Captain America: The First Avenger Review

Captain America is the best Marvel superhero movie yet, an inspiring and immensely entertaining film that takes the well rehearsed superhero origin formula and spices it up with a fantastic and realistic WWII setting and old-school adventure movie tropes which ends up feeling like a cross between Band of Brothers and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Captain America starts in modern times with an expedition team discovering a familiar looking shield frozen in ice. Flash-back to a 90 lb Steve Rogers being rejected to serve in the army for the fifth time. The movie wastes no time establishing Steve Rogers as a character that is so incredibly likable through his unfaltering devotion to standing strong for what he believes as well as his dedication to doing what is right. Rogers is an old school hero which is refreshing amid the whiny misunderstood and nearly sociopathic heroes that star in most other superhero movie of the past few years. This is a perfect start to what will end up being the most unadulterated pleasurable superhero movie experience in a long time.

Steve Rogers is chosen for a highly experimental scientific experiment to create the "perfect" soldier. Rogers is clearly not chosen for his peak physical strength or his warrior like prowess but because the leader of the "Super Soldier Project", Dr. Abraham Erskine believed that the serum would best be given to a man that understands what strength really means and showed unflinching courage and loyalty to upholding his ideals. And so Captain America is born, but this moment of excitement and rejoice is cut short when a HYDRA spy kills Dr. Erskine who takes the secret of the super soldier serum to his grave, leaving Rogers as the only successful subject of the secret project. We quickly learn HYDRA is a faction broken away from the Nazi regime by Johann Schmidt who is later revealed to be the Red Skull. Schmidt has gotten a hold of the Cosmic Cube rumored to have been stolen from Odin's (yes, that old guy from Thor) vault, which grants the user of said cube with knowledge and power from throughout the cosmos.

When Rogers catches wind that some of his friends have been captured and are being held in a Hydra facility he disobeys orders and goes in to save them. This is just one of many great examples of how fantastic Captain America is as a traditional hero, he is willingly to risk everything to save his friends, he doesn't question his place in the world or what his transformation into a superhuman soldier means for the existential beliefs that man is powerless against the almighty force that reckons us. NO, Cap sees that somebody is doing something wrong and decides that needs to be rectified and straps on a shield and a rifle and goes to war like any brave soldier would, and that's awesome. But most of these attributes would mean nothing without a damn good actor to display them all, and Chris Evans owns this role. Any question that he wouldn't be able to go toe to toe with Robert Downey Jr. or that his time as the Human Torch sullied his chance to be a good Captain America get hurled straight into a HYDRA soldiers face right alongside his magnificent shield.

Chris Evans exudes charisma and still manages to be completely believable as a once physically weak and  short changed man, who has been given the chance to prove his worth as this iconic super soldier. His performance goes a long way in making this movie as fun as it is, watching him come into his own and finally get to prove to people his true value is great as he never becomes cocky or super self assured asshole. But even more surprising is the fact that their isn't a single weak link in the entire cast, from Tommy Lee Jones appropriately gruff and no nonsense Col. Chester, or Hayley Atwell who plays intelligence agent Peggy Carter who brilliantly displays the modern day fierce independent woman midst a time where that would seem out of place. And of course it goes without saying Hugo Weaving is amazing as the Red Skull, a unrelentingly evil presence who still manages to keep his motivations clear and understandable even if their incredibly evil. Even Howard Stark, father to Iron Man plays a pretty important role in the creation of Captain America and is played well and smartly different from Downey's portrayal, by Dominic Cooper.


The action in Captain America is one more thing it does exceedingly well with several big key sequences hilighting Steve Rogers embracing his persona, as well as his final confrontation with Red Skull. If two big awesome action scenes aren't enough for you, there is a absolutely kick-ass and maybe even a bit cheesy montage of Cap and his Howling Commandos slowly eliminating the HYDRA bases spread across the European theater.  The action is well staged and dramatic when necessary with cool and once again slightly jokey hero poses and shots scattered throughout. I had some trepidation on how Cap would look throwing a shield but damn if aint sexy, and i mean that (not entirely). The movie smartly reserves the shield throw, and instead opts to have Cap blasting caps and bashing skulls with said shield, Cap throwing the shield is seen as a last resort or just a creative way to continue fighting 20 henchmen at once.The violence is surprisingly and quite abundant, especially considering the source materiel and general audience, with many people being literally obliterated and one guy even falling through a propeller with no cut away, blood is sprayed, its shocking but also welcome considering this is a semi-real portrayal of war.

Captain America is so much fun; a rousing and immensely entertaining movie. Its old school approach to heroism is so well realized in everything from the great writing, to the fantastic performances to the believable setting and tone, this movie fires on all cylinders and its easily the best Marvel Productions has done yet. Even though the movie falls into the basic predictable superhero formula it is rescued by its sincerity and surprising poignancy throughout its world trotting adventure filled WWII setting.

(4 out of 5)