The Case for Avenging First

Become the best you can be, and the best in the world, by the injection of chemicals directly into your body!  While that seems to be the motto of Olympians, Tour de France cyclists and bodybuilders these days, the original patriot to take the chemical advantage for God and country was good old boy, Captain America.

The morality of how Captain America: The First Avenger gains his superpowers is never really mentioned (well, they wouldn’t have back in WWII either, I am sure), but his qualities as a true blue, fair dinkum, all American boy just wanting to do the right thing are well established in his first film, even while the whole film is structured as a lead in for the super cadre film, Avengers, due next year.

Chris Evans takes the whole thing very seriously, looking very blond and buff in the part and playing everything incredibly straight.  It’s therefore left to Tommy Lee Jones to liven up proceedings, cracking the (successful) jokes and at least looking like he is having a bit of fun.  Hugo Weaving is very good at playing bad, and as the Red Skull gets to add a German accent to his nationalities of evil, though he is evil with a capital E and so does very dastardly stuff and has a master plan to destroy the world (starting with the USA of course), all in a pretty formulaic way.  And Hayley Atwell as the love interest does a great Kate Beckinsdale impression, all prim and proper Britishness with a twist of potential naughtiness.

From the above, you probably can guess I was a little underwhelmed by the film.  The film is over two hours long, and feels it, dragging in parts of the beginning and the middle, and even a little bit at the end.  The magnificent war machines are wonderfully mad, but the morphing and action CGI that go on around Chris Evans are, if not always bad, then unfortunately obvious, and the most vim and vigour seems to have been invested in an interminable patriotic investors’ rally.

For all that, the film is not bad.  It hovers around a Green Lantern level on the recent superhero movie releases, and it is miles better than the attempt at a Captain America movie from last century.  There are lots of explosions and ticks all the cliché boxes, including a brief appearance by Stan Lee.

But again it feels a bit perfunctory, made just to provide the origin story of the good Captain before the Avengers are assembled.  The preview for the Avengers movie which followed Captain America: the First Avenger film definitely looked appetising, though I think the appearance of Robert Downey Junior had a lot to do with that. 

As for Captain America: the First Avenger, a few people behind me found it the greatest movie ever (by their reaction) though their delayed excitement may just have been a sign that they had thawed after being amongst the few people to go to Readings in the snowy weather (I don’t think I have ever seen the food court so empty on a Tuesday).  For me and my companions though, we all agreed that it was good, not great.  But I was glad I saw it.

Verdict: Captain America: the First Avenger was a passable movie, with heaps of action though none of it terribly convincing, and a bit of humour very sparingly sprinkled.  It will be interesting to see what the combination of this, Thor and Iron Man turns into.  For now though, Captain America: the First Avenger is... okay.  6.5 American Flags out of 10.