Captain America: The First Avenger: Review By Fallenlords

Aug 26th, 2011 by Fallenlords
They broke a good film
  • OVERALL
    3.0
    WORTHY
  • Story
  • Acting
  • Directing
  • Visuals
This is a film in two distinct parts, the first is the story of the creation of Captain America (Cap) and the second part is the action. It follows a sort of typical superhero formula, explain where the character came from and their motivation. Then how they became a superhero, followed last but not least by them in action. Most times I find the last part of a superhero film more interesting than the first part. I tend to know the story and things like love interests normally bore me to death. But with this film I found the reverse to be true, the first part of the film is far superior in many ways to the second part. Which I found strange because I liked story over action for once, perhaps I am just getting old.

Cap starts life in the role of a weakling wanting to join the army during the Second World War but being rejected at every turn. A man that wants to do his duty regardless of health concerns and problems, but he just can not get a break. That is until he spotted by Dr Abraham Erskine and enrolled into an experimental Super-Soldier program. What distinguishes the weakling known as Steve Rogers from the crowd is his slight frame, weak/sickly look - basically he couldn't punch his way out of a paper bag. But what sets him apart from the other candidates is what ultimately gets him chosen as the main subject for the program.

Chris Evans comes across well in these sort of duel roles. One as the weakling, next as the superhero. I was slightly concerned that I would be thinking Johnny Storm Fantastic Four all the way through the film. But I never thought that once, he played this as a different character and I thought he played it well. I must say as a character and as a hero I liked Captain America. So why then didn't I like the action part of the film?

Everything in the film is set right apart from one thing. The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) obtains an occult/mystical power source. He then, with the help of a scientist, taps this source to create all sorts of amazing weapons. Weapons that look even much more advanced than modern day. To my mind this was a bad move because it created an imbalance. On one side we have Cap and the allies using standard weapons such as Thompson machine guns. Then on the other side we have Hydra (Red Skull's organisation) with more men and much more sophisticated weaponry. Yet somehow Cap and his guys start kicking the ass of the Red Skull. On the flip side Cap and his shield I thought was the best part of the film because it wasn't out there! It was a shield (been around for centuries) made from a rare metal that could be used for both offence and defence. The shield worked well and it didn't look over the top at all. But the power weapons of Hydra was a step too far in terms of look and feel. That spoiled what would have otherwise been an exceptional film.

What I find most annoying about the weapons issue is it actually breaks the film. What looked like a Luger pistol shooting disintegrating energy bolts was just surreal. Up until the ludicrous weapons of Hydra, everything was working. The older setting, the story, the love interest, the characters and the humour. You had a well rounded film with good actors and a decent story. All in a way spoilt by one thing I would just term as a mistake.

Another minor issue was the team Cap puts together, apart from a quick bonding session there was no real connection between Cap and the group. Likewise no connection made with the viewer. This wasn't a bad thing, but then I thought why have this group at all if we are not going to connect in any real way. They came across as extras and possibly should have been more involved as Cap led the team. The team thing didn't work for me at all, but it was a minor issue.

There are some good actors in this Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones and 'blink you might miss him' Samuel L Jackson. Hayley Attwell came across fine as the love interest, most times they are somewhat superfluous to requirements. This time though the love interest was an active player in the film. Though the focus of the film, to it's credit, never strays too far from the main protagonists.

Overall a great film spoiled by the high-tech weaponry. If you can look past that, which I can't at all, you see a four/five star film. In many respects I want to score this film highly because I think it deserves to be a success. But the mistake, as I see it, with the weaponry - spoils an otherwise good film. While some can probably overlook and even forgive that aspect I can't, to me it just didn't work at all.

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Comments (5)

  1. ejk1

    @Number1Wolverine Ah yes, Man Of Steel. My thoughts on this film have gotten me into some hot water with those that have Superman-styled tag names. Here are my thoughts: I'm not sure about its chance of success, mainly because of the developments with the writing staff. David Goyer (Writer of Batman Begins and conceptualist of TDK) writes the movie, then he leaves it for Godzilla before taking care of the rewrites. Then Jonathan Nolan passed on doing them himself (Nolan wrote TDK--he knows how to write using Goyer's thoughts as a template), and now we have Kirk Johnstad, Snyder's usual writing partner, doing the rewrites. For me this is a red flag, as the people that many believed to be in charge of turning Big Blue's fortunes around have all abandoned ship (aside from Goyer and J. Nolan, Chris Nolan left for TDKR). Also, the chances that Man Of Steel will be more similar to 300 than TDK have risen, which is a shame. Then last week, more news that raised my eyebrows occurred when news broke that Man Of Steel 2 was in development, yet Goyer was left out of the running for the writing duties, and now that I think of it, no mention of the Nolans was made either. I may be reading to much into this, but it sounds like some sort of friction caused the Nolan camp to abandon MOS, which disappoints me greatly. As I said many times before, I hope I'm wrong, but the writing of the film seems to have something wrong with it.

    6 months agoby @ejk1Flag

  2. Let's Go Bub!

    @ejk1 - I personally think the iron or better let the vibranium would still be hot if Thor and Cap were given a sequel leading up to The Avengers, but now that i really think about it i do agree that if one movie bombed it would affect the look of The Avengers. So you are right, Marvel was already worried about Captain America being a hit let alone wait for a sequel. Hold up now i'm curious, what do you think about The Man Of Steel?

    @SpaceCowboy - Thanks, i didn't even know i wrote so much. It could have been my own review, but maybe next time ;).

    6 months agoby @Number1WolverineFlag

  3. SpaceCowboy

    @Number1Wolverine Nice review... lol

    6 months agoby @SpaceCowboyFlag

  4. ejk1

    Good interesting take.

    @Number1Wolverine I don't agree that this was rushed because of the overall breadth of what Marvel is trying to accomplish. They have spent many years developing this, and they want to see The Avengers hit it big while the iron is hot. By adding more and more before The Avengers, two things could occur: 1) People lose some interest because of the wait, and 2) a movie beforehand could be bad, crippling momentum for The Avengers. I think both Thor and Cap set out to accomplish a certain task, and both succeeded. They moved the overarching story forward, and laid seeds for their own individual franchises to be independent and successful. I also agree with wanting to see every comic book movie succeed (although I will express doubts about their likelihood of success. Just ask Superman fans of my opinion on Man of Steel), and believe that studios should take some risks in making them. After all they can't do any worse than what they are putting out now (c'mon, who wouldn't rather see Ex Machina instead of Sandler's next sh*tfest?).

    6 months agoby @ejk1Flag

  5. Let's Go Bub!

    I don't agree with everything that you said, but this has to be one of the best reviews that i read for Captain America. Alot of people are just riding his sack because of The Avengers, but this could have been such a better movie. Like Thor and Green Lantern, i feel like Captain America is extremely rushed. And think Cap along with Thor should have gotten a sequel leading up to the Averages like Iron Man instead of just one film.

    I'm looking at the time length of this movie now and no wonder i feel it was so rushed, because it was only 1 hour and 24 minutes FTW. I don't understand Hollywood, the top grossing movies in the world are over 2hrs long - Pirates Of The Caribbean; Dean Man's Chest 2hrs 31mins, Star Wars 2hrs 1min, The Dark Knight 2hr 30min, Titanic 3hrs 14mins. Let for some reason every studio wants their movie to be under 2hrs?

    Now growing up i was never a huge fan of Captain America himself, but over the years he has grown on me. Plus unlike most of the fellow fan boys i want every comic book movie to be a success, i still think characters like Jonah Hex, and Supergirl can be a success in their own right like Blade. But back to Cap, i didn't have a problem with the Hydra weapons, i actually think that along with the performance of The Red Skull (Hugo) was one of the best parts of the film.

    Like you i feel as though the first half of the movie while we were watching a skinny Steve Rogers was better then actually watching Cap at times, and the assembly on The Howling Commandos was such a waste. That should have been similar to how their putting together The Averages, but now that the Cap sequels are going to set in the future is just such a waste of good character development.

    And speaking of character development, I think the reason why i felt like the first half of the movie was better is because of Steve (Chris) and Becky (Sebastian) chemistry, which was so great but we didn't get to see alot of. As most people would agree i think Tommy Lee Jones and Hayley Attwell nailed their roles perfectly, to the point i don't think we needed to see them that much.

    The action of the film is another thing i felt was rushed, it took mostly the entire movie for the action to slow down. But when it did i caught myself getting excited like a little boy on Christmas, but just like watching a good magician if you blink your eyes you will miss the trick which is pretty much the good action in this film. Over all i give the film 3.5 stars, and will be amazed to see where they take the character after The Avengers.

    6 months agoby @Number1WolverineFlag