Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my thoughts on the new Captain America trailer, which premiered tonight at the Hero Complex Fest. Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were on-hand to briefly discuss the film before the trailer.
They acknowledged that “ripping off Raiders of the Lost Ark” was their attitude going into this picture. Meaning they wanted that tone, a movie that harkens back to a certain period, and embraces it, but isn’t itself an old fashioned movie.
They also said the key to Steve Rogers was keeping scrawny Steve inside the buff, super-serumed superhero and striking a nice balance of being reverent of the source material and what works on the screen. Apparently you can’t have Captain America caught with a prostitute. Wimps. Wonder if he can photograph his wings and DM them to 21 year old Twitter followers? Is that okay for a national treasure?
The new trailer focused on the character of Steve Rogers, particularly the spirit of scrawny Steve desperate to sign up, feeling like it’s his duty and he’s letting his country down by not getting in.
The best new addition is a scene that happens between Tommy Lee Jones’ Col. Philips and Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Erskine on the grounds of their training camp. Jones says, “When you let a 90 pound athsmatic onto my base, I let it slide” to which Tucci replies, “I am looking for qualities beyond the physical.” A few shots of skinny Steve trying his damnedest through obstacle courses play over this dialogue.
Then Jones grabs a grenade and says, “You win wars with guts,” before pulling the pin and throwing it at the ground of the recruits. The big, tough guys scatter to the four winds, but Steve Rogers jumps on top of it, sure he’s about to be blown to pieces, but wanting to protect his fellow soldiers.
After a tense few seconds nothing happens and Rogers uncurls himself on the ground. “Is this a test?” he asks. Tucci smiles and Jones looks surprised for a beat, then turns to Tucci and says, “He’s still skinny.”
As Erskine prepares Rogers to receive the serum, he warns him not to let it change the man he is; not just a soldier, but a good man.
Post-serum injection, Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter tells us a little about Hydra, calling it “the Nazi deep science division.”
The rest of the trailer plays out more in quick cuts, with small moments between Chris Evans and Dominic Cooper’s Howard Stark (Evans has some ideas about the uniform, apparently), some voice-over of Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull saying “We are very much alike”, Tommy Lee Jones promoting Evans, a badass shot of Cap and The Howling Commandos running along the top of a moving train in snowy mountains, some Hydra tech, Peggy Carter blasting down a hallway with a machine gun, Cap throwing his shied at camera and a little moment of Skull asking Cap “What makes you so special?” He replies, “Nothin’. I’m just a kid from Brooklyn.”
It’s a great second trailer. I think the first one was cut a little sharper, introduced the world better, but this second trailer is meant to flesh that world out a little before we see the flick.
That moment between Jones and Tucci was classic. Can’t wait to see this one!
That’s not all the news. Robert Downey Jr. made a surprise appearance at the Jon Favreau Q&A in-between Iron Man and Iron Man 2 and talked a little bit about Iron Man 3, The Avengers and some other fun stuff. And yes, since he’s currently filming Avengers stuff he did have the trademark Tony Stark goatee. Look for my wrap-up of that stuff soon!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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