Captain America: The First Avenger Review

As we reach the final hurdle of preludes before Marvel unleash their tag team of Superhero movies to combat the incoming threat of a dark knight who might rise, one has to wonder; why has it taken nearly seventy years for a big budget version of Captain America to finally hit screens?

Excluding the Reb Brown TV specials which saw Cap battle Christopher Lee (which is not as fun as it sounds) and the 1990 debacle so bad it went unreleased for two years; Cap’s exploits of punching Hitler, battling the Red Skull and terrorists with possibly the strangest greeting since, well, the heil Hitler, Cap hasn’t been exactly a glowing example of Superheroics on the big screen.

This leads us back to The Avengers next year and our final member of the ensemble. We’ve already had Iron Man, we’ve had The Incredible Hulk re-imagined and even Thor, but where does Captain America: The First Avenger fit into this and, more importantly; does it attempt anything different from Marvel’s previous introduction films to its Avengers?

Beginning in modern day Alaska, excavators have discovered something trapped in the Ice which leads us on a flash back to 1942 where a weedy Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans in his fourth comic book based movie) desperately wants to join the army to battle the Nazi as they’re bullies and bullies suck. He meets a German scientist who takes an interest in using him for a super soldier serum which if you read the title of the film, would know how that turns out.

Meanwhile, Johann Schmidt (played by go-to bad guy Hugo Weaving) uncovers a powerful-almost cosmic cube (hint, hint) which he hopes to use for HYDRA’s war efforts (HYDRA being a terrorist force even Hitler finds a bit too much). During the film, Schmidt reveals himself as a subject of an earlier form of the serum and uses the alias the Red Skull to, I guess advance HYDRA to the role of World War II's true villains.

Cap’s rag tag team of freedom fighters battle The Red Skull’s HYDRA (complete with weapons stolen from District 9) over the course of the war with numerous explosions and long jumps before concluding to explain how Cap could be in a team of heroes if he was at his prime in the forties.

So yes, nearly all the movie (minus the bookends) takes place during World War II which makes a welcome change to the modern day setting of every superhero movie ever made and credit to director Joe Johnson for delivering a picture where despite the insane premise of a man dressed as the american flag being the front runner of a war and disintegrating weapons amongst other things, it actually looks like World War II. In fact, there's a scene where Cap and crew battle HYDRA in a snowy wilderness where I was expecting Easy Company to be supporting them (it didn't help that Neal McDonough was on Cap's side but hey ho). It's a welcome change and helps differentiate Cap's origins from his Avenger colleagues.

However, for those following the Marvel tie-in's to The Avengers next year, it's pretty much by the numbers now. The film introduces a member, shows him saving the world from an iconic villain from his back catalogue (less so on Iron Man for both movies) before Samuel L Jackson shows up to hype an incoming team-up and we get another tie-in to the next film in sequence (although in Cap's case, it's an actual teaser rather than something discovered that's tied to someone else).

It's not necessarily bad as, minus Iron Man 2, this formula has worked. The problem with Captain America is that it's a relatively safe picture that could have been truly great, but instead is simply good. It starts off well introducing Rogers as the "never say die" hero that embodies the American spirit despite his frail form but when Rogers becomes a key weapon in the battle against HYDRA, we get a few montages, a lot of explosions and are left to imagine all of the incredible battles that took place before the inevitable final showdown against the Red Skull.

This is half good as unlike Thor, there's a feasible amount of time for the character's to develop (case in point, Captain America takes place over the course of months if not years whilst Thor's journey of discovery took place over three days), but on the flipside, the middle feels like one long montage which throws out a lot of action, but doesn't really explain why it happens and it seems to go on forever. It's basically the opposite of Iron Man 2 but this is a much more feasible error; at least there's something happening rather than being told things will happen and then fleetingly passing it over for more of the boring plot.

By the time the third act comes back and brings the audience back to reality from the explosions, the film returns to the highs of the first act and just does enough to recover interest. The ending doesn't really explain why Cap survives in ice for seventy years whilst other people simply die from the cold but it's a nice lead-in for The Avengers.

There's not really a lot to fault minus the middle act being a bit too fillerfied and the 3D being useless (like Thor, watch it in 2D and fully immerse yourself rather than 3D and playing "spot the special effect"). Minus that, Captain America: The First Avenger is more of the same of Iron Man and Thor. It has a great cast (not mentioned in the review, but watch out for Tommy Lee Jones who more or less plays himself which is always fun), some good action sequences and does enough to make it a good (if relatively safe) popcorn flick to introduce a principle player in The Avengers next year.

7/10

H