Review: 'Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)' Blu-Ray Review

Captain America: The First Avenger has no concept art gallery. I was going to drop my rating because of it, but then I watched the gorgeous featurettes and stopped complaining.


Product Details

• Actors: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan
• Directors: Joe Johnston
• Writers: Christopher Markus, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Stephen McFeely
• Producers: Alan Fine, Amir Madani, Dan Masciarelli
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English, Spanish
• Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Paramount Studios
• DVD Release Date: October 25, 2011
• Run Time: 124 minutes

Special Features

• Includes Digital Copy
• Deleted Scenes
• Behind-The-Scenes Featurettes
• Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer -- Go deeper inside the Marvel Universe and unveil secret plans to assemble the ultimate superhero team, the Avengers. 
• And more!

Here are some of the featurettes I found interesting along, with some admittedly poor screen caps from the disk. I just couldn't resist putting some of these on the site.

Featurette Review
Designing the Costume
The director and producer talk about the challenge of designing a faithful comic book costume while making out realistic. Some concept art with interviews with lead concept artist Ryan Meinerding and some brief, but beautiful pan and scans of the illustrations.

Heightened Technology 
The producers and actors talk about the desire to bring advanced technology to WWII without looking out-of-place. We get a few shots of concept art on boards during production and some beautiful images of Daniel Simons' vehicle designs. He's the star of the featurette since he talks extensively about his design principles.

The Transformation 
A great explanation of how the creators got Chris Evans to look skinny and why they did it the way they did. There are only two illustrations, but the focus is on the technology.

Behind the Skull 
This feature talks about how they brought the character of the Red Skull to life. Artists Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen take about the challenge of balancing the anatomical effect of a man with his face burned off while maintaining the classic image of the comic book character. Here are some really nice illustrations in this video. The best on the disk really.

Overall, it's a really good set of disks. The concept art for the Marvel films are some of the best in the business and, besides the lack of a gallery, it's still a good disk to own.




Charlie Wen's website is http://charliewen.typepad.com/ and Ryan Meinerding's is http://boyrobot.com/. Both guy's are pretty busy, so Wen's site hasn't been updated since 2010 and Meinerding's blog domain has lapsed. Just go to Marvel.com to see their stuff.

Captain America Strong-Arms Hydra in 'Captain America: The First Avenger' Storyboards

Storyboards from Captain America: The First Avenger show how cool Cap's bike really is.

As always, after a movie release concept art and storyboards are up from the artists. Captain America is no exception.

I was checking out the artists and came across these storyboards from Rodolfo Damaggio.

The sequence is called "Bike Chase." He's heading through the woods to the base of the evil H.Y.D.R.A. The scene right before this one has him using his motorcycle gadets to get rid of some agents chasing him.

Here's what he said about them:

Here are some the storyboards I did for Captain America, the "Kruger Chase" and the Bike chase sequence. Joe [Johnston] thumb nailed the Bike chase entirely.

For comparison, check out the video clip below. It's a shame it cuts off right when it gets interesting. I would have loved to see him backflip off his bike onto the sheild. Guess we'll have to check out the movie. ;)

Check out the rest of his storyboards from the movie and his other amazing art work at Damaggio.com.

Do these storyboards make him look cooler than ever?

Artists of 'Captain America: The First Avenger' (2011)

The film Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) opens tomorrow and, to recognize the artists involved, I'm reprinting the IMDb list of artists from the film with notes. If I learn about any more I'll update it as appropriate.

Director: Joe Johnston

Production Design
An artist responsible for designing the overall visual appearance of a movie.

• Rick Heinrichs

Art Directors

The person who oversees the artists and craftspeople who build the sets. See also production designer, set designer, set director, leadman, and swing gang.

• Neal Callow
• Dean Clegg
• John Dexter
• Jason Knox-Johnston
• Chris Lowe
• Andy Nicholson
• Phil Sims
• Clint Wallace

Concept Artists

• James Carson (concept artist)
• Rodolfo Damaggio (concept artist)
• Dan Walker (concept artist)
• Andy Park (concept illustrator)
• Henrik Tamm (conceptual illustrator)
• Kathy Heaser (graphic artist)
• Anita Dhillon (graphic designer)
• Ted Haigh (graphic designer)
• Mauro Borrelli (illustrator)
• Nathan Schroeder (illustrator)
• Daniel Simon (lead vehicle designer)
• Jim Barr (set designer)
• Mike Stassi (set designer)
• Douglas Ingram (sketch artist)

Storyboard Artists

• Brent Boates
• Federico D'Alessandro
• Darrin Denlinger
• James Doh

Updated list

Dynamic CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Red Skull Concept Art

John Thiago on the Brazlian website Mundo Hype posted some concept art for production designer Rick Heinrichs' Captain America: The First Avenger.

The blog says the following about the concept art:

"For starters I must emphasize that not confirm the veracity of this news. But you may have some leaked concept art look of the Red Skull in the film of Captain America , which debuts next year. The style of conceptual art match those that leaked months ago of Captain America and Thor. Furthermore, the skull showed up holding the Cosmic Cube, which was confirmed in the film. However, there is no trace of actor Hugo Weaving in art." [Translated by Google Translate]

Most concept art is done before casting, so its no surprise it doesn't look like the actor. What confirms these as legit is that they look exactly like the official movie costumes.

We don't know who did these, but, the concept artists for Captain America are James Carson, Rodolfo Damaggio, Dan Walker, Andy Park and Henrik Tamm.

Captain America: The First Avenger is directed by Joe Johnston and stars Chris Evans. After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.

Via Mania and Splashpage

First Look: Do the Awesome New CAPTAIN AMERICA Pics Match Concept Art?

We get our first official look at Chris Evans in the amazing Captain America costume thanks to the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. It looks pretty spot on with the concept art.Of course, we don't see the controversial helmet, but it looks awesome.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.
Release Date: July 22, 2011
-IMDB

So, what's different? The colors match and the pattern on his tunic around the star looks the same. The only difference is the straps on his shoulders have more straps and buckles.

Overall, its as functional as you're going to get for a superhero costume. The director, Joe Johnston, said he wanted it to look accidental as a costume and he got his wish.

I'm really looking forward to it. I had my doubts when they cast Evans, but it looks like he's really filling into the character.

Here's some more concept art from the film.

What do you think of the Captain America costume?
Source: Ain't it cool news, EW via firstshowing.net

Two New Magnificent Captain America and Thor Concept Posters

Ryan Meinerding's Captain America battlescene makes Cap fit right into WWII.

Charlie Wen's Thor vs. Loki fight looks epic.

Marvel is releasing some concept posters at Comic-Con this weekend and we have a sneak peek thanks to Yahoo. Action packed and colorful, its a good sign of things to come. Neither of the two artists - Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen - are listed in IMDB for these films, so it makes me rethink my research path.
What do you think?