Grade: C+
The first Avenger of the Marvel universe had his silver screen treatment and I unlike many felt a little disappointed. The final film to enter the pantheon, before next summers Avengers hits the big screen, came out of the gate with a whistle instead of a bang. This came as a huge shock to me sitting in the theater. As Thor, which was expected to be more of the strange dud of the series to set up our heroes, had shown up to the ring in an amazing way I thought I wouldn't have to worry walking into the theater. Captain America: The First Avenger shows us, like the rest of the Marvel films, the origins of the future head honcho of the Avengers. We are taken back to WWII and dropped off with a scrawny kid from Brooklyn who just desperately wants to enlist in the war and do his part not to kill Nazis but to defend his country.
The mythos of Captain America is a pretty well known and old one. Scrawny kid gets accepted for ultra top secret super soldier program, gets picked to be first of said super soldiers, becomes super soldier, has scientist he befriended die, becomes WWII hero who clocks Hitler on the jaw and gets frozen in ice. What was fun about this movie was the way the writers breathed new life into its story and the force that the actors brought to their respected roles. Of course, you would really not expect anything less from people like Stanley Tucci & Tommy Lee Jones, who both bring their A game wherever they go. Tucci especially brought a great character to life with Dr. Abraham Erskine and thanks to the pacing it really shined.
Captain America: The First Avenger puts a lot of its focus on the Steve Rogers character before becoming a super soldier. We get to see this great journey of his, from trying to enlist, to going through military training, all the while being doubted by Tommy Lee’s Colonel Chester Phillips. Even after the super soldiering we aren’t thrown into the war just yet. Though many would want to see that happen as soon as possible we get to see Cap turned into a poster boy once the program is shut down. His main goal is to build up bond sales in every city he goes to. This works and Rogers even comes to enjoy what he is doing after a while but this all comes to a halt once he has to perform for the troops overseas. Here is where the story takes off. Captain America has to save his best bud Bucky from captivity in a Hydra base. This standoff takes us to the first confrontation from Caps tormenter The Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving. Soon after though the movie really started to fall apart for me.
While we had gotten to see Weaving long before this appearance, the only weight the confrontation scene had was showing that Schmidt had taken an early dose of the serum. It becomes clear though that it also gave him equal strength as Cap and it transformed him into the grotesque Red Skull. What was sad about Hugo Weavings portrayal as the Red Skull was that it did not seem entirely original and just came off very dishonest for such a good character actor. Earlier in the year the entire geek culture let out a collective orgasm when it was announced that Weaving would be the Red Skull, being knows for such roles as V & Agent Smith, it seemed clear that he would create another unforgettable character. Both roles saw Weaving invest himself deeply in creating these characters and giving them a voice all their own. The voice of the Red Skull, on the other hand, was one, emphasis on one, of the most unoriginal parts of the film. Red Skulls voice, sadly, came off as a sad imitation of Christoph Waltz’s German accent. Waltz, although being smaller in stature, would at least be able to not have to fake an accent and bring the same amount of insanity as Weavings, if not more, to the role of the Red Skull.
Sadly, though, this was not the only place where problems lied in the film. Soon after this first confrontation we are introduced to a number of cut scenes of Captain American and his Howling Commandos, basically Nick Fury's from the comics plus Bucky, destroying Hydra bases. This sloppy editing, filled with Caps CGI shield flying around, came off as being solely meant for those watching the film in the 3-D version to feel like they got their moneys worth. Sadly the horrible editing does not end there but continues on throughout the rest of the movie. Here we see pacing go out the door as the movie tries to wrap itself up as much as possible since it has given all the info it needs to for our characters and for the films role in the upcoming Avengers movie. During the final battle sequence, when they are storming the final Hydra base, we see that famous scene from the trailer where Cap is swinging on a hanging iron chain and after a quick cut away, Cap is suddenly running as fast as he can to the experimental plane Red Skull is getting away in.
After a couple more cut scenes after the climactic battle, we are transported to a strange antique hued room where Steve Rogers has woken up and everything seems just slightly off. Enter the final scene directed by Joss Whedon. If there is any nerdgasm to be had in this film, it is from the final scene of this movie and the after credits trailer for the Avengers film. What is soo off putting, sadly, is the almost dramatic change in pacing of the film and quip like nature that Whedon is known, during the final scene. Captain America: The First Avenger just does not live up to being a good Marvel film like the ones that have preceded it. While not being worse than the shit storm that was Iron Man 2 we are still left with a very choppy movie for a mythos that would work well for other characters like The Hulk but is undeserving of such an established character like Captain America. Grade: C+
