This is the most difficult review I've done so far because I've had trouble figuring out exactly how I feel about this movie. Going into the summer, this was the superhero movie I was most excited about. I saw the potential in the other ones, but Captain America felt more personal to me. As one of my top 4 favorite comic book characters, I had very high standards for a movie based on the character. I wanted to be wowed. Was I? Honestly, I can't say I was. However, I do believe this was a good movie and a very solid introduction to the character.
Let's start with the negative. There really wasn't much with this movie that I disliked, just some things that I thought could have been stronger. I think my biggest disappointment was probably the action. It was decent, but I was hoping it would be very cool. Specifically, I thought Captain America's hand-to-hand combat could have been better. They placed a lot of emphasis on his strength, but I wish they would have showcased his agility more and used some more elaborate and creative fight choreography. Maybe just a little dose of well used slow-motion would have complimented things nicely.
Near the middle of the movie, there's a montage that shows Captain America and his team taking out HYDRA bases that represents a few years worth of fighting experience for Steve. I don't disagree with the decision to do a montage to show that time has passed and there was some decent action here. My gripe is that the montage features a range of medium length to very brief clips. There were some brief flashes of Cap fighting that, when seen in the trailers and tv spots, looked like they were a part of very big, cool action sequences, but in actuality were pretty much the entire segment of the montage. For example, I believe a scene that showed Captain America and his team running through the woods with explosions all around, gave many more people than just myself, the impression, that it was part of a big battle sequence. In the movie, it's really just a quick clip of them running before moving on to the next decent but brief action scene. For all X-men Origins: Wolverine's faults, I really liked the flow of the opening war montage the movie used. Its scenes were longer, more dramatic for the most part, and transitioned well. I'm not saying Captain America needed to copy its style exactly, but I believe something more similar to that would have been more effective.
(This isn't the original scene. It's fan edited with different music and the creator insert scenes from Saving Private Ryan. For the most part though, the montage footage is untouched so check it out to get a feel of what I'm talking about.)
Mild spoilers from this point on.
The final fight with Red Skull was probably the biggest disappointment regarding the movie's action. It was a pretty forgettable fight considering the fact that it was a battle between two super soldiers who happen to be arch nemeses. I'm no fight choreographer, but I think they could have done something more intense with it.
There were also a few scenes that stood out to me as out of place for being a little too stylistic. I really didn't like the look of the scene in which the backstory of the Res Skull was told. There were also some action scenes in the montage and the climax that didn't even look like they were trying to be realistic at all. I'm not talking about gritty realism. I mean that in the world of Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, while there's some intense CG going on, there's still a real looking world surrounding Iron Man as he fights Iron Monger or Hulk as he fights the army. Many scenes in Captain America stuck with this, while some had very artificial looking backgrounds. Compare the action sequence near the end with Captain America riding his motorcycle and being chased by the HYDRA soldiers to the scene that features Captain America running to catch up with the Red Skull's aircraft. They almost look like they're from two different movies.
My next complaint with the movie helps me to transition into what I liked about it. The simplest way to put it is that I wanted more. In regards to Captain America, IGN's Phil Pirrello says "Marvel's new movie is this close to being their best," and I really agree. If you've read my Green Lantern review, you know that I thought it was a very bad movie that could have been a great movie. I know it's potential because I know the source material and I've seen it adapted well into other mediums. For the most part, watching Green Lantern, it's not evident that the movie with its writing and creative direction could have been much better. Captain America is a good movie that I could tell when I was watching it, could have been incredible if (along with better action) the filmmakers gave us more of what they did well. And there were plenty of things they did very well.
It feels kind of like they made the best Captain America movie possible within some kind of mandated time limit. I loved the dynamic between Steve and Bucky. However, aside from the scene in which Steve recruits his team, we really weren't shown much between the two of them after the shift in their relationship in which Steve becomes the stronger of the two. I really enjoyed watching them together and I think another scene with more dialog between the two of them would have been nice.
There's a scene from the comics that I think would have worked well on several levels and would have fit well between the montage and the train scene. It features Captain America addressing a group of soldiers after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After the speech Bucky tells Steve how impressed he is impressed with his ability to give a speech to these men who have watched their friends die and really move them and raise their morale. Steve tells him that he has to be able to do this kind of thing because he's the only one of what was supposed to be an army of super soldiers and that, as Captain America, he feels he has to be good enough to make up for what should have been. I'd tweak the scene and close it out by having Bucky tell Steve that he doesn't have to carry the burden alone. "We're in this together. Just because you're a super soldier now doesn't mean I don't have you're back. I'll always have your back." I believe this scene would have helped the movie in several ways.
1) It shows Captain America giving a speech and inspiring soldiers.
2) It reveals to the audience the burden Steve feels by being a super soldier.
3) It provides another scene that displays the closeness between Steve and Bucky.
4) Bucky's final comments would have served as a great set-up for his 'death' scene.
While I really think this scene would have fit in well for this movie, there's still hope that it could be included in the flashbacks of a sequel that tells the Winter Soldier storyline. Fingers crossed.
I would have also liked to get more of a feel for Cap's team. They really just felt like background characters to me. It's difficult in a movie like this that's focused on one character to develop every character, so instead of trying to tell the story of each individual team member, maybe they could have just showed more of the team dynamic in combat and outside of it.
Relationship wise, they did a great job with the Steve Peggy romance. I honestly have no complaints at all there. It really felt like they were two people who deserved to find each other which is probably the saddest part about Steve being frozen. The final scene with them talking over the radio to each other was very well done and I believe their doomed romance is easily the best love story in any superhero movie this summer.
The acting was great all around. I have to give credit to Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci for bringing life to what could have been very forgettable roles. Hugo Weaving was sinister, but not too campy as the Red Skull. Sebastian Stan and Hayley Atwell were both very likeable as Bucky and Peggy respectively, but gosh. Chris Evans. Holy cow, he was good. I remember when news came out that he was being considered. I thought to myself, "Come on. Johnny Storm can't play Steve Rogers." For starters, it just seemed weird. It was also the fact that Chris seemed to be known for comedic, Johnny Storm type characters. Once he got the role, I checked him out in some of his more serious roles, and I thought "Ok. I think he might be able to pull this off." He didn't just pull it off, he owned it.
Chris's performance was great throughout, but what really impressed me was his ability to convincingly play the brave and noble little guy. It's easy to forget that Chris Evans was as big as super soldier Steve while shooting the scenes as skinny Steve. The effect of shrinking Chris Evans was very effective, although just a little bit inconsistent. It wouldn't have been believable, though, if Chris didn't do such a convincing job of playing the little guy and acting like he had a small, weak body.
Chris brought to life everything about Steve Rogers that was in the script (which did a good job of developing the character)and then some. As I mentioned earlier, I believe it would have greatly added to the movie to give more attention to the burden of being the super soldier. From the Captain America comics I have read, that burden along with his harrowing experiences during the war are very important aspects to the character of Steve Rogers. I saw that movie critic James Kendrick wrote that the movie was "about as good as we could expect it to be, if not more so given that its hero is certainly one of the blandest and least psychologically complex in the Marvel universe." Putting aside my annoyance and frustration that critics like this watch adaptations of comic books and assume they know the extent of the depth and complexity the source material has to offer, I must admit that the movie crafted a very good and likeable Steve Rogers who was a bit lacking in complexity. The nature of the story is that Steve starts off being a character with little to no internal flaws to overcome so the character journey over the course of the movie isn't exactly as interesting as some we've seen in the past such as Bruce Wayne's in Batman Begins or Peter Parker's in Spider-man. It's true to the character and I don't believe they needed to alter the starting point, but they really should have tapped into some of the character's comic book complexity to give Steve some bumps in the road on his journey that would have shown audiences not familiar with him that there is certainly more to the character. Since Captain America: The First Avenger leaves room for more of Steve's time in the war to be told through flashbacks, there's the potential for these aspects of his story to be explored in a sequel. The important thing is that Chris Evans succeeded in bringing Steve Rogers to life and I look forward to seeing him reprise this role in The Avengers and potential Captain America sequels.
In terms of the story, I have mixed feelings. I really like the origin story of Steve Rogers and I think they did a good job bringing it to the big screen. However, by being familiar with the story and knowing basic plot elements of the movie, there were very few surprises. I knew the beginning, I knew the end and figured out quite a bit of the middle. I imagine it was more impressive for some people unfamiliar with the story, but I still found it to be pretty enjoyable overall. Joe Johnston has often cited Raiders of The Lost Ark as one of his major influences in making this movie. In some respects, it really has that old school action adventure feel of movies like Raiders and Star Wars. If they had managed to deliver action that lived up to its potential and taken more time to explore some of the relationships and themes that they touched on, then I believe it's very possible the movie could have earned the right to be mentioned alongside The Dark Knight and Iron Man in the debate of the greatest super hero movie ever. Instead it seems content with being a pretty good movie that doesn't really push any boundaries, but helps to raise the standard of quality associated with superhero movies. I give it a B+.