Wars are fought by weapons but they are won by men...

The marketing team over at Marvel are sublime, evil geniuses. In promoting Captain America: The First Avenger, they actually figured out a way to advertise for their advertisements. First, came the Super Bowl spot: and that was awesome, right? But at only 33 seconds, it just wasn't enough. (Although the mash-up of the first Captain America trailer and the Team America - F*** Yeah! song was so brilliant, it almost made up for it.) Then came the trailer clips - bits of the trailer released directly from Paramount Pictures to twitvid - each topping out at 8 seconds, each to whet the fanboy appetite for the actual trailer.

They also released a new still from the movie today, just as the wires were burning up anticipating the trailer. It shows Captain America (Chris Evans) on a WWII battlefield, surveying the damage after a battle, and slightly echoes the earlier moody, but more arguably effective, poster. I am loving the way that they melded the traditional Captain America costume with WWII gear, giving it a WWII feel. (There was no spandex in the forties!)

Captain America: The First Avenger follows the story of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, Fantastic Four, Sunshine, Scott Pilgrim): after being designated unfit for military service during the Second World War, he volunteers for an army special experiment which makes him a super soldier. He then suits up to take on the Red Skull, one of the best bad guys in recent memory, played by the Matrix trilogy's Hugo Weaving. His introduction in this trailer is preceded by "Your enemy is not what you expect", setting up the perfect opportunity for trailer mashups to add his iconic line as Agent Smith, "Surprised to see me, Mister Anderson?"

The trailer also features Tony Stark's father, Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), who administers the super-soldier serum to Steve Rogers. Though he's only glimpsed briefly here, there's a hint of Robert Downey Jr. in his performance. It'll be interesting to see exactly how similar (or not) he is to his son, and how Steve Rogers/Captain America interacts with him, in Captain America, and then to see the contrast with Cap's interactions with Tony Stark in The Avengers.

Finally, this evening, the first official full-length trailer was released on Entertainment Tonight. After all the antici ...... pation - here it is.

So what do you think? Is Chris Evans in CGI skinniness well-done, or a bit distracting? Does the Red Skull look menacing, or trick-or-treaty? Is this movie going to kick some summer blockbuster ass? "I think it works," don't you?

The film is directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), from a script written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (The Chroncles of Narnia films) and then polished by Joss Whedon (The Avengers). In addition to the aforementioned Chris Evans and Hugo Weaving, the impressive cast includes Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Stanley Tucci, Richard Armitage, Dominic Cooper, Sebastian Stan, Neal McDonough, Toby Jones, Derek Luke, and Anatole Taubman.

Captain America: The First Avenger is released on July 22, 2011 in the US, and a week later in the UK.

See also:

First Captain America poster brings the intensity

Pic: Chris Evans as Captain America

First trailer for Thor hits the web

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