Movie Review: Capt. America: The First Avenger
OK, I admit that I have been really looking forward to this movie, and that’s usually a precursor for me being bitterly disappointed when the suck seeps in. However, Marvel managed to keep the suck at bay, and delivered a fun and entertaining origin movie (Capt America shield logo courtesy of the Marvel Comic t-shirt category).
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its problems, which we will explore in excruciating detail shortly. It just overall makes for a good flick.
Why do I like Captain America? He was never one of the main hitters in the Marvel Pantheon (although I loved him in Marvel Zombies). Nevertheless, I felt a real sadness when he died at the end of Civil War (bite me, Tony Stark) and am always glad to see him in a comic. I think there are two main reasons. The first is he is only a marginally improved human. I love heroes who can be taken out by any lucky punk with a gun. It makes their bravery and dedication that much more impressive and worthy of my admiration. This is why Batman rules and Superman sucks. The second reason is he represents all that is good and noble in the excellent men and women who serve in the military to defend us. Sure, it’s easy to stand for truth, justice, and the American way when you are invulnerable to all but a very rare element (see my post on the Science and Stupidity of Kryptonite for more on this), but to stand firm against oppression and evil is a real task when all you have is a shield and a heavy punch (or, more accurately, some body armor and an M16).
Something else that really appealed to me about this movie is they set the whole thing in WWII and didn’t make the lame attempt to modernize it. There is something really satisfying about a clear cut villain who is known by all to be demonstrably evil like Nazis. Even in something like Tranformers it seemed that the Decepticons were not totally lacking in sympathy. Sure, they wanted to enslave the human race, but they wanted to do it in order to rebuild their home world. Who’s to day given the same choice we might not do the same (Avatar?). Anyway, I like Nazis as villains.
The story. I won’t go into too many details as I expect you all to see it. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a skinny kid who keeps getting rejected by the US Army during WWII. He catches the eye of a government scientist (Stanley Tucci) who is impressed by his dedication and understanding of what it means to be bullied (cough cough topical reference cough cough). He recruits Steve into a top secret project that apparently starts off by putting guys through Basic Training. The Colonel in charge (Tommy Lee Jones, who did a great job) wants to boot him but the scientist is sold on him. They stick Steve into a giant martini mixer and inject him with super steroids or something. He comes out looking like Adonis and capable of kicking some serious ass.
Meanwhile, a Nazi officer (played brilliantly by the amazing Hugo Weaving, although what role has he not been brilliant in?) has found an ancient artifact (cough cough Indiana Jones cough cough) that he can use to power up all his super secret weapons with blue power (cough cough V cough cough. Ok I’ll stop) that makes them almost as good as a regular rifle, but have the benefit of making the bodies disappear completely as a blatant tool to get rid of any inconvenient rated R mangled corpses and screaming wounded Americans. His organization is called Hydra and he is indeed the infamous Red Skull (also looking very cool).
Anyway, there is some crap getting in the way of the actual story but eventually Capt. America and the Red Skull cross paths. WWII meets super science hijinks ensues. There’s a hot girl in there for no real reason (Hagley Atwell). There are some actually funny moments that are accomplished without an annoying comic relief character (suck it, Michael Bey). Once they get past all the war bonds selling stuff none of the story gets in the way of the story, if you know what I mean. Stuff blows up. Guys on both sides get killed. The director managed to steer clear of the obvious cheesy ending trap.
First, as always, the stars. Comic book movie. Two stars. Really decent story. Two stars. Hugo Weaving. One star. Tommy Lee Jones. One star. Not invulnerable hero. One star. Geeky kid turns into hero. One star. Nazis as enemies. One star. The Red Skull looks uber cool and uber creepy. One star. Good acting all around. One star. Hagley Atwell was driving me nuts all the way through the movie. One star. Non-cheesy ending. One star. Minor love interest managed to not derail or dominate the story. One star. All the supporting characters were cool and added to the story. One star. They kept more or less true to the story (remember Dum Dum Dugan?). One star. The final Capt. America costume was cool, especially the shield. One star. Total: 17 stars.
Now the black holes. I am going to have to give these guys a black hole for making what is essentially a two hour trailer for The Avengers. One black hole. The ever present Marvel spoiler, for which I had to sit through any number of credits (what exactly does a Best Boy do? Sounds like the son of Best Buy. Either that of some kind of sexual predator tag), was in fact an actual trailer for the Avengers. Thanks a lot, guys. One black hole. While Hugo Weaving was great as the Red Skull, he really played up every corny evil super genius cliche in the book. Execute henchmen who fail, faceless minions who look imposing as hell in their S&M helmets but can’t shoot straight, grandiose plan to conquer the planet by blowing stuff up (face it, Red Skull. In order to really conquer a territory you need boots on the ground, not some super weapon), capture the plucky hero but don’t just put a bullet in him so you can explain your whole diabolical plan, etc. Also, I think the movie would have benefited from more Red Skull screen time. One black hole. The whole villains-can-never-hit-a-hero-who-is-charging-directly-at-their-guns card got played so much I started to wonder if there were any other cards in the deck. One black hole. A lot of the action, especially towards the end, got kind of hokey. One black hole. There was a rescue mission early on that seemed to drag on for ever, as did the whole Capt. America as a vaudeville show to sell war bonds sequence. One black hole. A few story holes, including one big one towards the end. One black hole. As cool as the story was, pretty much all the characters seemed pretty two dimensional. I think the movie could have done with a hair more character development (125 minutes. They could have added 1o more without hurting the plot). One black hole. Total: eight black holes.
In the irksome-but-not-black-hole-worthy category, I have a couple. First of all, the Hydra salute was painfully stupid. I understand the need to have a distinct salute that is derived from but not quite the same as the Nazi salute, but come on. There is a reason most countries us a reasonably similar salute. Also, while I am a fan of and support every reasonable attempt to include racial diversity in a movie cast, the fact is there were no African Americans who had a combat role during WWII (ironic, really, as 160,000 of them fought for the North in the Civil War). I am just kind of a stickler for historical accuracy. Additionally, why would you put all your best new technology, your prisoner, and yourself in a room with huge glass windows that can be easily zip lined to (or, for that matter, just put a sniper bullet through?)? All the Nazis spoke perfect English, even the rank and file troops when they yelled “Hail Hydra”. And finally, while I appreciated the eye candy that Hayley Atwell brought to the screen, in pretty much every scene with her in it I found myself asking “What function does her character actually serve?” The romance was never developed enough to make it significant, and the purpose of most of the rest of her character kind of felt crow barred in.
However, a great film going experience all around. Go see it in a theater to get max benefit and to support the kinds of movies we nerds like. Not a real date flick, as I believe most girls will not really appreciate the comic book story and the female character is too underdeveloped to draw her in. See it with your nerd friends.
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