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“Captain America: The First Avenger” is in the lower half of the Marvel “Phase One” films but it still has plenty of likeable characters and exciting action sequences to make it worth your while. In case you’re not familiar with the story here goes: During World War II, a Nazi officer named Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his men uncover a power and mysterious device named the Tesseract. With this glowing cube of power, they threaten the free world. Meanwhile in America, Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans), a young man that’s physically weak but determined and pure of heart finally gets drafted into the U. S. army when he catches the eye of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) The Doctor has bigger plans in mind for Rogers than just infantry work though; he’s to become the first of a series of “super soldiers”.
Thankfully and predictably, this effort from Marvel Studios blows the previously disastrous attempts at bringing the character to life out of the water. Chris Evans plays a compelling hero, particularly before he receives his powers. As a little guy being pushed around you really sympathize with him and when he finally gets to kick butt, you get excited. What really helps as well are the side characters. There’s a nice romantic sub-plot with Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, an often funny love-hate relationship between Rogers and Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones at his most curmudgeon-y) and a pleasant story of friendship with Sebastian Stan as Steve’s best friend Sergeant Bucky. It’s a good thing the time and effort was spent developing Rogers because otherwise seeing him wielding his shield around, kicking and punching Nazi soldiers would really feel silly. Thanks to the characterization you never feel weird about seeing Captain America armed a shield instead of say, a sword or a plasma rifle. A couple of scenes early on show you that he naturally gravitates towards a defensive weapon and his nervous demeanor (despite the fact that he’s a hunk now, he never forgets his past) point him more towards a defender rather than an aggressor.
The special effects are pretty solid and there’s some good action, particularly during the climax of the film. I also particularly enjoyed the design of this world, mixing in sci-fi technology with the 40’s style of clothing and vehicle design can’t have been easy but it works very well. The redesign of Captain America’s uniform as something that’s both functional and flashy is also well done here and actually works better than it does in follow-up movie “The Avengers”.
I mentioned the characters as the strongest part of the film and it is, but at times the characters are also the biggest flaw. Johann Schmidt is a threatening villain but he isn’t particularly deep and often just seems evil for the sake of being evil. I know he’s a Nazi, but come on! Far more interesting is Toby Jones as Dr. Arnim Zola, let’s hope we see him again in some of the sequels. Similarly it seems like Rogers’ character development really slows down when he becomes Captain America. At first it’s ok to see him a bit nervous when he gets into the front lines but he never seems to grow much past that. When Schmidt asks him “You never give up, do you? ” and he simply answers “Yup”. That scene really feels like maybe it could have been re-written to at least have a memorable line in it or something. It’s mostly during the middle that the film sags a bit, which is too bad because the introduction of the Captain America character, as a mascot for war bonds is brilliantly done and actually does show an evolution of Rogers as he gains more confidence in his role. Maybe this is simply one of those film series where the intro is going to be alright and will improve over time as we get to learn more about the character through the sequels and spinoffs.
I’m not sure “Captain America: The First Avenger” is going to be one of those films you frequently re-watch over and over. I’m leaning more towards it being one of those obligatory viewings before you gear yourself up to seeing “The Avengers” and the films that follow it, Don’t take that the wrong way though. It’s a perfectly fine and entertaining action movie, it’s just that it could have been great and it’s merely good. You’ll have fun with it and you’ll look forward to seeing the characters again. (4/5 Theatrical version on Blu-ray, 01/? /2012)