I salute you Marvel Studios

Hats off to Marvel studios on their successful campaign of establishing their Marvel universe onto the big screens. This clever bit of marketing will no doubt inspire a new generation of youths to pick up and indulge in comic books.

Following on from the successes of Iron Man and Thor, we finally explore the origins of the first Avenger himself, Captain America.

Synopsis

The film takes place in wartime USA during the Second World War and features Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), the protagonist of the piece. This young new recruit is continually rejected from the military; deemed unfit to serve his country on the frontlines. Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) offers a lifeline to Rogers by enlisting him into the super soldier programme and thus creating Captain America.

Meanwhile Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) heads his evil organisation, Hydra, and plots to not only win the war but to rule the world with the help of a mysterious omnipotent object.

Star spangled first half

The film progresses through the plot effectively while never becoming boring. The action packed second half is well handled but it doesn’t measure up to the impressive 1st section, which explores Rogers humble beginnings and conceptualises the idea of using the Captain America persona as a way of selling war bonds. The screenwriters deserve high praise for making Captain America more relevant to audiences in the 21st century and pulls out an ingenious method of instilling a self parody of Captain America within his own film.

My only concern is that Steve Rogers as a character himself is not very interesting. Perhaps it is due to his personality or the screenplay, but we never really explore what’s truly behind that winged  helmet of Rogers.  Hopefully with the sequels, spoilers aside, we will be getting some comedic fish-out-of-the-water scenarios much akin to Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor”.

Performances

At first it might seem a bit absurd to see Evans playing a different character from the Marvel universe (previously the Human Torch from Fantastic Four), but as we are vacuumed into the outrageous storyline, all doubts are swept aside.

Evans’ physical appearance naturally resembles a strong jawed all American soldier, but  his character represents the little guy with a big heart. Because of this ‘past life’, it really does come across just how much he truly values his new found abilities from the Super Soldier serum. Quite fitting for the film is the all too famous line from our favourite crawler, with great power, comes great responsibility.

Weaving’s erratically camp portrayal of the antagonist Red Skull, brings stark similarities to Christoph Waltz’s performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. The character is somewhat of a throwback to classics such as Indiana Jones. Red Skull is so evil that even the Nazis don’t want anything to do with him, forcing him to head off into the world with his own organisation, Hydra.

The usage of the Hydra organisation allowed the film makers to avoid sinking into a political backwash. Rather than sink into this trap, Captain America pushes forward strong moral lessons.

Other notable performances include a few gruff one liners from Tommy Lee Jones as the Colonel, British talent Dominic Cooper has a stab as the charismatic Howard Stark and love interest Hayley Atwell does a superb job of looking good while still kicking ass.

Special effects and makeup

Reminiscent of any J.J. Abram’s film is director Joe Johnston’s use of lens flares.  Joe Johnston does well to establish a universe which has elements of both the Indiana Jones and Star Wars environments. The film also displays just how far computer-generated imagery has come with a solid portrayal of the pre-super soldier Steve Rogers. No doubt you will already have taken a peek at the skinny Rogers through previous trailers and promotional material.

I only viewed a 2D screening so I cannot comment on how well the 3D elements were played out.

Shoehorning sequels

Over the last few years we have learnt to diligently stay seated at the cinema until the credits have completely finished rolling, just in case we get to see some bonus material. In our case, we were treated with the trailer to Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, where we get glimpses of the future superhero team. One can criticize and say that this film is just a step up platform for next summers blockbuster but I disagree, it still stands up by itself as an entertaining piece of cinema regardless of the tie in promotions.

Verdict

Captain America: The First Avenger is a highly entertaining feature that never bores however it lacks emotional weight that would have otherwise elevated this film from being good to great.

Using The Dark Knight as the pinnacle of comic book films, I rank this Marvel outing below the benchmark but alongside another entertaining and successful Marvel film, Thor.

TUS Rating:

7 of 10