'Captain America: The First Avenger' - Movie Review

Marvel Studios continues to build their intertwined cinematic universe, which will soon culminate in next year's release of "The Avengers." The latest film to introduce a character who will be part of that team is "Captain America: The First Avenger." Marvel chose to reach back to the character's initial beginnings and brought about an old fashioned adventure set during World War II. The approach that the film takes does great justice to the character, even if the actual story the character is being used in is not the strongest.

"Captain America: The First Avenger" tells the story of Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans. Rogers is a frail and skinny man who desperately wants to enlist in the army in 1942. It's not that he is particularly battle hungry; he just wants to do as much as he can to help. However his diminutive physique and a number of chronic conditions prevent him from being allowed to enlist even though he applies multiple times. This brings him to the attention of a brilliant doctor, played by Stanley Tucci, who sees a purity of intention within Rogers. He enlists the eager man into a program to create a "super soldier" with the help of egotistical inventor Howard Stark, played by Dominic Cooper. The serum works and Rogers, now dubbed Captain America, becomes stronger than he ever imagined. Now with the help of a British agent, played by Hayley Atwell, and under the command of a grouchy colonel, portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, Rogers takes on Hydra. Hydra is the Nazi's deep science division, headed by Johan Schmidt who is also known as the Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving. Schmidt has uncovered an artifact that he and his top scientist, portrayed by Toby Jones, use to create weapons unlike anything the world has seen before.

There are a number of things that "Captain America" does very well, the biggest being making the character of Steve Rogers both heroic and relatable. The character could easily come across as a stiff because at his core he's basically the ultimate boy scout, an as a basic character premise that can be rather dull. Evans does great work at making the character's motives noble while still realistic. The amount of time that the audience spends with the weak version of Rogers also helps. Firstly the effect is completely convincing, secondly it helps the audience appreciate the change that Rogers goes through after the serum is injected. What really makes the character work is the emphasis put on the fact that Rogers isn't really an eager fighter, instead he simply cannot abide bullies. It's a sentiment that rings true now possibly more than ever.

The film is also quite smart in its dealing with the fact that Captain America was created as a propaganda tool. Rather than try to underplay this, the film instead embraces it fully. Before he is able to see any action in Europe, Rogers first becomes a poster boy for buying war bonds. Rogers' enduring wish to help fellow soldiers more directly means that the film gets to have it both ways. It gets to acknowledge the jingoistic nature of the character while simultaneously distancing the portrayal of Rogers from that image. It's very intelligently handled. Unfortunately not all aspects of the film are as well managed.

There are two major issues with "Captain America" that undermine the solid work being done in other areas of the film. The first is the villains, the Red Skull and Hydra. Weaving does well enough in his performance as the Red Skull but the issue has to do with how the character and his Nazi offshoot organization was conceived and written. It boils down to the fact that they never feel like the threat they're meant to be. This is due to the fact that it never feels like they're winning. Except for one assassination at the start of the film Hydra never appears to have the upper hand, and even that one time the assassin didn't manage to escape. Right from their first head on encounter Rogers and those who follow him are beating Hydra back and it stays that way all the way through. Sure Hydra has the better weapons but they're still being defeated quite handily by one guy with a shield leading soldiers with basic guns. It gives Hydra and the Red Skull a rather cartoonish feel, like Dr. Claw or Shredder or any number of other TV cartoon villains who can't be taken seriously because they never ever win.

The other issue is harder to nail down as it's more an overall impression rather than something specific. But more than any other film that Marvel has produced this feels like a set up for "The Avengers" more than anything else. All of the other films have been building toward that team-up movie but they still were their own stand alone stories. This however feels more like a two hour effort to sell the character so he'll work in the next film rather than give him a stellar first adventure. The lack of a credible villain and the opening scene of the film only reinforce this feeling.

In the end "Captain America: The First Avenger" is an entertaining enough piece of nostalgia toned action. Some aspects were handled very intelligently while others needed an overhaul. Ultimately the character himself comes away on solid footing, as does a decent portion of the supporting cast. Given the time gap between when this is set and "The Avengers" we may not see many of those other faces again except in flashback, so that just leaves Captain America himself. The film may have issues but the Captain himself is well realized and his return will be welcome.

Final Score: 3 out of 5