By Matt Patches
Rolling the dice on a big budget blockbuster once in a year is risky enough, but Marvel stared financial failure in the eyes when they dished out a second serving of stylistic comic book action this summer, with the Thor follow-up Captain America: The First Avenger. The movie was intrinsically connected to its predecessor, paving the way for the two heroes to eventually unite in 2012's The Avengers, while successfully (even more so than Thor) standing alone as a thrilling, old school adventure. Captain America went on to be one of the year's best action flicks and the Blu-ray release thankfully continues the solid delivery, with sharp picture and a handful of extras.
Like the Thor Blu, Marvel puts 110% into transferring the vivid world of Captain America to the small screen. Even with all the Asgardian effects, the WWII setting of Captain America feels denser and more detailed than its fantastical predecessor. As evidenced by the disc's standard-issue behind-the-scenes featurette, Marvel designers poured a lot of imagination into creating the look of Cap's suit, the many lairs of Hydra and Red Skull and, of course, the look of the crimson villain himself. Thanks to the pristine HD, the colorful, classic artistry is even more evident than the theaters. If I had watched the Blu in 3D, perhaps it would have lost a bit of its pop (which it definitely did on the big screen), but here the movie's visual magic really blossoms. Yes, no matter how manly Captain America is, he's still prone to blossoming.
Along with the six mini-docs, Director Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park 3), Director of Photography Shelly Johnson and Editor Jeffrey Ford provide a commentary that dives even deeper into the making of the film. I previously applauded Thor director Kenneth Branagh's enthusiastic commentary track for that film, but Johnston's matches the excitement and adds a heap of knowledge and insight into the movies creation. I already imagined making a summer action movie was an inconceivable amount of work, but Johnston's revealing commentary track makes it sound like a daily marathong, jumping back and forth between freshly built sets and praying to God the CG would all clean up nice. Terrifying, even knowing the film looks great.
The disc throws on a few added bonuses for hardcore fans: Another Marvel One-Shot film, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer," puts Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) at center stage and is leaps and bounds better than the short on the Thor Blu. For those looking to continually tease themselves with Avengers footage, there's a none-too-new "The Assembly Begins" feature that gets people up to speed with the teammates. The deleted scenes from the movie a short, but sweet, with one in particular—a moment in which Cap is stuck in the trenches of battle—that I would have loved to have seen in the finished film.
Captain America is one of the best movies of the year and the Blu-ray lives up to the movie's excellence. It's not a fully packed disc, but Marvel didn't skimp on the extras either—the right serving size for the right price.