Movie Review:
Captain America: The First Avenger
2011 / 2 hrs., 4 min. / PG-13
Director: Joe Johnston
In my entire life, I have never read a comic book. I think I thumbed through a page or two out of curiosity, but they were simply never one of my interests. Thanks to Saturday morning cartoons, I did grow up knowing that the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Batman existed, but if you were to ask me which one was the first Avenger, historically, I wouldn’t have known that it was Captain America. I do now. See? – Movies are educational after all.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, we are introduced to Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a short, scrawny young man who would love nothing more than to join the Army and fight for his country, putting down Germany and the Nazis as his own personal stand against bullying everywhere. (Seventy years later we’d say he needed counseling and a good prosecuting attorney, and that Congress should pass hate crime bills outlawing bullies in movie theaters and back alleys. Somewhere between Captain America and Modern America, we lost our spine. But I digress.)
Repeatedly rejected by the recruitment officers for his utter lack of physicality, Rogers’ patriotic persistence garners the attention of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German ex-patriot now doing scientific research for the Americans. Erskine has developed a serum and procedure that potentially turns ordinary humans into super-humans – he just needs a lab rat.
Because this movie exists at all, you can already guess that the procedure works. Now a jaw-droppingly buff stud, Rogers can run, jump, and hit with heightened strength and skill. Like most movies involving fantastical characters, the parameters are a little flexible depending on how tight of a situation the writers want to put Our Hero in, but this film is by no means the worst offender.
After a stultifying stint as a war bonds spokesman dubbed “Captain America”, Rogers proves his worth on a daring rescue of some POW’s, and Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) assigns him to take on the biggest threat the Nazis have cooked up: Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), the “Red Skull”, one of Hitler’s occult and mythology experts, who has discovered the Ark of the Covenant, a device of such immense power that if the Nazis can harness it, they will be invincible. No, wait: Schmidt has discovered the Tesseract, a device of such immense power that if the Nazis can harness it, they will be invincible. I don’t know how I could have confused the two.
From there I don’t think I need to detail any more. Red Skull races to unleash the Tesseract’s power on America, and Captain America races to stop him. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
But lest a little sarcasm over the predictability of the plot confuse you, I’ll state quite clearly that this is one of the most enjoyable film experiences I have had in the past few years. I am blissfully unaware of how well it relates to the comic book, but by itself the screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely is utterly engaging; and its execution by director Joe Johnston is nearly flawless. Johnston’s evocation of Americana that he demonstrated so well in The Rocketeer makes him quite simply the perfect director for this project. Together with the amazing production designer Rick Heinrichs, Johnston immerses us completely in the period: The right people, the right fabrics, the right colors, the right everything.
But a film is more than just its visual setting, and Johnston is equally up to the task of making the story itself work within all that nostalgia. I am rarely drawn in by action movies, because they are usually just studies in the number and lengths of action set pieces the creators can cram into a movie, with a plot and characters which serve as nothing more than an excuse for all those supposed adrenaline rushes. (For example, the subsequent The Avengers.) Johnston and the writers find the right balance, setting up a very calculated and restrained number of action scenes with wonderful character development, so that we are led to care for who is doing the fighting and why.
And I would have to watch it again to be certain, but my first impression is that there was very little to doubt here in terms of the physics behind events. We have a few typical mistakes, like the idea that two people would be able to have a conversation at normal volume while traveling at high speed in an open convertible just a few yards behind jet engines throttling for take-off. But the creative team avoided my biggest complaint, that of objects apparently not having the mass or weight they appear to have because of the slipshod manner in which the special effects department makes them move. For the most part, I was completely drawn in to the fiction behind the science, with little to complain about.
Chris Evans (Cellular) takes on what I consider his best role to date. I can’t argue that he did not serve his previous films decently, but here he makes Steve Rogers a very likable and approachable person. He is handsome without being impossibly stellar; he is humble without being cowardly; he is the same Common Man he was as a diminutive wimp, but now with the physical capabilities of effectively standing up for what he believes in. I cannot imagine anyone else filling out the character (figuratively and literally) any better than Evans, which is the result I’m sure every casting director dreams of.
Hugo Weaving (The Matrix) can always be counted on for tight-lipped straight-laced villainy, so there is not much to say here. Take Agent Smith and add a German accent. Some guys are simply born for such typecasting. Similarly, but with better success, is Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive) as Rogers’ supervising colonel. Jones does what he always does: Dry, sarcastic barbs with just enough smirk to let you know he has a heart somewhere under that crust. Maybe it’s the script, maybe it’s who he gets to interact with – whatever it is, Jones manages to take the same personality he has exuded for decades and keep it fresh.
Also supporting Evans are Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited) as the love interest, who is fairly typically drawn but who did make me laugh with her very subtle and funny moment where she clearly wants to reach out and touch Rogers’ amazing new torso; and Toby Jones (City of Ember) who continues to be perfectly typecast as a weasely trouble-maker. Stanley Tucci (The Terminal) defies his short time on screen by making himself almost a loveable grandfather type, to the point where I wish his part had been bigger. Individually and as an ensemble, the entire cast are well-placed.
If I was let down at all, it was in the moment that should have been the grand finale. I hear a lot of people were disappointed in the ending, but my specific issue is with the precise point at which the hero conquers the villain. The moment should have been more theatrical, the villain’s final lament at the thwarting of his plans should have been more operatic. I felt it was surprisingly underplayed, and abrupt in its conclusion. It’s not an inappropriate or wrong ending for this film; its delivery just lacks the final wallop it cries out for. (And don’t tell me I just spoiled it. The thwarting of the villain is in the very fabric of superhero movies. It is a given element by the very nature of this film’s existence!)
Overall, I would easily rank Captain America: The First Avenger as one of the top superhero films I’ve ever seen. To date, it bests just about everything else, including the much-raved-about Spider-Man 2, and (dare I contemplate it?) possibly even Richard Donner’s classic Superman, though that comparison is too close to say for certain at this time. And since I’ve already made this opinion clear on my social network connections, I may as well officially put it in print: It’s a heck of a lot more interesting than Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. Knowing how some of my friends took that news the first time, this may very well be the last thing you ever read from me.
My Score: 9
