Captain America: The First Avenger: Review By Ms Poirot

Story

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a sickly and scrawny man, was enlisted into the US army during the second world war. Being kind and selfless, he was specifically chosen by Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) for the "super-soldier" experiment. Rogers was injected with a special blue serum that transformed him to a very muscular man, with strength, speed and agility that is not matched by ordinary men. Rogers was tasked to stop Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), a Nazi officer, from using a mysterious tesseract with special powers to destroy / conquer the world. Together with female army officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), scientist Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), and a team formed by Rogers, Rogers managed to attack and destroy Schmidt's bases.

Visuals

There were many beautiful and exciting scenes, such as the explosion scenes, which were fascinating. The train attack scene in which Rogers and his team landed on the top of the train via flying fox on a thick cable also served to amplify the dazzling snowy backdrop. Added to the amazing skills at which movie-makers were able to technically shrink the body of Chris Evans to such a scrawny state during the first part of the show, the movie visuals alone are worth the time and money spent on the movie.

Viewpoint

We have seen some movies these few years where our hero first undergoes a mutation of some sort and changes from an ordinary man to an extraordinary being (e.g. The Incredible Hulk and X-Men Origins: Wolverine). The movies then launch into an action-pack film that never fails to keep viewers at the edge of their seats. Captain America is another one of such movies. Although viewers love a story that suggests that ordinary men can be extraordinary, movies with more or less similar storylines are getting somewhat predictable and boring.

Nevertheless, this action-packed movie with amazing visuals, encompassing excitement and adventure, is able to hide the shortfall brought about by the increasingly mundane storyline. The transformation of Captain America from a skinny boy to a muscular man is also awesome.

Just like almost all superhero movies, the main takeaway is that with the right attitude, we can do extraordinary things.