Captain America: The First Avenger
Any doubt that I had in this movie makes me hang my head in shame.
In short it was perfect. It was just a great movie. And as good as if not better than Thor. Although instead of just saying that it's better than Thor I'd say it was different and they where both nigh perfect movies.
Now lets concentrate on the performances of the characters:
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark: I thought is portrayal of Tony Stark's Dad was nothing short of brilliant. He fleshed out a character which was in other films but didn't have much to do, and made the character interesting. Plus you find out where Tony got his funny side...
Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips: He was a really good character too. While he wasn't much in the comics, he makes him a bigger and more influential character in Cap's life.
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes: As his comic counterpart was of course much younger in the comics, I wasn't sure what to make him being the same age as Steve when I first heard it. I thought they would make him more in his teens or so, but in this case I'm glad they made him older. He played this part very well and the same sort of devotion in the comics is in the film, which in my opinion, is all that matters anyway.
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter: She plays one of the most convincing love interests in Marvel movies. While I liked all the love stories in Marvel movies as of yet, this one was really special and I nearly cried at the end. It's too bad they probably won't have her as Sharon Carter. Still I'll see wait and see what the new girl which plays Sharon will do with the role.
Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull: Yes, he has a German accent and one of the best villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I personally liked Loki's the best, but Hugo does a great job as this villain. The only problem that I thought was his Red Skull face. The look was perfect but I felt that it should have been so shiny, had more of a matted look, more like actual skin. Maybe they could fix this in the DVD release... still in my opinion it wasn't much, but I felt it was just a bit off.
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America: Now here is where I really hang my head in shame. When the first cast Chris as Steve, I was one of the ones that said this was going to be terrible. But he proved me totally wrong. He was great! In fact he is Captain America, or should I more say Steve Rogers? He plays this very good man perfectly, making him interesting, and 3 dimensional character. He was perfect. I'm sooooooo sorry Chris for ever doubting you.
Not to skip other great characters such as the Howling Commandos, but I can't make this review go on forever. But in short everyone in the film was perfect, and did a great job in all their parts. There was no unneeded characters in this film. None of the scenes where really out of place or unneeded, even the USO scene served it's purpose and showed us why they changed the suit from the spandex version. So this movie is just plain awesome. A must see.
It's is up there with the best comic book movies of all time, a great movie and a nigh perfect comic book movie.
I give it 8/10 stars.
Thor
Now I'm going to review Thor since last time I forgot about reviewing it.
So we all know the story so I'm not going to go into it. I'm going to concentrate on the performances.
Anthony Hopkins as Odin: In short he's great. He makes you believe he is the king of the cosmos, and arguably one of the most powerful beings in the universe. He sees his son Thor as doing some of the same mistakes he has made as he is just like him, and so is more harsh on him. But on the flip side he doesn't understand Loki as he isn't anything like him. I think with Thor, Odin always had love, but with Loki it was more pity than love, although he does love him to some degree he seems more to pity him than to love him.
Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig: I have been honestly wondering about this role. I have been trying to research the character but found no luck with it but he reminds me of someone in the comics I just don't know who. Still even if he's just a new character he is an interesting one and while I felt the film could have done with out a new character still he at least was an interesting one.
Natalie Portman as Jane Foster: I really liked her in this role. She was irresistibly cute at all times and I liked it that she is willing to accept something she doesn't understand, unlike other characters in the film. I didn't like that she wasn't a nurse like in the comics, but it wasn't a big thing to me and I over look this minor detail. I hope that they say in the next movie that she worked as a nurse at one time just so it is more faithful to the comics.
Tom Hiddleston as Loki: Okay, to me he was more faithful to this role than even the Joker in The Dark Knight. He is Loki. Even in almost every scene he looks like he directly lifted his performance off of the comic pages. But even more than that he made this character develop. He wasn't only playing the character he was the character at all times feeling and showing the emotion of the character to the audience. I can't say enough about him.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor: Chris like Tom, seemed to lift his performance off of the pages of the comics. He was amazing in this role. He showed his arrogance, humility, sacrifice, and most of all his courage. He made it easy to see why a girl would fall in love with this other worldly being. His performance was incredible, like Robert Dowey Jr as Iron Man, Christ Hemsworth is Thor.
Not to bring down any other performances but due to lack of time everyone played their parts beautifully. I personally wish we could have had more of The Warriors Three and Sif but still I enjoyed every second of what we did get. I thought that the leaked script had some parts which had them in it that should have made the films final cut. Also Heimdall was a very good character, and I didn't mind the change of race from the comics, seriously though you can't hardly tell as his suit covers almost everything except a bit of his face! Darcy is the only character who really shouldn't have been in the movie, she was okay, and I understand her being needed for comedy but I would have preferred if she wasn't in it and they did the comedy in some other way. Agent Coulson is still one of my favorite new characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and he plays quite a bit more in this movie than in previous roles, which I liked.
All in all Thor is a near perfect comic book movie and a great movie. It seems to have taken all the things I didn't like from the comics out, and kept all the good things.
I give it 8/10 stars.
Bring on The Avengers!
Thor will hit DVD September 27th! Captain America: The First Avenger is in theaters now! And The Avengers assembles in to theaters May 4th 2012!