Captain America saves the world!

It is 1941, and the world is being torn apart by war. After repeatedly trying to enlist in the military to do his part and fight alongside his brothers and sisters in the Allied Forces, the young and scrappy 98-pound Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is accepted to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super-Soldier known as Captain America. In his muscular new incarnation, Captain America joins forces with his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and the confident Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), under the command of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), to wage war on the evil HYDRA organization—the Nazi’s deep science division—led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving).

Captain America: The First Avenger has been my most anticipated superhero movie of the year. I’ve enjoyed all of the movies out so far this summer from Thor to Green Lantern, and I called X-Men: First Class “the finest superhero film” yet. Captain America definitely falls into that category. As an origin story, they manage to dispatch the origin stuff pretty quickly because once skinny Steve becomes muscle Steve he jumps right into action and the movie rarely stops after that.

I absolutely loved the fact that the filmmakers decided to stick with the birth of Captain America and keep the main portion of the story firmly rooted in his World War II origins. I’ve not followed the comics, so I don’t know how closely they kept to the story, but I thought they did a terrific job of making this look and feel like a movie from the 1940s (albeit with a bigger budget and better special effects than the actual 1940s Captain America movies). The period detail was spot on and I loved the nod early on to Iron Man 2‘s Stark Expo, which also gives us our first look at Howard Stark presenting his prototype of a flying car. I have to say that they did a terrific job in casting Dominic Cooper as Stark, because you really believe that this guy is the father of Tony Stark/Robert Downey Jr. I thought Tommy Lee Jones was perfect as Colonel Phillips, especially with his little comic asides and I really hoped to have seen more of Stanley Tucci. There are many more familiar faces throughout the film, maybe not big names, but you know the faces from Neal McDonough to Toby Jones.

As for the main cast, relative newcomers to the big screen Hayley Atwell and Sebastian Stan hold their own with the seasoned veterans. I enjoyed Atwell’s rigid Peggy Carter and how you could see her growing feelings for Steve as the film progressed. It was great to see her kick some ass at the beginning too. You totally believed Stan’s Bucky and Evans’ Steve had been lifelong friends too. They both had great chemistry and when tragedy rears its ugly head, you feel the pain for these two as well. And Chris Evans … I don’t think they could have cast a more perfect actor in the role. He is simply amazing in the early part of the film when Rogers is a 98-pound weakling. The effect of putting Evans’ head on someone else’s body is stunningly seamless and you never once doubt that you’re not looking at a scrawny Chris Evans. After he undergoes the procedure to become a super soldier (and apparently he wears the same brand of pants Bruce Banner wears), the transformation is all the more impressive (and what a physique Evans has). Evans manages to bring a seriousness to the role without making it melodramatic, and his awkwardness around women is amusing and charming. Of course he shines when he’s kicking HYDRA butt. And speaking of HYDRA, we certainly can’t overlook Hugo Weaving as Red Skull. He gets to have the most fun playing the over-the-top villain who wants to harness the powers of the gods (the Cosmic Cube which was introduced in the post-credits sequence of Thor) while tastefully chewing every bit of scenery in his vicinity. Weaving has made a career out of playing the bad guy, and this bad guy certainly goes down as one of his best.

My only real complaint about the film is the awful 3D conversion. The movie didn’t need it. Period. There are times when the people look like paper cutouts, and the effect really does no favors for a lot of the green screen shots. To make matters worse, the presentation I saw had to be one of the worst I’ve ever sat through with a brightly colorful and vibrant movie (just look at the trailer) rendered muted, murky and dark … and that was even without the 3D glasses! Add the glasses and it just made things worse. I saw a beautiful presentation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 at a different venue, and even the dark scenes there still came across with nice color and richness. If you’re planning to see Captain America in 3D, I would seriously suggest making sure the theater is presenting the film properly (and there has been some controversy lately with theaters not using the right wattage to project 3D movies), or simply skip the 3D altogether and see it as it was filmed. The 3D adds no value, and the presentation I experienced muted my own enjoyment of the movie.

There’s also talk of a post-credit teaser for next summer’s The Avengers, however the studio opted to withhold that moment from our screening much to the disappointment of a full theater of people who actually sat through the credits to see it. So, if you do see the movie — and I highly recommend it — leave a comment below if you did get to see the teaser. All we got was “Captain America will return in The Avengers.” Summer 2012 can’t come soon enough for me!  And for those of you in foreign territories, even though the character is Captain America, the filmmakers seem to have chosen to make his fighting force a multi-national team, so don’t think this movie is going to be all U.S. drum beating and chest-pounding. This is a movie that can be enjoyed worldwide!

Clacked by Chuck Duncan
on Jul 22, 2011 @ 00:01 EST5EDT