Reviews: Captain America: The First Avenger

                  Captain America: The First Avengers is probably the best film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the grandest in scope, the most complete in its storyline, and contains some of the most thrilling action sequences of the whole series. It’s a war movie, superhero film, and old-fashioned adventure story all wrapped up in a surprisingly epic storyline.

                  We start off (following a brief opening in the modern-day arctic) in Norway, 1942, where Nazi Agent Johan Schmidt AKA the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving, channeling Werner Herzog) is searching for the Tesseract: a glowing Cube containing unlimited power (“And the Fuehrer digs for trinkets in the desert…”). Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, we meet 97-pound asthmatic Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in a movie theater, telling off an obnoxious jerk for jeering at a patriotic newsreel. He takes a beating for his troubles, but is saved by his best friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), who has one night left before he leaves to serve in Europe, which he and Steve spend at a fair showcasing future technologies being developed by Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper, looking very much like a younger John Slattery). Steve, we learn has applied for enlistment at least five times in different cities and been classified 4-F every time. “There are men laying down their lives,” he says. “I’ve got no right to do any less than them.” Taking advantage of an enlistment booth at the fair, he tries again, but this time he catches the eye of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who believes that Steve has exactly the qualities he needs for a special project.

                  Recruited under Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones, effortlessly stealing every scene he’s in) and British agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Rogers is chosen to participate in a new super-soldier program; a technique developed by Erskine that supposedly will turn even skinny little Rogers into the peak of human perfection. The technique is a success, but a Nazi agent infiltrates the facility, kills Erskine, and destroys the equipment, leaving Rogers as America’s only super-soldier. With Phillips unable to find much use for a single such solider, Rogers is sidelined into a USO act. Until, that is, he discovers during a tour in Italy that Bucky had been captured, together with a good part of his unit. With Carter and Stark’s help, he conducts a daring raid behind enemy lines to rescue the prisoners, in the process coming face-to-horribly-scarred-face with Schmidt, who by now has split off from the Nazis to form his own cult-like group organization known as HYDRA.

                  Having demonstrated his potential, “Captain America” (named after the character he played in the USO shows) is equipped with a new, bullet-proof circular shield and given command of an elite commando unit tasked with finding and destroying HYDRA installations, while Schmidt perfects his plans for world domination…

                  The above is a very cursory summary: there is a LOT going on here. That doesn’t mean it’s an overstuffed tangle like Iron Man 2, however: it just means that the film covers a lot of story over its running time. We follow Steve Rogers all the way from his recruitment, through basic training, the super-soldier procedure, the USO, his raid on HYDRA, then finally his emergence as Captain America. As such, the film can feel like it’s taking a long time to really get going, though its almost never boring.

                  As the final film before The Avengers there’s a kind of micro-tour of the MCU woven seamlessly into the storyline. We have Howard Stark representing the Iron Man films (and reminding us more than a little of his future offspring), while the super-soldier procedure itself is recognizable as a more perfected version of what Blonsky went through in The Incredible Hulk (a reference to ‘vita rays’ during the procedure, meanwhile, is a nod to Bruce Banner’s unwitting attempt to recreate the procedure). Meanwhile the Red Skull’s weapons and technology are all powered by the Tesseract (or Cosmic Cube as fans call it), which he describes as “The jewel of Odin’s throne room” and which made a brief appearance in Thor. Yggdrasil is referenced at one point and even makes a brief appearance at the climax. These elements are so well woven into the storyline that I honestly didn’t even register most of them until this last viewing.

                  But Captain America isn’t just a preparatory film for The Avengers; it’s its own story, the story of Steve Rogers, a skinny boy from Brooklyn who desperately wanted to serve his country and winds up becoming one of its biggest heroes. It’s a story the film tells very well, particularly considering how much ground it has to cover. Unlike the tangled Iron Man 2 or the multi-world, character, and plotline Thor, Captain America is a very straightforward film for all its epic scope. There is Captain America and there is the Red Skull: the only two super-soldiers in the world. Red Skull wants to conquer/destroy the world, Captain America wants to defend his country/the world. That’s really the extent of the plot at its most basic form, and the film greatly benefits from its focused storyline: an attempt to juggle too much would have been fatal.

                  This is the first film in the series that has too many action scenes to do my usual run-down: there’s Cap’s introductory chase of a HYDRA agent through the streets of Brooklyn, his raid on the HYDRA facility, a montage of he and his men attacking HYDRA plants, and the climactic battle aboard a giant flying wing bound for New York. Those are just the major ones, there are others scattered throughout. This is the most action-packed film of the MCU. The action itself is frenetic, well choreographed, and as exciting as any you’ll ever see. There’s tremendous creativity throughout, in the HYDRA weapons, in the way the fights play out, in Cap’s applications of his powers and, once he gets it, his trademark circular shield, which is a seriously cool weapon for all its simplicity. The climactic confrontation between Cap and Red Skull is, I would say, one of the best, if not the best, villain-hero showdowns in the entire series; it’s only possible rival being the Hulk-Abomination battle. But even that, outsized and brutal as it was, didn’t have the same sense of climax, of two nemeses having their epic final meeting that this one does.

                  The film’s primary strength is its protagonist: Steve Rogers, who is that rarest of cinematic beasts, the genuinely good person. He’s polite, brave, empathetic, noble, a born leader, and almost painfully self-sacrificing. Rogers is exactly the person you would want as your country’s hero, the epitome of everything good about America. He sets out to do his duty and lets nothing stand in the way of his doing it, even if it costs him everything.

                  Likeable as Bruce Banner was, noble and brave as Thor was, and well-intentioned as Tony Stark was, Steve Rogers bests them all in the hero department. He’s quite simply the most heroic superhero yet on screen…possibly ever. I can’t recall a single superhero who makes a comparable sacrifice, in cold blood, that Cap makes here, a move that, far from being a last-minute development or isolated incident, is exactly what we have come to expect of Captain America.

                  Chris Evans really surprised me in this film. I had only seen him previously in the awful Fantastic Four, wherein he was the very worst thing about a very bad movie. Here, though, he couldn’t be more different. He inhabits the role of Cap as though born to play it, coming across as earnest, polite, and good-hearted as you could wish for. Not only that, but his acting is really quite good, measured and moderately reserved, as though he is disciplined enough to hold back his feelings when necessary, but not so much that we can’t see and understand what he is feeling. Cap is our best hero yet, and much of the credit for making him so must go to Evans.

                  He’s well matched in Hugo Weaving, who takes to his roll with much scenery-chewing gusto. He’s the most ‘pure’ villain we’ve had so far: he’s not complex, he doesn’t have a deteriorating character arc, he’s just a crazed Nazi with a red head and a god complex trying to take over the world. And you know what? That’s all he needs to be. Weaving is a delight to watch as he hams it up for all to see, while still maintaining a definite air of menace and cruel genius. He’s fun, but he’s still a very credible threat to our hero. I’d place him just behind Loki as the second-best villain in the MCU.

                  The makeup that creates the Red Skull is surprisingly effective: at first glance it appears rubbery and fake, but once he starts speaking it isn’t long before we grow accustomed to it. It’s certainly a vivid image, his blood red, skull-like visage rising out from the black leather SS Uniform, like some inhuman demon.

                  Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter gives some surprisingly good support to Evans. Their relationship and inevitable romance progresses gracefully and believably, though for the viewer it’s rather sad to watch as we know that it’s doomed from the start to be cut short. Atwell also does a pretty good job of portraying a strong, tough woman: almost a precursor to Black Widow. She has a number of very good moments, as when she pegs a driver from city-block away, or when she enacts her frustration with Rogers in an impromptu test of his shield’s durability. She’s a likeable, self-possessed character whom we could easily see ending up with Rogers, had things gone differently.                   

                  Sebastian Stan, meanwhile, is likewise a strong supporting character, and his friendship with Steve is portrayed with care and feeling. The two obviously care for each other and feel like they’ve got each other’s backs (literally in a couple of scenes). For all that Bucky doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time, he makes a surprisingly strong impression. He also gets a number of very funny lines (seeing the Red Skull for the first time he nervously asks Steve “You don’t have one of those, do you?”). 

                  Dominic Cooper, as noted, does a good job of both matching the Howard Stark character we met in Iron Man 2 and letting us see just where Tony got his attitude from. I am glad, however, that while Stark is obviously his son’s father, he isn’t the same person: he comes across as more well-adjusted and less neurotic, as though he lacks the personal demons that plague Tony.

                  Stanley Tucci is quietly enlightened and kind as Dr. Erskine, and makes the most of his relatively short role. He and Steve make a believable connecting during their brief time together, and we can see how much Erskine’s death affects Steve. His best moment is a brief speech he gives describing how Hitler came to power, noting “people forget that the first country the Nazi’s invaded was their own.”

                  Tommy Lee Jones, as noted, just oozes charisma as Col. Chester Phillips, effortlessly dominating every scene he’s in and getting some of the very best lines in the film. Jones is an actor cut from a different cloth than most of his co-stars; an older, more rugged generation, and had he been allowed more screen time would probably have dominated the entire film. As it is, he’s merely a welcome presence and another piece of the movie’s quality.

                  Other roles include Toby Jones as the diminutive, amoral Dr. Arnim Zola, Red Skull’s right hand man and chief scientist, who seems constantly out of his depth amid the guns and explosives he himself invented (he even makes this point directly to Red Skull at one point, complaining that “I only make the weapons: I cannot fire them!”). Then there’s the rag-tag band of commandos Captain America assembles (Neal McGonough, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, JJ Field, and Bruno Ricci), none of whom, unfortunately, have the time to become actual characters. Samuel L. Jackson, meanwhile, makes another cameo as Nick Fury, this time showcasing a more sympathetic side than he has in the past.

                  Effects wise, the film is typically good: not groundbreaking, but serviceable. The best effect in the movie, oddly enough, is the pre-super-soldier Steve Rogers, who is created by grafting Chris Evan’s head onto a short, skinny frame. The effect is startlingly persuasive, with only a few scenes where it doesn’t quite work, but even these are really only visible if you are looking for them. On the other end of the spectrum, the one effect that doesn’t really work is the fair at the beginning, which looks a little too much like a blue-screen effect (ironically enough, as only yesterday I was praising Thor for so persuasively placing its characters into much more fantastic and strange worlds than a 1942 New York fairground). 

Most of all, the movie is fun. Sheer, unapologetic fun: the closest anyone has come to recapturing the spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark since…well, Raiders of the Lost Ark. The filmmakers just take the idea of Nazi superweaponry and run with it, giving us laser guns, laser tanks, massive two-turret tanks, helicopter-jet machines, and, most impressive of all, an enormous flying wing that serves as the setting for the climax. The movie knows that a rag-tag band of soldiers running around Europe blowing up Nazi installations while riding motorcycles and outwitting snipers is an almost fail-proof recipe for a good time at the movies.                 

                  At the same time, though, the film doesn’t shy away from harsher realities. There are a surprising number of deaths among the heroes, more so, I believe, than in any of the previous films (let’s see, we’ve had Yinsen, and…uh…). This makes sense, of course, since it is a war movie, even though it’s a comparatively light-hearted, comic-book war movie. Still, there are deaths, and we are allowed to feel the impact of those deaths on our remaining heroes.

In terms of flaws, one of the most notable is that, as noted, the movie feels like it takes too long to get to what we really want to see; Captain America fighting Nazis (HYDRA). While I appreciate the filmmakers for taking their time and trying to craft a coherent and emotionally resonant story, I wish they had found a way to do so without eating up so much running time. In particular, I thought the USO sequence went on much longer than it needed to.

The vast amount of story to cover likewise occasionally overwhelms, making one feel like there is simply too much here for one movie and that it easily could have been split into at least too. It’s easy enough to follow, and as I mentioned it’s an enjoyable ride, but its also more than a little overwhelming.

 I’m not entirely sure how I feel about splitting HYDRA off into its own organization as distinct from the Nazis. While it retains many of the Nazi trappings (storm-troopers, SS style outfits), it spoils a bit of the ‘America vs. Nazis’ fun, and besides it just feels a little weird: were they worried about the Nazi anti-defamation league or something? On the other hand, it allows Red Skull more room to maneuver and become an existential threat without us wondering why the Nazis aren’t using this technology on the front lines.

Another aspect about that decision, the one that makes me feel most reconciled to it is this; whenever superheroes are shown fighting WWII, there’s a somewhat problematic implication that they are the only reason the Allies won, which is a little bit of a snub to the real-life heroes who actually fought the war and gave their lives to stop two of the most evil empires in history. By shifting its focus to HYDRA, the film neatly sidesteps the issue, allowing Cap to save the world without overshadowing the men who actually did.

The biggest problem for me is that Captain America isn’t allowed to evince much patriotic fervor. Steve makes a couple of references to ‘serving my country,’ but he never is given the chance to talk about why he thinks his country is worth serving. He never really gets the chance to say anything about America, or being an American, or what either means to him. In short, Cap just isn’t allowed to be as patriotic as he ought to be. A brief line during the climactic battle goes some way towards rectifying this situation, but it’s not quite enough to remove the sensation that the filmmakers were uncomfortable with the whole idea of a patriotic superhero. It’s not a huge problem, and your mileage will vary on how much it bothers you, but it’s annoying and definitely takes away from the experience.
           On the other hand, Americana is evident throughout the film's design: from the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty in the background of New York to the star-spangled costumes of the USO girls, to the Norman Rockwell-style red, white, and blue credits. Along the way, it manages to fit in trips to the movies, fairs demonstrating new and exciting technology, Army life, ginger-haired kids who of course know how to swim, New York taxis, and baseball. On the other hand again, would it really have been that difficult to fit "The Star Spangled Banner" into a Captain America movie, even briefly?

                  But, as you may have gathered, these are pretty minor flaws. Captain America is the best film of the MCU to date; fast-paced, exciting, funny, and creative. It’s got humor, action, romance, superpowers, weird advanced technology, and a deformed Nazi for the villain: what more could you want?

Final rating: 4.5/5. Recommended to pretty much anyone who doesn’t have an aversion to superhero/fantasy films in general.

Memorable quotes:

Recruit: (reading a newspaper) “A lot of guys getting killed over there. Kinda makes you think twice about enlisting, huh?”

Steve Rogers: “Nope.”

Dr. Erskine: “Do you want to kill Nazis?”

Steve: “I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t like bullies, I don’t care where they’re from.”

Captain America: “I thought you were dead.”

Bucky: “I thought you were smaller.”

(Regarding Steve’s transformation)

Bucky: “What happened to you?”

Steve: “I joined the Army.”

Col. Chester Phillips: “If you have anything to say, now would be a perfect time to keep it to yourself.”

Red Skull: “Captain America! How exciting! I am a great fan of your films!”

(Investigating a tiny piece of the Tesseract)

Howard Stark: “Hard to see what all the fuss is about…”

(The piece explodes, blasting him back and destroying the test chamber)

Howard Stark: “Write that down!”

HYDRA soldier: “I am sorry Herr Schmidt! We fought to the last man!”

Red Skull: “Evidently not.”

(Shoots him)

Red Skull: “What makes you so special?”

Captain America: “Nothing. I’m just a kid from Brooklyn.”

(Red Skull hits him repeatedly)

Captain America: “I could do this all day!”

Red Skull: “Oh, I know you could, but I, unfortunately, am on a tight schedule…”

(Pulls out his gun to shoot him)

HYDRA Soldier: “Cut off one head, two more…”

(Phillips shoots him)

Phillips: “Let’s go find two more!”

(Cap is about to jump onto the flying wing)

Peggy Carter: “Wait!”

(She kisses him)

Peggy: “Go get him!”

(Stunned by the kiss, Cap looks over at Col. Phillips)

Phillips: “I’m not kissing you!”

Red Skull: “I have seen the future, Captain! There are no flags!”

Captain America: “Not my future!”