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panda_incognito's review
5.0
This book provides fascinating insight into one of my all-time favorite movies, and I especially appreciated the section about how the artists and filmmakers developed the poignant scene where Cap visits a Smithsonian museum exhibit about his life. When I watched the movie again last night, I was struck by how perfect that element is. It further develops Cap's character as a man out of time, weaves in backstory in a seamless, engaging way, and intensifies the movies themes. I enjoyed getting to read details about that scene's creation, and I love that the artist tasked with painting the museum's mural considers it one of his greatest career accomplishments. It's really phenomenal.
I would recommend this book to any Captain America or Marvel fan who is interested in character designs, concept art, storyboards, and insights from the team behind the movie. The text is fairly sparse, but always adds something significant to what you're looking at. For example, the sections about action scenes include the creators' reflections on how they designed the action with the characters in mind, considering how they would react under particular conditions. The choreographers don't just do whatever looks cool, but are deeply invested in every element of the story world.
It's obvious how much effort, love, and craftsmanship went into every aspect of creating this movie, and all of the different visual and choreographed elements fit seamlessly within the story, to the point where you can experience their impact without ever stopping to think about them. Also, I was amazed to realize how much in this movie was CGI, considering how well they grounded core shots and essential elements in the real world. I really enjoyed the different insights about how they kept everything real enough to give them the freedom to create fabulous elements digitally without making anything seem artificial.
I also enjoyed quotes about the storytelling itself, and about how this movie is a hybrid between a superhero story and a '70s political thriller. I can definitely see that, and it's part of why this movie is fun to watch again and again. I'm not a Marvel fan overall, but this movie is one of favorites of all time, and I love the blend between different genres, and all of the clever twists, deep themes, and thoughtful questions about human nature, technology, government, corrupt institutions, and what it looks like to find your path in life when you don't belong with the society around you.
Also, related to the '70s political thriller vibe, the book notes how great it was to have Robert Redford appear in a pivotal role. Although I wasn't familiar with his oeuvre and it didn't mean anything to me, the Marvel team loved how moviegoers would buy into what Alexander Pierce said not just because he was a convincing character, but also because he was Robert Redford. Fabulous.
I really enjoyed this book, and it deepened my love for the movie, if that was even possible. I'm glad that I was able to get this through inter-library loan, and would love to own a copy if I can ever find it for a reasonable price. Even though it's out-of-print, I would definitely recommend this to anyone else who shares my appreciation for this movie. This isn't a promotional puff piece, or even just a collection of concept art. This is full of succinct, memorable reflections on the design and storytelling process, and even though I have already thought about this movie in tremendous depth, there were still brand new insights and revelations here.
I would recommend this book to any Captain America or Marvel fan who is interested in character designs, concept art, storyboards, and insights from the team behind the movie. The text is fairly sparse, but always adds something significant to what you're looking at. For example, the sections about action scenes include the creators' reflections on how they designed the action with the characters in mind, considering how they would react under particular conditions. The choreographers don't just do whatever looks cool, but are deeply invested in every element of the story world.
It's obvious how much effort, love, and craftsmanship went into every aspect of creating this movie, and all of the different visual and choreographed elements fit seamlessly within the story, to the point where you can experience their impact without ever stopping to think about them. Also, I was amazed to realize how much in this movie was CGI, considering how well they grounded core shots and essential elements in the real world. I really enjoyed the different insights about how they kept everything real enough to give them the freedom to create fabulous elements digitally without making anything seem artificial.
I also enjoyed quotes about the storytelling itself, and about how this movie is a hybrid between a superhero story and a '70s political thriller. I can definitely see that, and it's part of why this movie is fun to watch again and again. I'm not a Marvel fan overall, but this movie is one of favorites of all time, and I love the blend between different genres, and all of the clever twists, deep themes, and thoughtful questions about human nature, technology, government, corrupt institutions, and what it looks like to find your path in life when you don't belong with the society around you.
Also, related to the '70s political thriller vibe, the book notes how great it was to have Robert Redford appear in a pivotal role. Although I wasn't familiar with his oeuvre and it didn't mean anything to me, the Marvel team loved how moviegoers would buy into what Alexander Pierce said not just because he was a convincing character, but also because he was Robert Redford. Fabulous.
I really enjoyed this book, and it deepened my love for the movie, if that was even possible. I'm glad that I was able to get this through inter-library loan, and would love to own a copy if I can ever find it for a reasonable price. Even though it's out-of-print, I would definitely recommend this to anyone else who shares my appreciation for this movie. This isn't a promotional puff piece, or even just a collection of concept art. This is full of succinct, memorable reflections on the design and storytelling process, and even though I have already thought about this movie in tremendous depth, there were still brand new insights and revelations here.
trike's review
4.0
This is another excellent addition to the "Art of" series in Marvel's Cinematic Universe. There is a lot of terrific stuff here covering everything from characters to props and locations. My big criticism is that there is too much emphasis on storyboards. The many wonderful drawings of The Falcon have little version numbers on them, and the highest number I saw was 28, but there are actually only about a dozen drawings. Instead, that space is taken up by page after page of storyboards. I would much rather see actual preproduction art as well as some finished digital models rather than storyboards.
While we do get to see quite a bit of the secondary characters like Batroc, oddly one of the most interesting characters for the movie is absent: Arnim Zola. There's quite a bit of art of that sequence, but nothing pertaining to him. In the comics, Zola is one of those silly creations, existing as a guy who has transplanted his brain into a robot body, while a television on the robot's chest shows his face. The way they did it in the movie was much more interesting, yet Zola was entirely missing from the book. It's as if they had the idea and went straight to drawing it.
Other than the lapse of Zola and the over-abundance of storyboards, this is an excellent art book.
While we do get to see quite a bit of the secondary characters like Batroc, oddly one of the most interesting characters for the movie is absent: Arnim Zola. There's quite a bit of art of that sequence, but nothing pertaining to him. In the comics, Zola is one of those silly creations, existing as a guy who has transplanted his brain into a robot body, while a television on the robot's chest shows his face. The way they did it in the movie was much more interesting, yet Zola was entirely missing from the book. It's as if they had the idea and went straight to drawing it.
Other than the lapse of Zola and the over-abundance of storyboards, this is an excellent art book.
alexauthorshay's review
4.0
Less focus on character than the artbooks for the first movies for each Avenger, but I suppose that's understandable since they aren't creating character designs from scratch anymore. But this one still had much more character art and development than the Thor: The Dark World book, and very interesting tidbits about how they made certain scenes or items. I am floored by what I learned was CG in this movie; some of it you can tell, but a lot of it looked real, like they were in a physical location or a completely decorated set or used real props, etc. I guess because it's not somewhere like Asgard, where you know it doesn't exist and has to be CG no matter how realistic it looks, there's the assumption that more of it has been physically created, even if it's been manipulated digitally.
There was a very interesting mention about how the Marvel team keeps characters in mind when doing choreography--that they ensure the motions made and weapons used by the characters are in line with how they have been characterized so far in the MCU, rather than just going for the coolest fight scene. Little mentions of what details were paid attention to always amazes me, in this Marvel artbook and ones from other MCU movies. But I suppose that's why these movies are such good quality; they have huge teams and individual people paying attention to the very nuts and bolts of the script, to things that viewers don't even get to notice in the movie for the simple fact that it streamlines so well into the final product.
There was a very interesting mention about how the Marvel team keeps characters in mind when doing choreography--that they ensure the motions made and weapons used by the characters are in line with how they have been characterized so far in the MCU, rather than just going for the coolest fight scene. Little mentions of what details were paid attention to always amazes me, in this Marvel artbook and ones from other MCU movies. But I suppose that's why these movies are such good quality; they have huge teams and individual people paying attention to the very nuts and bolts of the script, to things that viewers don't even get to notice in the movie for the simple fact that it streamlines so well into the final product.
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