Captain America: The First Avenger Review
By: T.J. “I’m not gonna kiss you” Mulligan
In 2008, Marvel Entertainment began a march into cinemas that has since shifted the landscape of the superhero film. Much like in the comics from which they originate, Marvel began to set their films in similar locations and populate them with characters and objects that would appear in a number of different films. Starting with Iron Man in 2008 and followed by The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor, what began to take shape was not only the foundation for 2012’s massive superhero team-up film The Avengers, but an entire new universe in which to tell the stories of these men, women, gods, and other-wordly creatures. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been coming along quite nicely but one key cog in the machine has till yet been missing. Captain America, arguably the most widely known of all the Avengers, has finally seen his own film released. He may be “The First Avenger,” but his is the last stand-alone feature before The Avengers heads to screens next year. While first impressions are great, this is the last one leading into the most ambitious undertaking the superhero genre has seen since nipples on the Batsuit.
Captain America: The First Avenger is about Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a skinny young man with a big heart from Brooklyn, New York. Set in the 1940s, Rogers can only watch as his friends and peers go off to fight in World War II. He, however, fails every physical he takes and is unable to join them. Ardent in his quest to fight for his country, Rogers makes a desperate attempt to try and join again after an impassioned speech while speaking with his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who is about to ship out. Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who administers his physical and overheard his plea, decides to allow Rogers to enlist in a special unit he is supervising in an attempt to find a test subject to become the first super soldier. After impressing Erskine and his superiors Captain Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) with his smarts, bravery and spirit, Rogers is selected to undergo the experiment. Meanwhile, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), a Nazi science officer, is searching for an object known as the Cosmic Cube, a powerful object that can bring his many inventions into working order and make him and his growing army of followers near unstoppable. After the experiment on Rogers, which makes him tall, strong and durable beyond his imagination, an assassin of Schmidt’s shoots Dr. Erskine dead. Rogers, despite showing immense potential, is relegated to little more than a sideshow act until he receives disturbing news about his friend Barnes’ platoon while in Italy. Against orders he heads into enemy territory and there Captain America is truly born.
This was the last chance for Marvel to build hype in such a way for The Avengers and, unfortunately, it’s more of a whimper than a bang. That’s not to say it isn’t good, far from it, it just seems to simply suffer in areas that the previous movies in this ilk either didn’t or were better at masking. The most overt setback is the films visual style. Director Joe Johnston and crew obviously wanted the special effects to compliment the look of the rest of the film and making it feel very 1940s. The problem is that the way the effects play out make it look more like watching restored old footage from the time of the war itself. With as advanced as special effects are getting, to the point where most CGI now looks as flawless and pristine as if you were viewing the image in real life, with your own eyes, having blurry, discolored visuals for the sake of dating doe a lot to take someone like me out of the film I’m otherwise enjoying. Aside from that there are too many instances in which I questioned why a certain action was taken or how someone had access or knowledge of this or that (the minor ones of which I forgot and the major ones I won’t say for spoilers sake). These aren’t as big of an issue, mind you, because A) there’s still a sequel undoubtedly planned for this movie aside from the actual Avengers film that could clear some of these up and B) it’s a summer movie based off of a superhero comic, suspension of rational thought from time to time is almost a necessity. The last gripe I have is with the ending which, again, I won’t go into much detail about to avoid spoilers. It’s just that it commences so abruptly that I was taken aback at first. When the Cap spoke his final line, the credits began to roll and the theater lights came up, I was still sitting back in my seat, preparing for another 5-10 minutes of story.
Now onto the praise, of which this film certainly earned. I may not be the most acquainted with Captain America’s story but even I realize putting it to celluloid (is that even still a thing?) wasn’t going to be a simple task. Not only is the guy, as previously stated, arguably the most popular of the Avengers, his is a story that spans multiple decades and crosses with actual major historical events. Thanks in no small part to a carefully crafted script, the transformation of Steve Rogers into Captain America and, in turn, that of Captain America from a sideshow attraction to a real-life hero is told with very human emotions, keeping a grand tale grounded in reality (a quality inherent in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films thus far). Another major coup for this film is the cast, all of which put serious effort into making their characters standout. Special praise, however, needs to be awarded to the Captain himself, Chris Evans. I’ve been a fan of the guy since Not Another Teen Movie but I was a little more than skeptical when I heard he was cast as essentially the leader of the Avengers. All fears were put to rest after watching his performance in this. Even in the beginning of the movie when he plays the diminutive, pre-Captain-ized Rogers (an aspect of the movie in which the special effects most certainly did not disappoint), Evans commands the audience’s attention and emotions in the way only a leading man can. He’s serious when he needs to be, funny when it calls for it, and always charming - exactly the type of guy you want embodying America’s namesake hero.
This may not have been exactly the movie I wanted it to be, but it hasn’t diminished my excitement for The Avengers. 2012 can’t get here quick enough.
I give Captain America: The First Avenger 3 Companion Cubes Cosmic Cubes out of 5.
