Going into the movie, I knew Captain America would be good, but I wasn’t as sure as I had been months prior to the release because critics were giving the movie very average reviews, mostly in the mid 7s. After watching it last night, I can tell you it’s definitely better than average. I won’t go so far as the say it’s the best movie of the year (Harry Potter, X-Men Origins: First Class and Super 8 are still ahead of it), but it’s a great flick that you should check out if you have the chance. In terms of comparing it to other superhero movies, I would put it slightly above Thor, but still behind the first two Spider-Man and Batman films, along with the first Iron Man. I haven’t seen Green Lantern, but I’ve yet to hear anything positive about the film, so it’ll probably stay that way.
Assuming you’ve seen the commercials, you probably know the main plot. The movie takes place during World War II. Steve Rogers is a miniscule man with a lot of heart who wants to fight for his country and he’s given the opportunity to become a soldier by having an experiment done on him which turns him into Chris Evans (I mean, Captain America). His main enemy is played by Agent Smith from the Matrix (Hugo Weaving), who creates an army equipped with an all powerful weapon that is pretty much unstoppable. Now, of course, this is a superhero movie, so you really shouldn’t expect it to be that realistic. I don’t have any complaints about the plot, so let’s move on to something else.
Chris Evans was a strange choice when I originally heard about it. The only movies I’d watched him in were Fantastic Four and the Losers, and he was a pretty funny character in both those movies, but going on only those roles, I could not picture him as Captain America. The role is not very humorous at all; it required a lot more emotion and chest muscles than his previous films. Regardless of what I had originally thought, that doesn’t matter because I now realize how great he is for the role. He acted out the role well, and I’m glad I’ll be able to see him again as Captain America (if not in Captain America 2, then in the Avengers next summer). The girl with the lead role (Hayley Atwell) played her part, and though I didn’t find her to be the most attractive girl in a superhero movie, I enjoyed the scenes with her. Hugo Weaving did a good job as always, and the rest of the cast was good as well. Of course, you can’t expect the acting in a superhero movie (aside from Nolan’s Batman films) to be superb, but it was still a solid all around performance by the cast. Tommy Lee Jones served partly as the comedic relief in the film, and had a few funny lines (“That boy’s making me cry.”). Nonetheless, he still acted as well as he’s known for, and I’m glad he was in the movie.
The direction style is an interesting one, because besides the movie taking place in the 1940s and everything looking very retro and old fashioned as it did back then, the picture wasn’t the same as on most other movies. It’s similar to that of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, starring Angelina Jolie, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, so if you’ve seen that movie, then you’ll know what I am talking about. It gives the film an old and authentic sort of look and feel, which goes along with the timeline of the film. I’m not the greatest fan of these visuals, but they didn’t make the movie any better or worse. One thing that annoyed my slightly was the 3D. It was clearly post-converted and at certain times, the picture is blurry and you can see two lines instead of one. There’s one scene where the camera is scrolling over snowy mountains and they were blurry to the point that I wanted to take my 3D glasses off. Therefore, go watch the movie in 2D if you can. The 3D does add depth at certain points to make it look better, but the blurry points honestly make it not worth it for the extra $3. One other thing about the direction I’d like to point out is that I’m not too big of a fan on how some of scenes with Captain America fighting were filmed. I don’t like those scenes, in any movie, where the protagonist wins a fight, and then as he/she is walking away, there’s an explosion in the background, while they continue to walk away from the scene, in slow motion. There are some scenes in Captain America that are similar. He is either running from the scene or riding away with his bike through fire as the explosion is happening. I’ll give it more leeway because this is a comic book film and it’s filmed in more of a comic book style, but I really think directors should avoid filming scenes like that. It’s meant to look cool, but I find it to be more corny than cool.
Overall, the movie is very solid; no more and no less than what I expected it to be. That’s not necessarily a good thing, because Captain America was the most anticipated movie of the summer for a lot of people (of course, I mean guys). However, there is enough action and the movie should satisfy the majority of its fans and others who’ve yet to see the movie. It’s one of the best movies of the year, so far, and one of the better recent superhero movies.
Score: 8.4/10 (Not quite deserving of an 8.5, but close)
In my opinion 3D is a waste of time unless the movie was filmed in 3D. Post conversions always suck and 3D is just a gimmick these days to get us to pony up $3 more for an average product
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