Captain America: The First Avenger

There's only so many times I can sit down and write a complete review of a Marvel comic film. Even though they might have some major superficial differences at times (this one has Norse Gods in it, this one's set in WWII, this one teams up a bunch of superheroes, etc) they're still pretty formulaic at heart. You either like these movies or you don't. I enjoy them for the most part, provided they don't get too weighed down with continuity (this seems to be the growing problem with some Marvel films, see my review of Iron Man 2). I think to some degree you have to see these films on the big screen... I'm fairly sure that my enjoyment of Captain America (and previously, Thor) has a lot to do with the way the atmosphere of a darkened theatre with minimal distractions can suck one into the spectacle these films put a lot of energy into creating.



Anyway, here are some loose thoughts on Captain America...

• The overall film is tonally perfect - it hits that perfect series of notes that taps into pop-culture nostalgia for rousing Allied WWII propaganda, and does so without being overly trite or hollow. It's not afraid to make the audience laugh but it's also serious enough to use the gloomy setting properly.
• I had some reservations about Chris Evans at first. He seems to be the go-to guy for comic book characters these days (Fantastic Four, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, The Losers), and I wasn't particularly enamoured by his performances as Johnny Storm. I have to say though that I thought he did really well as Captain America... he gave the character a very necessary sense of humility. He looked good in the costume too, even if it did make him look a bit like a big gay fireman.
  
  
• The special effects used to make Evans look small and weedy for his pre-serum scenes were really good. Like, amazingly good. After seeing previews I thought I would be distracted by it, but I actually forgot that I was watching special effects after a few minutes and I bought the wonder of his transformation into the real Chris Evans; bulked up and ridiculously cut.
• Hugo Weaving - what a great actor. I don't mean that he's some kind of theatrical god, he's just such a versatile and entertaining performer. The Red Skull could've been quite silly in execution, but Weaving owns it and actually quite frightening in the role without having to resort to hysterics. I hope we see him in the role again at some point, I have a feeling that there is a lot more he could do with it if given the chance.
• Nazi occultism. I'm a sucker for anything that deals with this, it's just such a fascinating area of history/science. The idea that a fascistic superforce could conquer most of Europe whilst exploring the supernatural is both bizarre and more than a little scary. Captain America automatically had me excited just by featuring this.
• The supporting cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones. They're all great, and (unlike the mess of characters in Iron Man 2) they all have an integral part to play in the film.

That's all I'll say. I enjoyed it a lot, and I'd be happy to see more historically-themed superhero films. I think there was some bravery in Marvel's willingness to set a comic book movie in WWII, considering that war films don't draw the same kind of crowds that superhero movies normally do. A rousing success!



DIRECTOR: Joe Johnston

WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Based on the Marvel comic.

KEY ACTORS: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Toby Jones, Stanley Tucci, Dominic Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, JJ Feild, Richard Armitage



RELATED TEXTS:

- Obviously, the Captain America comics, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941.

- This newest version of Captain America ties in with other recent Marvel films - Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and Thor. The character from these films are set to team up in The Avengers.

- Captain America has sporadically appeared on television from the 1960s through to the modern day, in both animated and live-action form.

- The character was adapted and featured for a serial in 1944, Captain America.

- In 1973, Captain America (along with Spiderman and a Mexican wrestler named Santo) was featured (without permission) in the Turkish film Three Mighty Men.

- A feature film, Captain America, was released in 1990 (starring Matt Salinger, son of the famous author J. D. Salinger). It was a critical bomb and subsequently went straigh to video.

- Director Joe Johnston also made the cult wartime action adventure The Rockateer, which seems to be a major factor in why he was chosen to direct Captain America: The First Avenger.