Of all the major superheroes, Captain America has been the unluckiest -- it took SEVENTY YEARS for a decent movie about him to be made.
So what were the NON-decent movies that were made along the way? "Captain America / Captain America II: Death Too Soon" is a pretty good example -- not only does it throw out all the original comic book backstory, but it ends up being cheesy, action-deficient and boring. Way too boring to be campy.
In "Captain America," ex-Marine Steve Rogers (Reb Brown) is toodling around California in his nondescript van, not really doing anything. But then an old friend is murdered, and for some reason the bad guys also decide to attack Steve because they think he knows the location of secret classified film.
The only way to save his life is to inject him with FLAG, an experimental super-drug that Steve's father created so he could become a superhero. This is the point where all Captain America fans go cross-eyed. So after being bribed with superhero gear (like a rocket-powered motorcycle) Steve reluctantly becomes Captain America, and helps hunt down the evil men who are planning to nuke an American city.
Then in "Captain America II: Death Too Soon," Steve is sent out to investigate a missing scientist who had some kind of aging compound stolen by famous terrorist Miguel (Christopher Lee). It leads him to a small town that immediately tries to get him to get lost, apparently because they were told to act as suspiciously as possible.
"Captain America" and "Captain America II: Death Too Soon" are, hands down, the dullest superhero movies I have ever seen in my life. Not only do they toss out EVERYTHING about Captain America (except the silly costume and the name), but they instead produce two generic thrillers that have plot holes the size of Steve's van.
For one thing, there's almost no action. Captain America spends more time running away from bad guys than actually fighting them, meaning that the ENTIRE FIRST MOVIE has only one fight scene (which mainly involves Steve pushing slabs of meat at the bad guys). The second movie is substantially better, but most of both movies seem to consist of... talking and driving.
NOTE TO FILMMAKERS: long lingering shots of OTHER people riding motorcycles are simply not interesting.
And the acting is not much better. Lead actor Reb Brown looks like he's been drugged much of the time, when his character isn't whining about how he just wants to be a wandering artist. Most of the other characters are so underdeveloped and nondescript that it's hard to remember them; the one exception is Christopher Lee, who seems vaguely annoyed all the time.
The 1970s were not kind to Captain America, and "Captain America/Captain America II: Death Too Soon" end up being too dull to be campy fun. Captain America / Captain America II: Death Too Soon
When I was a kid, I thought these two movies were really cool. It was around the time the Marvel had made deals with CBS to bring Characters like Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Doctor Strange to TV. You would think that they were going to be as well written and produced as the Hulk was, but alas, Captain America was not.
The story was set in the late 1970's instead and used the idea that Steve Rogers had just gotten out of the Marines and was called in by a scientist that had worked with Steve's Father on a Steroid called F.L.A.G (Full Latent Ability Gain). The Steroid worked to increase the stregth of the person or animal ifused with it, but killed them in the end. The only one that could take it was Steve, because it was from his Father. His Father apparently was the 1st Captain America.
Ok, This verges off from what the actual origon of the cahracter is. We don't even get a good looking sheild in this. It's a Bulletproof Glass that looks terrible. He can throw it like a boomarang, but it looks really fake. The only cool part was the bike he rode. The story is fractured. The villian in the 1st film know that if Steve gets the FLAG steoid, that he would be able to do things that only a perfect human could do. How did the villian find out about FLAG? We don't even get a suit that resembles the comic suit until the tale end of the first one. It looks really poor. It was a good try, but they should have taken their que from Wonder Woman and possibly started this in the 1940's instead.
I remember watching this (and the first Captain America movie) on CBS in the late 1970s. I thought it was the coolest thing. Reb Brown looked like Captain America should look. I had a chance to watch both movies again over the summer on the SyFy Channel and still enjoyed them. Yes, Reb Brown can be wooden at times, but I totally buy him as Captain America. It's good fun! Don't take it so seriously and you'll enjoy it!
I have seen these when they first appeared on TV in 1978 and 1979. It's too bad there wasn't more of an effort and respect for the character back then. It could have been just as good as the Incredible Hulk series in 1978-1982. I have to laugh at the quality of the writing back then and how it got past the executives at CBS. The entire concept was not as well thought out. If you are a collector and can't pass up anything with Captain America's name;you'll be let down by these two movies. Wait for the new Captain America Movie (2011) from this year and purchase that terrific film. - Tv Series'
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