Climbing on my Soapbox: Captain America The First Avenger Movie

When I was a child of 7, I discovered my first comic book and fell head over heals in love. And I mean in hard core love to the point where I still carry the torch to this day. The comic book was Captain America Issue #289. Captain America was my world as a child to the point that for a small portion of time, I actually thought he was an actual LIVING human being, a protector of America and an actual symbol of America (I was only 7 years old so give me a break and that thought lasted for about week or so till someone popped that bubble). But still to this day he holds a special place in my geek heart.

Then I came upon this quote in the LA Times blog, from the director to the upcoming Captain America movie:

"We're sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers," said Joe Johnston, whose past directing credits include "Jurassic Park III" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." He's a guy that wants to serve his country, but he's not a flag-waver. We're reinterpreting, sort of, what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was."

Furthermore:

"He wants to serve his country, but he's not this sort of jingoistic American flag-waver," Johnston said. "He's just a good person. We make a point of that in the script: Don't change who you are once you go from Steve Rogers to this super-soldier; you have to stay who you are inside, that's really what's important more than your strength and everything. It'll be interesting and fun to put a different spin on the character and one that the fans are really going to appreciate."

Whoa.

Whoa.

WHOA!

Okay, stop it right there Mr. Johnston. From these quote alone, this does not sound good AT ALL for the film. What is it about Captain America/Steve Rogers that you NEED to reinterpret? How is a 'spin' going to show movie goers who Captain America is? Do you know that Captain America as is can stand on its own enough to capture an audiance? Do you know how much of a potential FAIL you are speaking about here?

Okay let me back track a bit. For the last two years, all these movies that were created to build up the Avengers movie were in most part (about 90%) supported by die hard comic book fans. As my great friend Gary says "Do it right and fanboys will pay". Iron Man did not need to be reinterpreted and neither did the Hulk and from the look of Kenneth Branagh's Thor there is really no spin or reinterpretation. So why do you have to do it Captain America? Hell, let's deviate outside Marvel; Have you seen The Dark Knight? Did Christopher Nolan reinterpret Batman? No. I don't think so.

When a director/producer/actor/writer says they are going to reinterpret something that means the following things:

1) They have absolutely NO CLUE as to what the subject matter is. They have no in depth knowledge of what the subject is, what makes the subject exist in the fan realm, or have any interest in finding out. Instead, THEY want to create what the image of the subject should be and in this case it shows that the director has not picked up a Captain America issue in his life.

2) They are not creative enough to bring to life what has already been created. Therefore they have to mold it, i.e. reinterpret, in a matter that they can bring it to life as THEY see fit.

3)They feel that the subject matter is boring and reinterpreting it would make it more exciting.

Whatever the reasoning Mr. Johnston has for doing his version of Captain America, just be warned. You have the absolutely the greatest potential of making this film failing in a very EPIC way. And if you do, the fan boys/girls will forever curse your name. In most cases you are playing with a person's childhood memories and cherished symbols. Tread with care or it will cost you in ways that you can never fix.

A scorned pissed off fan means the poor house for you.

You have been warned Mr. Johnston.