Captain America: The First Avenger
Union Square Regal, July 29, 2011
Movie #48 for 2011
CHRIS EVANS (pictured) is usually either the best thing in a terrible movie (like The Losers or The Fantastic Four) or holding his own among a fine cast in something exceptional (Scott Pilgrim, Sunshine). Captain America is somewhere in the middle - he’s the best thing among a very fine cast in a move that is pretty decent.
Evans plays Steve Rogers who, despite numerous failed attempts, wants nothing more than to enlist into the war effort in 1942. He is given his chance as part of a super-soldier experiemental program that turns him from weedy to ripped and off he goes to the front (albeit circuitously) to fight Nazis and worse (often on gantries).
Weedy Steve is a good character. Although, I don’t really get why he is always beaten up and can’t get a lady friend. I think bullies would eventually respect the pitbull in him, and surely not all girls in the 40s were so superficial? And, despite being small, he’s still played by Evans who is absurdly handsome. Maybe the bullies and girls were freaked out - as I was - by the computer-generated nature of Steve’s weediness. Putting Evans’ head and thick, muscular neck onto a twelve year old’s body is a little jarring, especially when he still has the deep voice of a much bigger man (like a small-to-medium sized basset hound with a bass-baritone bark, it’s just a little odd).
Like all the superheroes I favor, Steve Rogers is a human who remains human after getting his powers, like Batman or Spidey. Although the plotting gets a little less interesting once Steve gets to the front, he is an excellent character throughout. Likewise HAYLEY ATTWELL’s (Brideshead Revisited, The Duchess) Peggy Carter (who, although the film would not pass the Bechdel test, is a surprisingly well drawn love-interest), TOMMY LEE JONES’ general and STANLEY TUCCI’s scientist. Unfortunately, HUGO WEAVING’s Red Skull is a fairly standard villain, but Weaving provides some beautifully glazed ham.
It ends the way that all Marvel movies are ending, pre-Avengers, with SAMUEL L. JACKSON’s Nick Fury delivering that same story. (Somehow, it’s losing its original thrill.) So, hopefully, the next time we see Evans as Captain America it’ll be back to “holding his own among a fine cast in something exceptional”.
