Captain America is a rousing , massively entertaining movie that ’s as much an old - shoal , devout World War II epic as it is a modern superhero action picture show . It also features a showstopping Sung - and - dance figure and moments of surprising poignancy and emotion .
Captain America : The First Avenger begin in the present daytime , as an Arctic junket has unearthed an impossibly advanced plane that has been entrap in the internal-combustion engine for most seventy eld – and , inside it , a intimate - attend shield . The movie then flash back to 1942 , as the Nazi scientist Johann Schmidt and his own personal army HYDRA is besieging a Norwegian town in hunt of the Cosmic Cube , a mysterious artefact of probable Asgardian origins that could change the entire course of study of the war .
Meanwhile , 90 - pound sterling doormat Steve Rogers is reject from the army for the fifth time . Still despairing to engage despite his obvious strong-arm defects , Rogers accompanies his good acquaintance James “ Bucky ” Barnes to the World Expo , where his late attempt to engage attract the attention of Dr. Abraham Erskine , a German refugee who has created an experimental super - soldier serum . After a barrage of trial run at the hands of the crustily no - nonsense Colonel Chester Phillips and the sexily no - hokum British agent Peggy Carter , Steve beats out a bunch of superscript physical specimens to be the first recipient of the serum , turn him into : Captain America .
Tragically , a HYDRA agent kills Dr. Erskine in good order after the experiment , taking the secret of the blood serum with him . Colonel Phillips , who was expect an entire army of super - soldiers rather of just one , set off the project and goes off to Europe with Peggy and mavin industrialist Howard Stark to oppose HYDRA . The politics decides Steve is too valuable an asset to put on the line losing , so he ’s put to work as a propaganda mouthpiece in the USO . When the show gets send off overseas , Steve tell apart an chance to hold open a platoon of soldier – including Bucky – from HYDRA ’s clutch , and so he defy Colonel Phillips ’s ordering and head behind enemy lines , beginning an all - out warfare between Captain America and Red Skull .
What ’s most refreshful about Captain America is how small it resembles a received superhero movie . The success of Iron Man has establish a fairly clear formula for the origin taradiddle , in which the arrogant but lovable booster amplification great power in a life - alter experience , wrestles with his own ego - doubt before come forth stronger for it , and finally confronts the big bad , who is ordinarily some twisted variation of the paladin . This yr alone , we ’ve determine that formula apply to fantastic results ( Thor , which avowedly writhe it around somewhat ) and to … well , to less than fantastic resultant ( Green Lantern ) .
And yes , you may still find a raft , in not all , of those beat in Captain America . But the conflict is that , between all the familiar stuff , it stops being a stock superhero movie and begin being a square - up World War II epos that just happens to have tops - powered soldiers . Perhaps the most obvious proof of that is the picture show ’s high body tally – Cap is the opposite of sanguinary , but he acts like a soldier at war with the foe or else of a superhero dealing with some collaborator , and plenty of soldiers on both sides cash in one’s chips over the course of the film . Tonally , long stretchiness of this movie , in particular the scene localise in Italy , feel more like something out of Patton than , say , Iron Man , and that ’s a very fun variety of gait .
A lot of the deferred payment for this should go to director Joe Johnston , who nicely poise the openhanded action mechanism sequences with the light elements . There are great deal of large , exciting setpieces in this motion picture , including the newly empowered Steve chasing a HYDRA agent through the street of Brooklyn that includes Cap plug a submarine ( every bit as amazing as it sounds ) , a deadly motorcycle chase through the forests of Europe , multiple daring raid onto HYDRA bases , and a final vast airborne fight which involve Cap being thrown out a plane and then happen a style back on board .
I ’ll allow that there are a few moments where the peculiar effects do n’t appear perfectly look staring , but they generally work all right within the film ’s gently stylized tonicity . And , most significantly , the film ’s most important digital effect – the shrunken , 90 - hammer Steve Rogers – reckon systematically fantastic , and is easy the most convincing human - based digital effect I ’ve construe .
Johnston has note the USO show is his favourite part of the picture show , and it ’s not surd to see why – it ’s screaming ( though quite pointedly never at the expense of Cap ) and is a gleeful throwback to the gung - ho American propaganda of the era . It also serve as an awesome self-justification to get Steve into the original winged pajama Captain America suit and have him punch Hitler , even if it is just a mo of pantomime play - act as . Indeed , writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have managed to weave in a bunch of cool ( and unobtrusive ) Easter Eggs for comic leger lover , admit a quick visual outcry - out to one of Captain America ’s fellow Invaders that I would almost say is deserving the damage of admittance alone , just for the out-and-out giddy thrill of seeing Dr. Phineas Horton ’s humanoid up on the magnanimous screen .
Another liberal part of what sets Captain America is the 1940s background , which feels far more remote and unfamiliar than the 1962 of decade - Men : First Class . This is a white-haired , olive-drab world that is teetering on the brink of entire annihilation , and the only rays of light come from its earnest , straight - gossip sub and the can - do spirit of the general public .
This is a world that Joe Johnston has explored before , both in his 1991 cultus classic The Rocketeer and while doing visual effects work on Raiders of the Lost Ark. Like those earlier cause , this is an idealised version of the past tense without being too overly stylized – we ’re very much search at the Marvel population version of the 1940s , and it ’s similar but not identical to our own . The motion picture elide over the segregation of American troops , for instance , but it does let in some subtle nod to the underlying prejudices that interpenetrate the period , and even Cap himself is n’t completely immune .
I should believably address the decisiveness to make Red Skull and HYDRA the main villains of the movie as opposed to the Nazis , a decisiveness that has draw in a whole mountain of , uh , enlivened treatment . For the record book , there are plenty of Nazis in this film , but it ’s true that they melt to the background in favour of HYDRA . Honestly , I call back the movie made the right decision on this one .
Part of the motion-picture show ’s conceit is that the Red Skull himself has used the Cosmic Cube to labor his engineering science to levels even beyond what we have today , and with that newly - found king he has made HYDRA autonomous of Hitler ’s control . This make Cap and Red Skull the opposing general in a occult warfare parallel to the real - life World War II . Frankly , I prefer the implication that the Allies were still capable of beat the Axis without the economic aid of super - soldiers . The decision to use Red Skull has more thematic plangency anyway , as he is also a receiver of the super - serum and so considers himself and Steve the vanguards of a new master race . Of naturally , Steve disagree on that point .
The movie ’s sometime schooltime conception of gallantry and values would n’t work without some nifty authorship – Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely ’s script makes it clear Steve wants to go to war not to toss off the enemy but to keep some other poor soul being killed – and a great fundamental operation by Chris Evans ’s , who sublime all the cockiness he displayed in Fantastic Four ( and then like an expert satirize in Scott Pilgrim ) . While the character ’s values are one-time - fashioned , Evans resists any temptation to go for ironic distance . He embodies Cap ’s earnestness and innocence , and he remains a substantial presence whether he ’s take on the integrality of HYDRA or standing around looking deeply out of property in a glitzy , preposterous USO show .
He ’s helped along in this by Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter . On some level , Peggy is a bit of an odd character , a fiercely sovereign woman in an era when misogyny ran amok , and Atwell pulls off the unmanageable trick of keeping her anchor in the time period while still work as a strong character to modern consultation . Like Evans , she call forth the strong women of 1940s cinema – Atwell has cite Katharine Hepburn and Bette Davis as inspirations – without coming across as a pastiche .
The best performance of the film might be Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull , even in cattiness of the fact that he once again spend much of the movie hidden behind a mask . ( Although precisely which of his faces is the mask is a very unspoiled question . ) At this point , Weaving is an old pro at come up the hidden layers in larger - than - life characters , and while Johann Schmidt remains good unlikeable , Weaving allows us to understand the character ’s motivations , no matter how twisted they might be .
pillager of the Lost Ark has been mentioned a lot as a touchstone for this motion-picture show , and it ’s nowhere more apparent than in Weaving ’s work , which often recalls the likewise scarey but restrained villainy of Raiders ’s top Nazi Major Toht . He ’s also competently supported by Toby Jones as Dr. Armin Zola , who is portrayed as the rare supervillain who is more coward than megalomaniac and is a skillful reminder of how threadbare evil can be .
Really , there are n’t any unfit operation in this pic . Stanley Tucci is a circle of fun as the fatherly , wryly humorous Dr. Erskine , Tommy Lee Jones is reliably stew and badass as Colonel Phillips , and Sebastian Stan does a dainty chore play Bucky both as the protector of the 90 - Syrian pound Steve and as the human race who has to now live on in Captain America ’s tail . The Howling Commandos do n’t get much to do in this movie , but everything I encounter suggests they ’d be great fun to see more of in a sequel , and , if nothing else , Neal McDonough really , really looks like Dum Dum Dugan .
in conclusion , especial credit should go to Dominic Cooper , who resists the impulse to copy Robert Downey , Jr. ( or Iron Man 2 ’s John Slattery , for that affair ) as Howard Stark – if anything , his carrying into action belike owes more to Leonardo DiCaprio ’s Howard Hughes in The Aviator – and alternatively makes the part his own , pitching the performance as the more worldly counterpart to Steve and a humans who , for all his Starkian bluster , is lifelessly serious about winning the war .
This is a rousing , tremendously entertaining film , and I ’d put it flop in the top echelon of superhero films alongside Iron Man and Thor ( for the record , I put the Nolan Batman films in a different category ) . But what really puts this moving-picture show over the top for me – and what still stay with me nearly a week after having seen it – is the ending . I ’ll assay not to plunder anything , but we know that Captain America has to be lend forrad to 2011 in time for The Avengers . If you go back to the original comic strip , the decision to freeze Steve in ice was a bit of a clumsy retcon , a way to make Cap a contemporary of the new sixties superheroes without sacrificing his World War II origins .
But the movie takes what could have been a gawky plot contrivance and squeeze every last snow leopard of emotion out of it , really getting across the disaster of Steve ’s fate and what he mean to those he leave behind . And the movie ’s very last melodic line – except for the much - anticipated post - credits sequence , that is – is absolutely double-dyed in its bittersweet yearning and unruffled manhood … words I never thought I ’d be capable to apply for a superhero movie , and that ’s part of what makes Captain America so especial .
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