Captain America:The First Avenger Movie Review

A Movie Review By Joseph Hagen

Captain America: The First Avenger bursts out of American propaganda and onto the big screen this week. Featuring more red, white (specifically, tight white t-shirts) and blue than any movie opening this week, Captain America packs a satisfying heaping helping of fun for summer action movie lovers. Filled with humor, charm and several identifiable and well-developed characters throughout, Captain America is what I consider to be the most pleasant surprise of the summer film season.

Set during World War II, this film takes its time developing the character and story of Steve Rogers, which causes the action to dominate the second half of the film. The special effects are well done. For instance, in one of the most incredible and realistic special effects I’ve ever seen, actor/beefcake Chris Evans is portrayed as a scrawny 90-pound weakling prior to his transformation into Captain America. This special effect is remarkable and left me wondering: “How on earth did they do that?” I also felt like the use of 3D in this film was some of the best I’ve seen. Understated when necessary and in-your-face when it counted, there was one action sequence in which I flinched multiple times, thinking Captain America’s shield was going to smack me in the face.

The beautiful Hayley Atwell is a highlight of the movie as the British butt-kicking love interest, Peggy Carter. Her understated charm and strength add not only heart, but also give Captain America something that films such as The Green Lantern could not achieve: a non-annoying love story with heart. Note to The Green Lantern: just because two people are attractive, that doesn’t mean they will have chemistry on screen. This film has that chemistry.

Despite the film’s heart and soul, the film unfortunately has a few shortfalls. Ridiculous German accents are sprinkled all-over this film, the first from veteran actor Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine and the second by actor Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull. Speaking of the Red Skull, the usually great Weaving is trapped in this film by a badly written character with little for him to do other than stomp around in his patent-leather boots. His motivations for evil are poorly developed and confusing. His makeup does provide quite a bit of comic relief: think Jim Carrey from The Mask, but red. Yet, with these things said, Captain America is still a good enough film to absorb these relatively few critiques.

Captain America: The First Avenger is a flat-out fun time in the movie house. With a solid plot, good character development, great action sequences and genuine heart, it will satisfy nerdy comic book types and newbie’s alike.

Memorable quote:
“It’s just … I had a date.” – Steve Rogers