Captain
America: The First Avenger
Rated PG-13. Our Ratings: V -4 ;L -1 ; S/N -1.
Running time: 2 hours 4 min.
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© 2011 Paramount Pictures |
Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers…
Psalm 1:1
Except for the opening, this origin film is set in 1942 when the democratic
world was fighting the Nazis.
Thanks to a good script that takes time to build up its main character, Captain
America, which I was al
most dreading to see, kept my attention despite its preposterous “science” and
all the overused CGI effects that so often make such films seem like big
screen video games.
Asthmatic Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the prototype of those ads every
comic book used to run about Charles Atlas promising to turn a 98 pound weakling
into a he-man capable of beating the bullies who humiliate him in front of
girls by kicking sand in his face. After being beaten by some toughs the
Steve is befriended by soldier “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan),
who admires the lad’s courage in the face of the bigger toughs. Steve
keeps trying to enlist in the Army so he can fight the Nazis, but is turned
down time after time, until at last a sympathetic doctor passes him on as
approved.
In basic training Steve is practically a washout due to his frail body, the
bane of gruff Col. Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), who nonetheless also admires
his pluck. Then Steve becomes involved in one of those comic book science
projects run by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German genius who
had fled Hitler because he did not want his super body serum used by the
Nazis. In no time Steve’s puny body is transformed into the hulk that
comes to be known as Captain America. Dr. Erskine does not get much screen
time because an agent of the evil Nazi scientist Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving)
hunts him down and kills him before he can produce more super soldiers.
The War Department at first sees Captain America as more value on the war
bond circuit than on the battlefield. Steve is forced to dress in a red and
white blue costume and perform physical feats on a stage amidst a bevy of
female dancers. The public loves the display, but not the troops overseas
when Captain America’s USO show is sent to entertain them. The battle-hardened
G.I.’s scoff at the glitzy stage heroics with its costumed hero. This
attitude soon changes when word arrives that Steve’s friend Bucky and
his companions have been captured by the Nazis. Leading a daring rescue against
great odds, Captain America returns triumphantly with all the prisoners.
The last half of the film pits Captain America against Schmidt, who has morphed
into the super villain The Red Skull. The titanic struggle between hero and
villain will appeal to action fans. Especially those who read Marvel Comics,
but everything is so preposterous that the believability level is the same
as that of the Tooth Fairy. The earnestness of Chris Evans, plus the use
of such fine actors as Hugo Weaving and Tommy Lee Jones, lift this above
most other action hero movies. Hayley Atwell is also very watchable as the
British officer who comes as close to a love interest as Marvel Comics allows.
The movie captures well through costumes, sets, and cars the feeling of the
Forties, the only false note being the depiction of the Army as being a mixture
of races—back then racism was so rampant that African Americans were
segregated from whites.
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