Film Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger is the latest blockbuster offering from Marvel Studios and introduces the final member of The Avengers crime-fighting organisation. Directed by Joe Johnson (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, The Rocketeer, Jumanji) and set against the backdrop of WWII, Captain America is by far the most artistically stylised Marvel superhero film to date, offering the closest thing to the bold, pulpy look of the original Marvel comic books.

With the release of Captain America, having already introduced the other Avenger team-members - Iron Man, The Hulk and Thor, Marvel has now begun advertising The Avengers, which recently finished filming and is due out in mid 2012. Impressively, The Avengers will see all original actors returning to reprise their respective superhero and sidekick roles, except for Edward Norton, who is to be replaced by Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk.

At the height of World War II, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a young man desperate to fight for his country. It’s not that he wants to kill the enemy, he just doesn’t like bullies. Only problem is, he has a physique that makes Tiny Tim look ripped and a million previous health issues. After failing to enlist in several different cities, his determined spirit and lofty ideals come to the attention of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who recruits him to a top secret program. Using his experimental serum, Dr. Erskine scientifically enhances Rogers into a superhuman soldier before the good Doctor is murdered by an assassin from the Nazi splinter group, HYDRA. With his new abilities, Rogers (a.k.a Captain America) leads the fight to bring down HYDRA and its evil leader, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), before the Nazi tyrant can unleash an unstoppable supernatural power and take over the world.

More than any other Marvel adventure to date, Captain America includes the most crossover material from the other Marvel superheroes and their co-existant worlds. Immediately distinct is the blue power cube sought by HYDRA, being the very same power source used and lost by the Ice Giants in Thor. Multi-verse characters such as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Howard Stark, founder of Stark Industries, also feature with effect. Importantly, the writers have been quite adept at seamlessly weaving in these cross-over items, while also keeping them important to the plot.

It has to be said that Marvel and Johnson have managed to create a real comic book feel to this movie that none of the other Marvel films have yet been able to quite capture. The well crafted, slightly sepia-toned WWII backdrop and the styling of HYDRA definitely helps to add a surreal feeling of ‘another time and place’ to the action. The storyline is quite straightforward, but it really needs to be to deliver the large amount of origin information while also providing a palatable action adventure that doesn’t overwhelm audiences with too many new characters and subplots. However, the unintended result of this simplicity is that the story feels somewhat old hat - almost too familiar when compared to many other WWII adventures. This leaves Captain America acutely lacklustre in places.

Something that was very unexpected, for me anyway, was the calibre and style of acting in The First Avenger. For the most part, performances were incredibly restrained and understated, which made for a more intense feel but was somewhat odd for a superhero-styled war film. Chris Evans as Captain America was solid and portrayed the morally confident but personally shy character well. Other mentions have to go to Hugo Weaving as the menacing Schmidt, Tommy Lee Jones as the dry Colonel Phillips and Hayley Atwell as the stoic Peggy Carter. However, the most memorable performance (for me at least) was Stanley Tucci as the unfortunately short-lived Dr. Erskine.

Captain America succeeded in providing a detailed character origin film, together with an explosion-filled adventure war story, while still remaining in the confines of the Marvel style. However, to a somewhat lessor degree than Wolverine or Thor, it still suffered a little from ‘origin-itis’ – this being the cinematic ailment where the entire first half of the film is taken up with solely introducing the character and his superpower, leaving only half of the runtime to cram in an interesting action storyline. The result is the feeling of a rushed second half action sequence, where the story is forced to hurtle at breakneck speed toward the final showdown.

All in all, Captain America was an entertaining war story with its fair share of explosive action and a strong thematic style. While not incredibly innovate, the production team's decision to stay true to the graphic novel style will definately be appreciated by the Marvel purists. Hopefully, with all of the origin stories now divulged in detail, fans can look forward to The Avengers following a more traditional, start-to-finish action narrative.

Oh, and hang around for the end of the credits for a sneak peak at The Avengers.

3 STARS