Captain America: The First Avenger movie review
(Warning: This is an exhaustive review, so it may contain spoilers.)
There was a lot of pressure on Captain America: The First Avenger. If done right, Marvel could have the best movie from him yet, while building huge anticipation for The Avengers. If done wrong, the plans for The Avengers would have been a huge success. Did director Joe Johnston really manage to bring the magic to one of Marvel’s most iconic characters?
Based on the iconic World War II character, The First Avenger follows a brave young Steve Rogers from Brooklyn, New York (Chris Evans) as he was deemed unfit to serve in the military. With nowhere else to go, Rogers volunteers for an operation to turn him into a supersoldier, led by Dr. Abraham Erskine. The operation is a success, but Dr. Erskine is quickly killed, along with the secrets of the super-soldier formula. Realizing that his only living super-soldier is too great a risk for combat, the US Army decides to put Rogers on display at USO shows to boost morale and gain funding. However, when an evil plot is revealed led by the evil Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Rogers must take on the task and become Captain America.
The film handles the most difficult part well. He is able to avoid turning a flag bearer into a flag weaver. Instead, Evans finds himself a very likeable character, who hates bullies and isn’t afraid to fight back. Steve’s character gets the proper treatment, before he becomes the super soldier attacking the Nazis, while Evans proves he can handle more than just comedy, putting an end to any confusion about him as The Human Torch.
Hayley Atwell gives us a convincing performance as the strong but sensitive Peggy Carter, and Tommy Lee Jones is on stage taking shape as the arrogant Colonel Philips who is prone to one-liners. The rest of the cast either struggle to impress or are not given enough time to do so. It’s been a rough summer for Bucky Barnes. He suffered a cheap death in the comics recently, and the treatment of him in The First Avenger fairs is a little better. Sebastian Stan tries to make the most of what he’s given, as it’s obvious that Steve and Bucky have been friends for a long time. However, once he is quickly treated to Barnes, he is soon forgotten. Captain America’s support group, The Howling Commandos (though they’re never actually called that in the film), are clamoring for their own spin-off while providing some of the funniest scenes in the films.
Several disappointments I had with this movie were Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) and The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). The Howard Stark portrayed in this film had little charisma and was often forced by the number of times Stark’s name was mentioned, to keep reinforcing the fact that he is Iron Man’s father to the audience. Weaving’s Skull is so fanatically insane that he even dislikes other Nazis, but sometimes it’s hard to see what his intentions are. He Is he just obsessed with being a god? Red Skull is certainly not the diabolical villain I read about in the comics. I also hope we see more explanation behind the Cosmic Cube in The Avengers. Ordinary moviegoers might have found it difficult to understand what the power of the cube is in this movie.
That’s where the movie loses a star. The main threat HYDRA, the Nazi deep science division, actually only has two main figureheads, therefore it never really feels like a global threat. Perhaps if we had seen more classic villains like Baron Zemo and Baron Von Strucker, HYDRA might have seemed like a bigger threat.
Did the film function as a period film? Easily yes. While keeping enough historical ground to make it work, but not bogging it down too far until it gets boring, Johnston blends the perfect amount of history and fantasy to create a truly unique superhero movie. The special effects were actually a pleasant surprise. Despite my initial fears that Chris Evans’ head would look awkward on a skinny man’s body, Marvel pulled it off fantastically well. All of the battle scenes look convincing and easily rival the effects seen in Thor.
To conclude, Marvel can look back on Captain America: The First Avenger as a job done. A great performance from its main character, good action, good special effects and a great story in general. Captain America is not a classic by any means, but full credit must be given to Johnston and Marvel for making this happen.
Rating: 8/10