Captain America: The First Avenger

Out of all the heroes who were on the original Avenger’s roster, Captain America arguably had the steepest hill to climb. While Thor was a Norse god with explosive powers and grand scale, Hulk was a gigantic behemoth with monstrous destructive energy, and Iron Man had the charm and punchy wit of Robert Downey Junior elevating what could’ve been a mediocre role, Captain America was a simple street-level boy scout who was used more for propaganda purposes in his original comics run rather than for complex storytelling. Though he had his fans, the role lacked a draw that these other projects had and would’ve resulted in a bit of hesitation when a film telling his origin story was released in 2011. Thankfully, like other examples within this fledgling period of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the movie was able to turn the expected outcome around and make people really get behind this hero in red and blue. Set in 1942 when World War II was still a prevalent danger, Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) wants to enrol in the army, but is constantly turned away due to his frail body and multiple health issues. His passion is noticed by Dr. Abraham Erskine (played by Stanley Tucci), who allows him the chance to enlist, due to believing that he may be the perfect specimen for his new ‘’super-soldier’’ experiment, which would give the chosen person enough strength to destroy any enemy in their path. After surviving the test and growing into a perfect physical specimen, Erskine is assassinated before more of the formula can be replicated, leaving Steve as the sole super soldier. Now with the power to do what he always wanted, Steve leads the charge against Nazi lieutenant general, Johann Schmidt (played by Hugo Weaving), who has his eyes set on a mysterious relic known as the Tesseract. With the help of colonel Chester Phillips (played by Tommy Lee Jones), Steve’s best friend, Sergeant Bucky Barnes (played by Sebastian Stan) and British MI6 Agent, Peggy Carter (played by Hayley Atwell), Steve will adopt the role of ‘’Captain America’’ and prove to the world that he is worthy of earning the title of ‘’The First Avenger’’. Being a commercial and critical success, Captain America was a solid introduction to a character that would’ve been very hard to pull off. While nothing groundbreaking (even for the time), the solid cast, appropriate direction, and slight tweaks to the source material, results in an overall fun time.

During a time when Marvel was still trying to lay the groundwork for a cinematic universe, this project did have to go through a few legal hurdles and ownership rights disputes, eventually resulting becoming a co-production between Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures. When it came to making the story for Captain America, the creatives said how they wanted to use all the cool and unique aspects of a comic story from the 1940s and 1950s, without any of the baggage and controversial qualities that also came with stories of that era. With this in mind, it was a pretty smart decision to get director, Joe Johnston, to lead the film, as while his movies have never been huge hits, his past experience directing films like October Sky and The Rocketeer, and even working as a visual effects artist on the original Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones films, means he has a great talent of being able to emulate an older time period, and this movie really feels like it’s in the 1940s from how it looks, to how they people talk, to even how the film is paced and feels. While the other recent Marvel films were definitely modern in terms of their dialogue, theatrics and plots, this one feels the most stripped down, being written and displayed in a very basic delivery, feeling like a homage to the various serials that would’ve been released around the time of the comic. It doesn’t have a lot of depth, doesn’t feature a lot of twists or turns, and the screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely isn’t the most engaging stuff to listen to, but it honestly deserves a lot of credit for taking a character and a premise that was never meant to be taken seriously, and presenting him in a relatable, down-to-earth way. It’s a very human story that relies on the actions and desires of the people to lead it, and while they don’t have the most complicated reasoning’s for doing things (if anything, they’re a little boring), they are highlighted to the point that you do want to see where things turn out. It’s paced well, it has a nice mix of softer moments and action set pieces, it’s goofy enough that it doesn’t feel too moody, but it never goes too far and can be somber when it needs to, and the film isn’t without adding clever new touches onto the legacy of its hero either. Highlighting the shallow and one-note nature of the early version of the character by making him a public figurehead of the war to the point of feeling like a walking showgirl who is mocked by those actually on the field, is a pretty clever touch, and tying it back into Captain America’s true purpose and his honest noble desire to help keep his country safe, proves this movie knows why this character would’ve connected with so many people. With that said, while it is handled much better than it could’ve been, it is still a fairly safe and predictable origin story without much new added in to feel livelier (which should be expected for such a vanilla role). It’s not bad and you’ll enjoy what you see, but it won’t provide anything that gripping or surprising.

Most of these characters have good starting points and are on paper, well-handled and would work really well with the movie’s theme of ‘’honest goodness being more important than showy strength and pride’’, but in terms of execution, they don’t reach the levels that they’ve. Captain America would be a very difficult character to write for because he is mostly just a harmlessly good blank slate that wouldn’t have a lot of room for deeper threats or internal issues, but Marvel would flesh this role out into something a little more interesting in the future. There are a few interesting points like the previously mentioned propaganda aspect, but outside of that, it’s the very traditional ‘’heart is what counts, not muscle’’ kind of deal, which does work within this world, but could’ve been told a little more uniquely. Chris Evans is perfectly fine as Steve Rogers, but it feels like the writers were more interested in Captain America and what he represents rather than Steve Rogers and who he is, because there honestly isn’t that much to work with. The opening act paints him as very one-note, with Evans being stuck stating such generically altruistic lines that it comes across as very phony and forced. Things do improve when he becomes the super solider however, where he’s allowed to bring more of a likeable innocence to what could be a generic muscleman hero archetype, which makes him come across as inexperienced, but not incompetent, it’s handled fairly well. Agent Carter is a really cool character and is played really well by Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan is not in the film a lot, but his scenes with Steve are nice and they have a good bond, and the rest of the cast is also good as well, but not really given time to be fleshed out. People like Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic Cooper and Toby Jones are good, but a little generic, Stanely Tucci is pretty solid as the doctor but is taken out pretty quickly, people like Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, Jacques Dernier, and JJ Field, should be big characters as they work in a team alongside Steve, but they are written as pretty generic and aren’t characters that would stand out in a crowd, and Hugo Weaving is pretty entertaining as the villain and has a hoaky quality that feels reminiscent to those old-fashioned serials, but that quality makes it hard for him to be intimidating. For a character that is supposed to be Captain America’s main villain and have a dastardly presence which would last decade’s worth of comic runs, he doesn’t really feel like that big a threat.

As previously stated, the look of the film does a very good job recreating the feel and energy of 1940s- 1950s America, but it’s also nice that it doesn’t just stop there and puts in the effort to change things up to still make it feel distinct. The production design by Sean Haworth and Rich Heinrichs is appropriately retro and classical, containing a sepia tone quality that makes everything look washed-out without being overly dull, but the touches of comic book aspects like some futuristic inventions and locations makes it feel dissimilar to real life while still clearly being in said period. The costume design by Anna B. Shepard also deserves praise for correctly capturing the general attires of everybody in America at the time whether they be citizen, generals or soldiers, but also for the Captain America suit, which had a pretty ridiculous look in the comics, but was made fairly believable in this space. For the most part, the film isn’t heavy on visual effects, but when they are used, they are a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the trick they used to make Chris Evans look like a shrimpy weakling is honestly incredibly impressive, taking a lot of body doubles to get it to work and the effort really paid off with next to no moments where it looks obvious. But on the other hand, elements like some of the fight sequences and even the texture of Red Skull’s face looks pretty awkward and definitely feels like a quality of the era. The action overall isn’t that good, with several set pieces ironically feeling like the cheap, serial movies that they’re supposed to be mocking. There’s no great moment of choreography, none of the set ups are that inventive and outside of a few cool shots from cinematographer, Shelly Johnson, they don’t look that impressive due to the weak effects and bland locations, and it just doesn’t feel like Johnston is capable of handling a story that requires any form of superhero theatrics. The music also has a retro yet theatrical quality to it that does feel a little too in-your-face at times and even drowns out any sense of memorable motif as it all starts to sound the same, but on its own, it’s not too bad (it’s Alan Silvestri, so the bottom line will still at least be fine).

Since the first phase of the MCU already had its fair share of stumbling points right out of the gate, Captain America: The First Avenger is a perfectly passable film for that period. It wasn’t as bad as things like Thor, The Incredible Hulk or even Iron Man 2, but it’s not as good as something like the first Iron Man, so it stands comfortably in the middle, and considering the film that followed would be the moment where all the heroes collaborated, it led way to one heck of a momentous occasion. It doesn’t have the greatest characters, story, or action, but for a character that should be the equivalent of plain white bread, it’s nice that we at least got a decently delivered sandwich. With some good acting, effective ambiance, and a timeless direction, it is definitely the early sprout that would later blossom into one of the greatest trilogies in the MCU, but as a starting point, this movie has got heart and spunk in all the right places.