Oh Captain, My Captain… America?

Today we’re gonna talk about The First Avenger: Captain America.

I was optimistic about Joe Johnston directing, he’s the guy who brought us the very recent return of The Wolfman.  He directed Jumangi and one of my favorites; The Rocketeer.  He’s worked on tons of films and TV shows in various capacities that are worthy of mentioning, such as Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars I, IV and V, he was part of the crew of Indana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Willow and you get the idea. Lots of stuff we like.  So you’d think, with that measure of background steeped in the subculture of geekland that he’d know how to put a super hero movie together, right?

Well… we shall see.

So far, I’m not terribly impressed with what I’ve seen come down the media pipeline, but I’ll let you be the judge.  I just got done reading an article on Dark Horizons about the rumored top four options for our legendary hero and I have to tell ya, so far I’m not inspired to run out and see it on opening night.

Our choices are;

Chris Evans who we have already seen in tights, albeit hot fiery tights, but is this 6 foot tall pretty boy really “Captian America” caliber?  It’s not that he’s a new face in the comic book hero goes to Hollywood world, it’s just… he’s a face we’ve seen in one of the worse comic book movies of the decade.  His previous choices may hinder him from stepping into a major hero/icon’s vinyl boots.  We’ll see, I suppose.  I’m not terribly opposed to him doing the role, but c’mon, he’s already had his shot at superhero stardom, it’s just not right.  Besides, it’s the same company- This limits them from ever combining story lines and we all know how much they love to do that these days.

Our other choices are Garrett Hedlund; someone who also has a few unfortunate tags associated with his background; Eragon and basically secondary characters throughout his short career in both television and film.

We’ve got Mike Vogel who personally, I rather liked in Cloverfield and in the 2003 version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre however, does his pretty-boy surfer dude look imbibe images of the Captain of America? Hmm… Not so sure about all that… maybe he can be the Cadet of America.

Last but not least, we’ve got Wilson Bethel.  Wilson is a cutie-pie, sharp-faced with a slightly hard core look to him.  The primary notch on his belt of experience is as a soap star hunk but he has the face; sharp, chiseled features that inspire a commanding presence but man, he’s just so darn skinny!  First of all, he’d have to put on some meat before I’d even consider him as a likely candidate, although that would fit with the alter ego, they’d have to seriously CG his look once the transformation took place.  Overall, I think he’s more Justice League in Smallville quality rather than a major motion picture’s version of the Captain.  Maybe in a few years, buddy.

So, with this being our line-up of options, are we in store for another cheesy, overly flashy picture to be sent to DVD within a month after release and all true fans groaning in the isles?  Seems that all our options are 20 something boys who have minimal experience doing little work that isn’t fluffy, pretty boy roles with minimal experience in the realm of versatility so I guess all we can do is watch and wait.  I think I’ve been spoiled by Iron Man.

If you could pick your Captain, who would it be?