Captain America: The First Avenger
After a lull in comic book movies in 2010, this summer has seen a return with four major titles: Thor, X-Men First Class, Green Lantern, and of course, Captain America. Captain America intrigued me because of their decision to actually set the movie in the World War II time period, a decision which I did not expect but which I was happy to see.
The first third or so of the film is really quite good. We see Steve Rogers as a skinny wimp trying to make it into the army and finally recruited by a scientist played by Stanley Tucci so that he can test his Super Soldier serum on him. Tucci adds a lot of weight to the movie, at least for the first part.
But unfortunately the movie doesn’t take long to settle into mediocrity. Chris Evans is alright as Cap but he doesn’t bring anything special to the role, not like Downey did for Iron Man or even that Hemsworth brought to Thor. However, I quite liked Hugo Weaving as Red Skull and Peggy Atwell as the love interest.
What really disappointed me was that the action scenes had absolutely no gusto or originality. They were just really bland. They even sunk so low as to have a really cheesy montage where Captain America and his merry men (a hodge-podge of ‘quirky personality” soldiers the movie certainly could have done without) become established in the war. Even the special effects were disappointing. Cap really looks quite awkward as he’s jumping and running, and other effects like the Hydra train just look fake.
Its not a bad film per se, its just okay. Certainly not up the the standards Marvel has set with Iron Man and Thor. It has a lot of potential and could have been a pretty good film if it was in the hands of a more skillful director. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
6/10
Ian's Movie Reviews 
I like Captain America more than you… I thought the way that the director handled the material and the time period was very good, and all the action scenes were great 😀
Ipodman - October 28, 2011 at 11:10 pm |
It was just shooting and punching. They had no flare.
ianthecool - October 29, 2011 at 8:33 am |
I agree with the callout for the great performance of Stanley Tucci! But I have to disagree with ya on everything else! Evans did great in actually showing the character that Cap really had in the comics!
as for the montage of his “merry men”, those are the Howling Commandos of Marvel fame who also fought with Nick Fury! Yes, they should’ve paid more homage to them in the movie, but they were important in the film…especially for the fans! Bucky, as one of them, is a BIG part of Cap’s story.
The action scenes didn’t really need to be all that…really. But, then again, that’s just me. I am glad that you saw it and gave it a chance. Hopefully The Avengers will not disappoint you!
scarletsp1der - October 31, 2011 at 10:58 pm |
Evans wasn’t bad, and did better than I expected, but he doesn’t have quite enough charisma. But you make a good point; Cap himself isn’t that charismatic.
I had a feeling those commandos were from the original comic book. That was the only way to explain their odd appearance. Still, they didn’t work in the movie and really shouldn’t have been included.
ianthecool - November 3, 2011 at 10:12 pm |