POSTER
Comic-book movies are an undeniably popular beast – you only have to look at some of the most successful films of the summer to appreciate that. Big with blokes, not such a hit with the ladies, they let men indulge their inner child: being as they are adaptations from cartoons that males of my age used to watch in their youth. Incredible, impossible things happen; shit gets blown up; the good guy wins – it’s one of the oldest formulas in the book.
And it’s here that the Captain America: The First Avenger comes in. Not being a comic book reader, I was aware of Captain America, but not of his enduring popularity and prime position in the Marvel canon. Even so, a the prospect of a film about a character that was created during the Second World War for propaganda purposes didn’t seem that appealing. Yet the end product, in fact, cleverly sidesteps that issue – in a modern way – and reverts to the faithful superhero template of Good vs. Evil. Only this time with a few subtle twists.
The First Avenger tells the story of the brave yet puny Brooklyn resident, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who hopes to join the U.S. war effort, only to be repeatedly turned down by the Army. Through a huge stroke of luck, a former Nazi scientist, Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), helps him enlist and performs a radical procedure on him that turns him from seven-stone weakling into the paragon of human perfection. While Rogers is forced to be paraded round the troops to boost morale, a crazed Nazi, Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) is busy trying to harvest the Earth’s energy with the help of his cult, HYDRA. Inevitably, Rogers and old pal Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), along with a host of other commandos, go off in search of Red Skull, and much action ensues.
C.A. IN ACTION
The movie makes for good, solid entertainment: a fun two hours in the cinema. The casting and acting are good, the pulpy period details are nice, the start is interesting and the ending is a brilliant set up. But that’s largely where it ends, as the film is somewhat hamstrung by Captain America himself. He’s just not that special, which means the action – a large part of what people love about these sorts of things – isn’t that amazing. There’s no Nightcrawler-in-the-White-House moment, just the standard tanks ‘n’ planes ‘n’ explosions, albeit in cool settings and with lashings of deranged Nazis with lasers.
In addition to that, the rivalry between Steve and Bucky, like the romance between Rogers and Atwell, seem slightly undercooked; and these days one expects a slightly more conflicted protagonist, even in the realm of the comic. But, like I have said, given how entertaining the film is – not to mention the way it refuses to bow to sentiment, these seem like minor quibbles. It ends on an intriguing note, where you wonder what next for the franchise. And that can only be a good thing.
