Captain America: The First Avenger

So Awesome.

I want to start this off by saying that I love Captain America. While he wasn’t the first superhero I remember growing up, Spiderman and the 90s X-men hold that spot, he is by far my favorite. He’s not the strongest, nor the fastest, nor even the smartest, but he is above average in each of these qualities and when mixed together with his compassion and his impressive shield we have one of the best heroes Marvel Comics has to offer. He’s Superman without all of the powers, so for me the things he says and does have much more weight.

Need I say more?

The First Avenger wasn’t the Captain’s first film debut, but it is by far the best. The film adaptation from the early 90s made far too many changes and stupid little additions to be considered a “good” movie. An Italian Red Skull, it’s like they didn’t read the source material. I only mention it as a bit of a fun fact for everyone.

I’ll start with the good. For a movie that pretty obviously only exists to set Capt. America up and get him to the modern day, they try very hard to make you forget that. At least at the beginning and the end. They take their time setting up Steven Rogers as the big of spirit small of body patriot that he is before his transformation. When they first released that Chris Evans would play the super soldier I was apprehensive. I will admit I thought that it was just something Marvel did to make it impossible for Fox to continue its existing Fantastic Four franchise. But Evans does an amazing job mixing the harshness and kindness of Steven Rogers. Sure, the CGI of making Evans a munchkin isn’t the best but I’d rather that over other alternatives. For example, the 90s Cap was a normal sized man with polio. While that does mirror many of the difficulties young Rogers had, Rogers multitude of disorders coupled with his tiny size makes him a more interesting character for me.

He's so widdle.

Post transformation Evans is still great. Many Superhero movies from the previous century had a serious issue of having actors that could only play either the hero or the civilian really well. The best, and really only well known, example would be the Batman films. In the 1995 Batman Forever and 1997 Batman and Robin, acting heavyweight George Clooney does a great job as Bruce Wayne, but his Batman could use some work. Evans does not have this problem. Granted, his character doesn’t necessarily have a secret ID but he does mix the larger than life quality of the Captain with the kind of awkward fish out of water vibe that Rogers has when he isn’t saving the day.

SOOO much better.

Hugo Weaving was an amazing choice for the Red Skull. Granted, I wish he could have been a bit more consistent with his German Accent but that’s a nitpick. He has the intimidating aura that the Skull needs, and just that mad look in his eyes when he’s working on something evil. His “Red Skull face” doesn’t detract from his performance at all. His face and eyes are still expressive, and the face looks natural enough that you’re not thinking too much about how it looks.

Toby Jones is good as Arnim Zola, Red Skull’s chief scientist. I would say that his one weakness is that Zola is portrayed as a bit too spineless for my taste. Zola as I’ve been introduced to him is a cold calculating scientist, amoral and brilliant. This Zola is smart, but he folds a little too easily, he is captured a little too easily, and he’s a little too single minded in his research. I’ll get more into that in the bad section.

Hayley Atwell is great as Agent Peggy Carter. She has a proto-Black Widow vibe to her, she’s beautiful but she’ll shoot you in the gut in a second if you cross her. Just ask Cap. I’m not well versed in her older incarnation but if Atwell’s Carter is an update it’s a very organic one. She feels like the strong woman that would exist in the 1940s. She is more active in the war than your average woman but she doesn’t feel like she couldn’t exist at the time.

Good looking group, still couldn't be bothered to name them all.

The support cast is great, especially Sebastian Stan’s Bucky. He’s more of an adaptation in that he’s Captain’s friend and partner instead of a WWII era sidekick. He’s the strong friend that tries to be supportive but still trying to keep Rogers grounded before and after he’s superhuman.

The Bad parts of the movie aren’t horrendous but defiantly noticeable. The biggest issue is the pace. The first forty minutes or so are rather slow, little action and a lot of talking. That in and of itself isn’t a problem, as the origin movie I’m fine with taking time to set the stage of the person the Hero is. The problem arises in that they try to make it up by cramming a montage of action sequences. In movie time, I assume, several weeks pass but they are condensed down into a scene maybe ten minutes long with no real substance to it.

Chris Evans and Hugh Jackman, It'd be so beautiful.

Another issue that is created because of the pace ties into the supporting cast. Aside from Bucky, only one other of Captain America’s Howling Commandos are named. And Dugan’s name is said so quick I missed it the first few times I saw the film. Heck, they don’t even name the group. This is kind of a pain for fans. We have guys like Dum Dum Dugan and James Falsworth, the guy in the bowler hat and the British man respectively, big names in the expanded universe don’t get due credit. And of course no Wolverine. Damn complicated film contracts. Think of that for a second, Captain America and Wolverine together killing HYDRA goons. The fact it doesn’t exist brings a tear to the eye.

Also HYDRA is too single minded. Let me explain. This is a problem that exists with a lot of Marvel’s scientific bad guys. Zola, Hydra in general, Doc Oct, the scientists of the Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM); all are very smart people/groups but they focus in on one project too much. The best animated incarnations of these characters have their fingers in a lot of pies. These groups know that you can’t focus too much on one evil plan in case it blows up in your face. The Tessaract is a powerful artifact but Skull won’t put all of his chips on that.

So in summation, good movie, but it could have been great. Like Amazing Spider-man 2 I give it a B. While the pace feels a little uneven at times, and HYDRA is a little too Tessaract happy this is a good film for the Captain. Dugan, Falsworth, and Wolverine might be peeved with their parts here but hey, no movie is perfect. As a movie that is trying to do a lot with just one film, it isn’t so bloated that it pulls a Spider-man 3. Next time I’ll cover on some of the things I’d have done to make the film better.

 

http://www.filmjabber.com/movie-blog/2011/08/30/captain-america-90s-style/

http://marvel.wikia.com/Wolverine/Captain_America_Vol_1_4

http://moviecarpet.com/three-new-captain-america-the-first-avenger-character-posters-2011-06-02.html

http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/post/714359/captain-america-howling-commandos-fight-hydra-on-set-pics/

http://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=163524

http://scifi.about.com/od/Captain-America-2011/ig/Gallery---Captain-America--The-First-Avenger---2011-/Chris-Evans-as-Steve-Rogers.-7_o.htm

http://marvel-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Johann_Schmidt