I love going into a theater with low expectations. In my mind, there was no way Captain America could be anything other than crap. For more than a decade now, our summers have been saturated with superheroes in tight-fitting outfits battling evil and their inner demons. How could a one-dimensional do-gooder like Captain America — an all-American, nauseatingly flawless square-jawed Superman type with generic powers — offer anything I’d want to see? By bucking the trend of comic book films of the last 12 years.
Things have gotten gray. Our bad guys are complex and forged by understandable circumstances. We see there is a motivation behind their madness. Our good guys are flawed and driven to wonder if they are any better than the foes they seek to defeat — renegades with no regard for the law on a quest to find what they consider to be justice. Things are not so in the 1940’s world of Captain America.
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Things have gotten gray. Our bad guys are complex and forged by understandable circumstances. We see there is a motivation behind their madness. Our good guys are flawed and driven to wonder if they are any better than the foes they seek to defeat — renegades with no regard for the law on a quest to find what they consider to be justice. Things are not so in the 1940’s world of Captain America.
Hit the break to read more!
Red Skull (played extraordinarily by Hugo Weaving) is just a plain evil dude. He’s a Nazi with more extreme goals than even the Führer who seeks not conquest but annihilation. Captain America is his polar opposite. The latest in a long line of soldiers, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a scrawny boy determined to serve his country. While he is barely strong enough to hold up a rifle, his quick wits and fierce loyalty to his friends and fellow soldiers catch the eye of a scientist (Stanley Tucci) looking to create an army of American super soldiers. These soldiers will take on Red Skull’s army, recently empowered by the discovery of an occult object called the Cosmic Cube — a relic from the world of Thor that will play a big role in Marvel films to come. Also from the Marvel universe we see more on the father of Iron Man Tony Stark, Howard Stark (a character nearly as electric on the screen as Robert Downey, Jr. thanks to Dominic Cooper).
Even with a decent cast the potential for failure here is undeniable, but Captain America delivers. The film is a ton of fun, an innocent kind of good time straight from the golden age of comics. Laser guns, fake German accents, bad bad guys and good good guys: It comes together like a live-action Saturday morning cartoon.
Hurling his bulletproof shield like a boomerang, ramping his motorcycle over fiery carnage and jumping 30-foot gaps over... fiery carnage, Captain America is an action hero, and while he could have come off plastic compared to the angsty super-powered protagonists we’re used to, he’s a hero with heart. (The final line of the film is surprisingly touching coming from a guy wearing red-white-and-blue spandex.)
The film has a muted mid-century aesthetic to it with most scenes and actors draped in sepia. Though it's not as stylized as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or Sin City, it's fantastic to look at. The costumes and visuals are particularly striking during scenes highlighting the Captain's early propaganda work selling war bonds.
For those interested in such things, Captain America is in 3D — it's a post conversion, but it's well done. The gentleman to my left and I both leapt out of our seats at one especially 3D moment involving the Captain's ricocheting shield.
Director Joe Johnston has dealt with Nazi baddies before, as director of The Rocketeer and as visual effects director on Raiders of the Lost Ark. Captain America has moments that feel inspired by both. As for leading man Chris Evans, this isn't his first visit to the world of Marvel — he was one of the few highlights of the mediocre Fantastic Four — and it won’t be his last. Both Johnston and Evans bring with them the best bits of their past experiences to create one of the most entertaining comic book movies to date.
After a strong showing with Thor and a knockout with Captain America, I may need to take back my hesitation about this massive cross-over Avengers flick we’re being groomed for. While it seemed unlikely following Iron Man 2, it looks like Marvel has a few more summers’ worth of stories to tell.
--Eric Pulsifer
Even with a decent cast the potential for failure here is undeniable, but Captain America delivers. The film is a ton of fun, an innocent kind of good time straight from the golden age of comics. Laser guns, fake German accents, bad bad guys and good good guys: It comes together like a live-action Saturday morning cartoon.
Hurling his bulletproof shield like a boomerang, ramping his motorcycle over fiery carnage and jumping 30-foot gaps over... fiery carnage, Captain America is an action hero, and while he could have come off plastic compared to the angsty super-powered protagonists we’re used to, he’s a hero with heart. (The final line of the film is surprisingly touching coming from a guy wearing red-white-and-blue spandex.)
The film has a muted mid-century aesthetic to it with most scenes and actors draped in sepia. Though it's not as stylized as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or Sin City, it's fantastic to look at. The costumes and visuals are particularly striking during scenes highlighting the Captain's early propaganda work selling war bonds.
For those interested in such things, Captain America is in 3D — it's a post conversion, but it's well done. The gentleman to my left and I both leapt out of our seats at one especially 3D moment involving the Captain's ricocheting shield.
Director Joe Johnston has dealt with Nazi baddies before, as director of The Rocketeer and as visual effects director on Raiders of the Lost Ark. Captain America has moments that feel inspired by both. As for leading man Chris Evans, this isn't his first visit to the world of Marvel — he was one of the few highlights of the mediocre Fantastic Four — and it won’t be his last. Both Johnston and Evans bring with them the best bits of their past experiences to create one of the most entertaining comic book movies to date.
After a strong showing with Thor and a knockout with Captain America, I may need to take back my hesitation about this massive cross-over Avengers flick we’re being groomed for. While it seemed unlikely following Iron Man 2, it looks like Marvel has a few more summers’ worth of stories to tell.
--Eric Pulsifer
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