Captain America: The Winter Soldier Blu-ray (4.5 Stars)

Walt Disney Studios brings us another fantastic Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Frankly, in my opinion Captain America: The Winter Soldier tops every previous MCU film to date. Captain America lends his back story and his persona to the story arch that an overreaching government or powerful group can take control of a country to do no good. I love old spy thrillers like Three Days of the Condor and Marathon Man, and this film blends the superhero aspects and the spy thrillers brilliantly. Also having Anthony and Joe Russo direct the film with a more practical take on the action scenes is another nice throwback to those great 70s movies.

Now I will move onto the special features. Once again, Disney gives the fans the shaft. This is the easiest way to put it. Not only are the Combo-Packs with the DVD a thing of the past, they decided to force 3D into the mix. I personally could care less as I've already upgraded to Blu-Ray, but not everyone has done this yet, nor has their friends or family. I digress though. The special features include your basic deleted scenes and gag reel which total in about 5 minutes for both. The special features also include a nice featurette called "On the Front Line: An Inside Look at Captain America's Battleground". This is a nice behind the scenes look at some of the bigger action scenes from the movie. Sadly, it only runs at 10 minutes long. The other featurette is "On Set with Anthony Mackie: Cut the Check. This is not anything special, and to make it worst it only runs at about 3 minutes. The final piece is a look at Steve Rogers' Notebook, which is an interesting look into the many different versions of his notebook for the worldwide audience. This is a nice featurette which runs at about 3 minutes. Finally comes the big piece, and that is the audio commentary featuring Anthony and Joe Russo(directors) and Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely(screenwriters). This is a very nice in-depth look at not only the film process from the Russo Brothers but, a nice look at how the story was crafted over a couple years. This feature easily steals the show but, that wasn't too hard. Overall, the special features are average, and that is only because the audio commentary saves the day. This is another poor effort from Disney, and there is no excuse for this widely popular film to have very limited special features.

This Blu-Ray also features the 7.1 Surround Sound, and it sounds amazing. This is personally one of the my favorites films to watch with my surround sound because of the added depth, and when the score from Henry Jackman starts rolling, it adds so much more to this amazing film.

Finally, this is really a must add Blu-Ray to your collection. Fans of the MCU will run out to buy this film probably needing no convincing of that, unless you are on the fence about the special features. While the special features are downright laughable overall, the movie itself warrants a buy because this film is just so damn good.

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Captain America: The First Avenger Blu-ray Trailer!

Sep 21, 2011 by Brian Gallagher

Paramount Home Entertainment announced the Blu-ray and DVD release details for Captain America: The First Avenger, which hits the shelves on October 25. The studio has released a Blu-ray trailer, which you can take a look at below. We also have the full press release with all of the Blu-ray and DVD details, plus the cover art below the trailer.

Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures introduce the latest addition to the incomparable Marvel Super Hero team with Captain America: The First Avenger, ready for action on high definition Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and DVD October 25, 2011. Called "the best superhero movie ever" (Brian Erdy, CBS-TV), the thrill-packed adventure is a blockbuster hit with audiences worldwide, earning over $350 million at the Global Box Office. When a terrifying force threatens everyone across the globe, the world's greatest soldier wages war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull. Loaded with fantastic action, stunning visual effects and an awe-inspiring hero imbued with courage, humanity and an unbreakable spirit, Captain America: The First Avenger transports viewers into a world of daring exploits and excitement. Starring Chris Evans in the title role, the film features an outstanding ensemble cast including Academy Award-winner Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving as Marvel's Ultimate Villain, Red Skull, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke and Stanley Tucci.

The Captain America: The First Avenger three-disc set includes the film on Blu-ray in high-definition 3D and in high definition 2D, as well as on standard definition DVD with a digital copy. The two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack includes a high definition presentation of the film, plus a standard definition presentation with a digital copy. Both sets boast over an hour of behind-the-scenes bonus material including an original Marvel short film, an exclusive sneak peek into the ultimate Super Hero team, Marvel's The Avengers, six featurettes that go behind-the-scenes of the filmmaking process, deleted scenes and much more.

The Captain America: The First Avenger Blu-ray Discs are presented in 1080p high definition with English 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The DVD in the sets is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Surround and English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The digital copy is presented with an English Audio track.

Blu-ray
Feature film with commentary by director Joe Johnston, director of photography Shelly Johnson and editor Jeff FordMarvel One-Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's HammerOutfitting a Hero featuretteHowling Commandos featuretteHeightened Technology featuretteThe Transformation featuretteBehind the Skull featuretteCaptain America Origins featuretteThe Assembly Begins featuretteDeleted Scenes with commentary by director Joe Johnston, director of photography Shelly Johnson and editor Jeff FordTrailers

DVD

The three-disc set includes all of the above, plus the feature film on Blu-ray 3D. Captain America: The First Avenger will also be available as a single-disc DVD presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, French 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and English Audio Description and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The disc includes feature commentary, the featurettes "Outfitting a Hero" and "The Assembly Begins" and trailers.

Captain America: The First Avenger, directed by Joe Johnston, from a screenplay by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America. As Captain America, Rogers joins forces with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) to fight the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). One of a continuing slate of films being produced by Marvel Studios based on the Marvel characters, Captain America: The First Avenger joins Thor which was released on May 6, 2011 and Marvel's The Avengers which is coming to theaters on May 4, 2012. Captain America: The First Avenger, distributed by Paramount Pictures, hit theaters on July 22, 2011. Sources: Paramount Home Entertainment, Marvel

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Captain America: The First Avenger on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D October 25th

Aug 27, 2011 by The MovieWeb Team

Amazon is now taking pre-orders for the Blu-ray release of the 2011 summer blockbuster, Captain America: The First Avenger. The Paramount/Marvel Studios co-production will be available in a 3D Limited Edition combo pack (Captain America: The First Avenger - Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) and a standard combo pack (Captain America: The First Avenger - Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy), as well as the Captain America: The First Avenger DVD. These will hit retail with starting prices of $54.99 and $42.99 respectively.

The Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) directed feature stars Chris Evans as the iconic superhero along with Hayley Atwell (The Duchess), Hugo Weaving (The Matrix) and Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men). The film tells the origin story of Steve Rogers' transformation into the super-soldier Captain America and his mission to stop Nazi officer Johann Schmidt/Red Skull. Captain America performed strong at the box office last month and has hauled in over $316 million worldwide to date.

The Blu-ray for Captain America: The First Avenger will feature DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 and a 2:39:1 aspect ratio. Though Paramount has yet to fully detail the release, an unconfirmed listing of special features is outlined below.

Captain America: The First Avenger streets on October 25th, 2011.

Captain America: The First Avenger was released July 22nd, 2011 and stars Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Richard Armitage, Stanley Tucci. The film is directed by Joe Johnston.

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