Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Studio: Paramount/ Marvel EntertainmentTheatrical Release: July 22, 2011
PG-13
Review by James Klein
With a summer that's been filled with comic book movie adaptations such as Thor, the X-Men prequel, and Green Lantern, I didn't bother to see any of these (although I was curious to see X-Men having liked most of the other films) because they mostly looked silly and overly ridiculous. What drew me to Captain America was the trailer for the film. I loved the period setting, it took itself seriously and it looked like the film wasn't loaded to the brim with CGI and phony special effects. You know the old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover"? Well, same goes for the trailer as Captain America: The First Avenger is a mess of a movie and the very reason why I wish these comic book adaptations would just go away.
Chris Evans is horribly miscast as Steve Rogers, a young skinny man who can't seem to join the Army when America has entered WWII. It is 1942 and Rogers just wants to fight for his country. While I loved the patriotism in this film, I never understood why Rogers wanted to join so bad and risk himself in getting arrested for lying to the military. He says he hates bullies and that is why he wants to join. Really? That's his reason? The writers couldn't come up with anything better? What about his past? Anything? Nope, he just hates bullies.
When Rogers is chosen by a kindly German scientist (Stanley Tucci) and is thrown in boot camp, Rogers isn't the most athletic but he does show kindness and heart and even though his drill instructor (a phoned in performance by Tommy Lee Jones) is against it, Rogers is chosen to be a guinea pig for an experiment to turn into a superhuman soldier. While the experiment works (and for some odd reason they don't try it again) the kindly German doctor is killed by a Nazi spy and Rogers chases him down to find out why he was killed. Looks like an old German Nazi nemesis Red Skull had it in for him and now Steve Rogers must find this Red Skull and kill him some Nazi's.
While Rogers is pulled out of service, he is given a job to dress up like Captain America and help promote bail bonds and push patriotism in the United States. This was the best part of the film as we see Rogers slowly break out of his shell and try and get the crowd going at certain rallies only to be booed at when he talks to the soldiers who are actually fighting in the war. Maybe because this sequence provided the most drama, the least CGI, the most interesting portion of this film, it was time to quickly move on to a less dramatic part of the film. The screenwriters continue on with the ridiculous silly plot with Red Skull trying to take over the world with this special blue potion that both sides want for themselves. The movie turns into a jumbled mess as comedic one liners and hilariously bad effects soon quickly take over the film with a dull and bored Chris Evans playing America's hero and a bunch of bland soldiers who all seem to be stereotypes join him on his mission.
The screenplay seems to be made with Swiss cheese as there is one sequence where Rogers is looking over a map and plotting out how to get behind enemy lines and then the film literally cuts to him on a motorcycle being chased by these superhuman Nazi's. Did something get cut out? Am I the only one who noticed this? The editing is so jarring that it pulled me right out of the picture.
While the children in the theater seemed to enjoy the story of Captain America, I found that even though the action scenes looked like something out of a video game with entire backgrounds obviously shot on green screen, the film didn't even have much action. Or maybe the bad script, acting, effects took over and I was already willed out of the movie. Even the semi-dark ending with a lead in to The Avengers film couldn't redeem this for me. Captain America: The First Avenger is film making at its sloppiest. Are we now done with these comic book movies? Whose next, Groo? Aquaman? Apparently not since the new Spider-Man movie had its trailer shown before this. It did look pretty good but then again, don't judge a trailer by how it looks. As the lyric from one of my favorite The Who songs goes, "Won't get fooled again."
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