Captain America The First Avenger (2011) Review

After Thor, Marvel Studios' next movie would take a dive into the past with Captain America. Cap has had a very interesting history, being conceived about 75 years ago. He was perhaps the first big star on Marvel Comics, which was Timely Comics at that time. He even had a film serial in the '40s. So I can assume people had their doubts that Marvel could bring the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan on the big screen in a good way, what with the costume being considered ridiculously outdated today. There has been a movie in the '90s with Matt Salinger in the role but that was when Marvel movies sucked and DC films usually ruled, But again, with a very strong lead and cast, along with good production values, I'd say they gave Cap a good amount of dignity.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) wants to enlist in the Army, but he gets repeatedly rejected due to his small stature. But he manages to get in, thanks to a doctor named Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who admires his persistence. Not only that, he is taken in for an experiment to make him into a super soldier. Now tall and buff, does he get to kick some Nazi butt? No, after the formula is destroyed by a Nazi spy,  he is used on a USO tour to sell war bonds, sign autographs, and take pictures. They even make comic books about him.  But Steve proves his worth by going on a rescue mission to save captured soldiers, including his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).  They were captured by Hydra, a Nazi organization lead by Schmidt (Hugo Weaving)  who is building weapons powered by a mystical artifact called the Tesseract. Cap moves forward to take down every part of Hydra and stop Schmidt.

Like almost every Marvel movie, I felt this was well-casted. Chris Evans does really well, taking a step up from his not so successful stint as the Human Torch on Fantastic Four. I like his determination and how he would put himself in harm's way to save people. The FX of making him small and scrawny is pretty impressive, though I felt his head could be a bit smaller and well-proportioned with the rest of his figure, but it doesn't matter much when they get to show his real body.

There is also Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who Steve meets in his camp. In her introduction, a smartass soldier makes some quippy remarks at her. She orders him to step forward and punches him in the jaw. It is at this point that I'd like to say that I love Peggy! I can't think of any word to describe Hayley Atwell but smashing. Even though she is a romantic interest, she stands out on her own remarkably with her resilience. She even got her own one shot and show which sadly didn't last long. Nonetheless, Peggy is my favorite female character in the MCU.

The look of the film I think is really neat at how they made this look like the 40s. But the technology used by Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) and Hydra is very uniquely designed. These two elements were well-suited for the director Joe Johnston, who also directed The Rocketeer. The montage of Steve touring with the USO is very enjoyable, complete with showgirls,  fake punching an actor playing Hitler, and a very catchy song with music done by the great Alan Menken. As expected, there are those moments of levity. There's a brief funny moment when after Steve becomes buff, Peggy quickly touches his pecs. Hayley Atwell simply couldn't resist and it ended up in the film.

As for issues, sometimes the movie rushes into some things like Cap getting his costume. They don't show the process; he's just in it.  There's a moment when one female soldier played by Natalie Dormer makes advances on Steve and Peggy finds them. He tries to explain, but she doesn't want to hear it. Not long after, she shoots some bullets at Cap's vibrantium shield to test it and let out some aggression, then it's just forgotten. It just felt very pointless. At first, Hugo Weaving does all right as Schmidt who's also Red Skull, but when they reveal his red face, it looks very rubbery and too smooth. I burst out laughing at the reveal.

*insert joke here*

Even if many people don't love this movie, I found it very underrated and became a Captain America fan after this. After avoiding the Marvel movies for some time, I was glad to see this. So you can imagine my surprise when at the end of the credits, they showed a teaser for what this franchise has been building up to. All the heroes we were introduced to were coming together in one of the biggest comic book milestones ever. But even if the last films weren't on par with Iron Man, could they pull it off spectacularly? The short answer is yes. The long answer will be revealed next week.

RATING: STRONG APPROVAL