Captain America: The First Avenger is just kind of the movie that needed to happen to finish off phase one and give every member of the The Avengers his due before the culminating film happened. And unfortunately, that's kind of how the movie sees itself. Its not the movie they necessarily wanted to make, but it was the movie they had to make.
Less I remind you, prior to the Winter Soldier, Captain America was really the loser of the Avengers. He was just kind of the guy there. There was no indication that he was the leader, or really even an essential part. He was just there. And that's why I think this movie is not as popular as the other films in Marvel's cinematic universe.
Captain America follows the story of Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans), a shrimpy boy from Brooklyn who wants nothing more than to enlist in the United States Army and fight the good fight in Germany against the Nazis in World War 2.
Now the period piece may turn some people off, but this was Marvel's chance to do something incredibly different than what they had been doing for four movies by now.
But the character of Steve Rogers is really an inspiring character. He's almost too boy scout but at the same time you pity the guy enough to make him a likable character. He's pure of heart, probably the embodiment of all that can be good in America.
He is recruited to join a secret experiment in creating super soldiers. The scientist involved (played by Stanley Tucci) has developed a perfect serum to create super soldiers and he believes that Rogers is the perfect subject for the experiment because not only does the serum enhance all the physical attributes of the subject, but it enhances the personality.
The first act of this movie is really good because it shows the struggle of Steve Rogers the shrimp, and the once in a life time opportunity to become something greater, something that he's always wanted to be.
Now again, the first act of this movie is very good. It introduces the character fantastically, there's a great conversation between the scientist and Steve about him staying pure of heart no matter what. And there's a conspiracy as just as the experiment is a success, the scientist is killed by an agent of the Nazi fringe science branch called Hyrda.
Hydra is headed up by Johann Schmidt, a former test subject of the same scientist who made the serum that created Captain America. The experiment was not ready when it was put on Schmidt and it left him scared, promptly naming him, The Red Skull.
Don't get me wrong, evil Nazi scientist, great idea for a villain. But the execution was just half assed.
Furthermore, I think by this point, Hugo Weaving had played every single villain known to man and he was getting sick of the typecasting.
But there could have been more, like the fact that Schmidt was the protege of the scientist played by Stanley Tucci until it didn't work. Its mentioned, but I never feel likes its a huge part of the story. In fact, once Stanley Tucci's character dies, he doesn't have a huge impact on the story.
Red Skull and Hydra are more concerned on the deployment of a new energy source Schmidt refers to as the powers of the gods.
But the tesseract is just not used well enough in this film. Yes Hydra forces use it, but its kind of in the background when you think the focus should be on the rivalry between Red Skull and Captain America.
Remember when the scientist guy had the conversation with Steve about Schmidt and how his personality and the evil within him was exacerbated by the power of the serum? You'd think that they would show the dynamic between pure evil in Schmidt and pure good in Steve. But nope, we gotta focus on the tesseract, or Bucky Barnes (because he doesn't have a big role in the future at all).
Basically after the first act, the movie goes a little bit haywire. First Captain America goes overseas to inspire the troops, but he feels like an entertaining monkey for the US government. Then he proves himself and has his montage of him and his men that probably should have gone something like this.
The main complaint with this movie is that it just seemed like it was scotch taped together. There were some great parts to the movie, there were some themes that probably could have been flushed out more and the movie would have been great, but overall, the film is just kind of mediocre.
The plot of Hydra is just to take over the world... That's it.
Its just not an overly complicated story. Hydra bad, Captain America good. Conflict!
But the unfortunate part is that there could have been more in this film. I've said it a couple times now but this movie had a lot of things going for it.
Relationship between Agent Carter (played by the gorgeous Hayley Atwell) and Steve Rogers. It starts out good and there's definitely some kind of chemistry between the two, but there never was a great explanation as to why they were suddenly in love with one another. Sure, I get it, its war, but that could have been a much better love story.
What about Steve and Bucky?
Well again, it starts out good, showing the relationship between Bucky and Steve when Steve is small guy and then how it kind of switches when he gets all stereoided out. Does it go anywhere? No. Half the time he's off to war, captured, or "dead".
The relationship are never really capitalized on.
And for the people that don't necessarily have a great relationship with Rogers are just kind of there to either add star power or add a nod to the larger universe.
Why was Tommy Lee Jones in this film? Because the movie needed some kind of star power and big
And these aren't even great performances. Tommy Lee Jones looks bored, Howard Stark (played by Dominic Cooper) is just in the background. In fact, that character could have been played by anybody, just throw in some tech savvy guy and the movie carries on fine. It did not have to be Howard Stark.
I'll be honest, when I first saw this film, I did think it was kind of cool they added Howard Stark into this film, but watching it now, its kind of a waste of the character. I don't know what his role has been in Agent Carter, or any of the non-movie mediums, but I think if you're going to have a high profile name like that, have it have some kind of significance.
Overall, the movie could have been a lot more. Its an alright popcorn flick sure, like most of the Marvel phase 1 films. But where phase 2 really got it right was not just making these entertaining action films, but also smart entertaining action films. Suddenly characters had a purpose in films like Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Again, subjectively, Captain America is up there with Thor as my favorite of the first phase of Marvel. Honestly, (and this could change) it goes Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2.
That is the thing you have to understand about phase 1 of Marvel's cinematic universe. All five movies, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America were all so much better than the crap that had been released before it. Its leagues and bounds better than Daredevil. Its leagues and bounds better than The Fantastic Four. Its leagues and bounds better than the 3rd Spider-man film. Phase 1 is not a horrible set of movies.
But let's not get too wrapped up in the nostalgia of these movies. Sure they seemed great when we first saw them because we were used to superhero movies with a light hearteded edge, basically anything not Batman Begins, to be campy and dumb. But with films like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-men: Days of Future Past, the standards keep getting raised higher and higher.
So while Captain America, Iron Man and all these films were the pioneers at creating a cinematic universe and making good superhero films, let's be honest, we've come a long way, even from these films.
I of course still enjoy watching them and love what they represent, but I think its time we stop saying that Marvel can do no wrong, because what I'm afraid is that with films like Ant-man, they will regress back to this phase. Phase 1 was acceptable from 2008 to 2012, but we have higher standards now.
But overall, I do like Captain America, especially in the context he's in now. The film is, again, a popcorn flick and yeah its campy, yeah its kind of silly, but its Captain freaking America. Let's give this movie more credit than we gave it in 2011 and thank god that we've come farther since.
But what did you think? Comment and Discuss below! Also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24. There you can get updates on new movie news and reviews.
I'll leave you with this. For a more in depth look into the history of the character of Captain America, this is actually a really interesting look into how the character has evolved since its creation. Enjoy!
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