuring key London landmarks. War scenes were filmed in September at the former Royal Navy Propellant Factory in the Welsh village of Caerwent. Filming was also scheduled to take place that month in the Northern Quarter of Manchester, United Kingdom, where parts of the 2004 film Alfie and the 2009 Sherlock Holmes had been shot, followed by Liverpool's Stanley Dock area, both doubling for the period's Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. Scenes were also scheduled to be shot in Liverpool's Albert Dock.

In July 2010, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige said that both this film and Thor would be released in 3-D. Johnston did a one-day test shooting with a 3-D rig, as opposed to shooting in 2-D and converting, and found it "a nightmare" due to bulky gear, calibration issues and restricted filmmaking options. Regardless, he said he believes 3-D is "a new challenge and it's exciting". Producer Kevin Feige insisted that the conversion would not compromise the film's image quality, as the decision to release the film in 3-D was made early in development, and that "an unprecedented amount of time" would be devoted to the conversion process, with all the film's visual effects being rendered in true 3-D.

Post-production
In November 2010, actor Stanley Tucci stated he completed filming his scenes and that the rest of the production would wrap in about three weeks. In February 2011, Alan Silvestri was announced to compose the film score. In March 2011, CraveOnline reported that Captain America: The First Avenger would be undergoing reshoots in the United Kingdom and in Los Angeles in April 2011. A scene was also filmed in New York City's Times Square on April 23, 2011.

The film features nearly 1,600 visual effect shots that were split between thirteen different companies. To achieve the effects of the skinny, pre-super-serum Steve Rogers, director Joe Johnston stated that he used two major techniques:

Captain America's shield, which serves as both a defensive tool and a lethal weapon, consisted of four types: metal, fiberglass, rubber, and CG. Visual effects supervisor Christopher Townsend said, "Chris Evans would practice swinging the practical shield so he knew the arc and the speed at which he should move. We would take the shield from him and shoot the scene with him miming it. Then we would add in a CG shield". Hugo Weaving, who portrayed the Red Skull, wore a latex mask conceived by prosthetic makeup designer David White. However, the visual effects team had to manipulate his face considerably due to the bulkiness of the mask and make it look like tight skin wrapped around a very boney structure. The team thinned out Weaving's cheeks and lower lip, hollowed out his eyes, and removed his eyelashes and nose to make him appear more like the Red Skull character.

Soundtrack
In June 2011, Buena Vista Records announced the details for the soundtrack release of Captain America: The First Avenger. The album includes the original score by Alan Silvestri, as well as the original song "Star Spangled Man" with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by David Zippel. The soundtrack was recorded at Air Studios in London and was released on July 19, 2011.

Release
The world premiere of Captain America: The First Avenger was held on July 19, 2011, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. The film was also screened at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 21, 2011. Captain America: The First Avenger was commercially released in the United States and Canada on July 22, 2011.

Paramount opted against altering the American-centric title when distributing to foreign territories, instead offering international markets a choice between the official title and the alternative The First Avenger. Many international distributors chose to retain the original title, believing the franchise name is more identifiable than the alternative and they would otherwise risk losing ticket sales. Three countries chose the alternative title: Russia, South Korea, and Ukraine. An "insider" speaking to The New York Times described the reasoning behind the name change in these countries as stemming from cultural and political concerns, though Marvel and Paramount both declined to state an official reason. Additionally, the film may not be released in China due to a policy that allows only 20 foreign films to be screened in the country per year.

Marketing
Early footage of the film was shown at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International with director Joe Johnston noting filming had begun four days prior to this presentation at the San Diego Convention Center. The first television advertisement aired during Super Bowl XLV on the Fox network in the United States. Paramount paid $3 million dollars to run the 30-second ad. The first full trailer was released in March 2011. In May 2011, the USO girls from the film performed aboard the USS Intrepid as apart of the 2011 Fleet Week celebration in New York City. In June 2011, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins teamed with Marvel to search for real-life Super-Soldiers. The contest sought nominations for veterans or active U.S. servicepersons making a difference where they live or serve. In July 2011, Paramount Pictures promoted the film during an Independence Day celebration hosted by the Chicago White Sox. Promotional partners include Harley-Davidson, Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins.

In February 2011, Marvel Comics launched an eight issue digital comic titled, Captain America: First Vengeance, the same day as the first trailer aired during the Super Bowl XLV telecast. Written by Fred Van Lente and featuring a rotation of artists, the story is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each of the eight issues focuses on a specific character from the movie, heroes and villains alike, and what brought them to the point where the movie begins.

Sega announced a video game tie-in titled, Captain America: Super Soldier, that was released in 2011, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Box office
Captain America: The First Avenger opened on July 22, 2011, in the United States and earned $4 million in midnight showings, outgrossing other 2011 original superhero movies like Thor and Green Lantern as well as the prequel X-Men: First Class, which all did between $3.25 million and $3.5 million in Friday midnights. On Friday, the film opened at the number one spot at the American and Canadian box office with $25.7 million. It then went on to make $65.1 million, which was the second highest-grossing opening weekend for a superhero film in 2011 behind Thor ($65.7 million). As of August 5, 2011, Captain America: The First Avenger has grossed $133.9 million in the U.S.A and Canada as well as $76.7 million internationally for a combined total of $210.6 million worldwide.

Critical reaction
Captain America: The First Avenger has received generally positive reviews from film critics. The film has a 79% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 196 reviews with an average rating of 6.9/10, and the consensus: "With plenty of pulpy action, a pleasantly retro vibe, and a handful of fine performances, Captain America is solidly old-fashioned blockbuster entertainment." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score, gave the film a 66 out of 100 based on 36 reviews from critics.

Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel gave Captain America: The First Avenger a positive review stating, "Johnston has delivered a light, clever and deftly balanced adventure picture with real lump in the throat nostalgia, with Nazis – who make the best villains, and with loving references to 'Star Wars' and 'Raiders of the Lost Ark. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times remarked, "I enjoyed the movie. I appreciated the 1940s period settings and costumes, which were a break with the usual generic cityscapes. I admired the way that director Joe Johnston propelled the narrative. I got a sense of a broad story, rather than the impression of a series of sensational set pieces. If Marvel is wise, it will take this and 'Iron Man' as its templates". A. O. Scott of The New York Times declared that "... this origin story, directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans as the square-jawed, shield-throwing, red-white-and-blue Captain, is pretty good fun".

Conversely Karina Longworth of The Village Voice gave the film a negative review, calling it "[A] hokey, hacky, two-hour-plus exercise in franchise transition/price gouging, complete with utterly unnecessary post-converted 3-D". Peter Debruge of Variety said "Captain America: The First Avenger" plays like a by-the-numbers prequel for Marvel Studios' forthcoming "The Avengers" movie". Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter had mixed feelings about the film, writing, "As the last Marvel prequel that includes two Iron Man and Incredible Hulk movies before next summer's The Avengers, this one feels perhaps a little too simplistic and routine".

Sequel
Screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus said in April 2011, that they have been writing a sequel for Marvel Studios. In a June 2011, interview the duo stated, "The story will likely be in the present day. We're experimenting with flashback elements for more period World War II stuff. I can't say much more than that but we made it baggy enough to refer to more stories in the past".