On the eve of the Avengers, it would only make sense to view the First Avenger last. Today I am watching "Captain America", the last Marvel film leading to the Avengers. The most recent of the Marvel films, I ended up seeing this movie in theaters a total of three times. Was all of that money worth it? After seeing it again, the answer is a resounding yes, even though the good captain does have his flaws.
First off, let me do an overview of the cast. I have to give tremendous props to Chris Evans. He is the only actor I know who embodies two iconic Marvel superheroes perfectly. He was one of the only redeeming factors of the Fantastic Four films as the Human Torch, and here he does an even better job as Steve Rogers. What I love about Evans is that he completely surprised me in how much he nailed this role. His Human Torch had a massive ego, but his Steve Rogers is a meek, humble man who simply wants to do right by his country. The CGI used to plant Evans' head on a skinny body is so-so, but it's still a decent effect, and Evans' portrayal sells the character in his transition from skinny to buffed up muscleman. Even when a superhero, he's the same humble guy we knew pre-serum, and everything that he did reminded me so much of the Cap from the comics I couldn't help but smile.
The other cast members do an exceptional job of occupying the film with real people. Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter is, without a doubt, the strongest of Marvel's love interests. Her romance with Steve feels 100% real, and it was developed at a great pace to make it seem genuine. When Steve sacrifices himself at the end, you could really see the tragedy in her eyes. It's heart wrenching when Steve comes out of stasis after 70 years and realizes he's missed his date. Tommy Lee Jones plays the same gruff character he always plays as Colonel Chester Phillips, but he's given some of the films' best lines. He was a delight to see on screen. Sebastian Stan plays an admirable Bucky Barnes who is very different from the kid sidekick we know from the comics, but his portrayal here (and ultimate fate) seem more like a set-up for the Winter Soldier in the sequel. More on that later.
Dominic Cooper is good as Howard Stark, Tony's father, who designs Cap's costume and shield. He looks and acts just like Tony, which just goes to prove that these traits run in the family. I also really enjoyed Stanley Tucci as the serum's creator, Dr. Abraham Erskine. He was both hilarious and wise, a perfect mentor for Steve. Finally, there's the matter of the villain. Hugo Weaving, best known for his Matrix role as Agent Smith, here plays The Red Skull, Cap's archenemy. He's effective in the role, and plays it well, but at times comes off as a little over the top. Still, he embodied the Red Skull from the comics in a lot of ways, what with being obsessed with power and obtaining the cosmic cube. His interactions with Cap made me see the irony of their situation: Skull sees himself as a superior, Aryan man, yet he's been demonized with what happened to his face. Cap, on the other hand, is the perfect embodiment of the Aryan man Hitler was looking for, and so Skull is jealous that Cap has everything that he desires. It was an interesting dynamic that I thought enriched the way the characters talked with each other, and added a level of depth to their rivalry.
Now that the cast is out of the way, how about the story? Joe Johnston, who's directed works like "The Rocketeer", really makes Cap feel like an authentic period piece. It's certainly the most interesting of the Marvel films, solely because of it's WWII setting. Not only does Johnston make the sets look real and the characters seem real, but Alan Silvestri's magnificent score certainly helps preserve that nostalgic feeling. Cap feels like a '40s adventure serial, similar in vein to "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and it was an aspect of the film that I really enjoyed.
The story itself is your standard superhero origin, but I felt it was fresh simply due to the WWII atmosphere and, oddly enough, the amount of interest invested in the character of Rogers before his transformation. We really get a chance to understand who this guy is, so when he gets beefed up, we root for him even more. Because of this, the first half of the film really shines, with great set-up and character interaction plus two great set pieces involving Cap's chasing of a spy in New York and his assault on the HYDRA facility. Unfortunately, in this repeat viewing I came to notice that there were some flaws that creep into the film starting in the second half.
Once Cap gets his costume and shield, the film rushes through a poorly edited montage of him and his Howling Commandos blowing up more HYDRA bases. While I'm fine with the concept of a montage, as it certainly helps progress the passage of time and allows Cap to come into his own as a soldier, I felt that more emphasis should have been given to those scenes in order to get a feel of the kind of missions Cap went into. We barely get any character interaction between him and his team, even less so for Bucky, who in the comics was his sidekick and here is presented as his best friend. While audiences might not pick up on this, Bucky's later scenes seem to be set up for the Winter Soldier arc, where Bucky becomes a super soldier for the Soviet Union during the Cold War after being found frozen and eventually thawed out to confront Cap in modern day.
While that is an excellent arc that I hope gets adapted into a solo Cap sequel, the way this war montage played out never emphasized how close Cap and Bucky are. As a result, when Bucky is "killed", we feel absolutely nothing, which would undermine a Winter Soldier arc if and when it comes. Comic fans will know he survives, but regular audiences won't care. The scene just comes off as rushed, so Bucky's death has little impact. The fact that neither Bucky's death nor the montage carry dramatic weight was a big problem for me. Once again, as in Iron Man 2 and Thor, we see how the race to the climax creates missed opportunities for the story and characters to develop naturally.
Now it could be argued, as in the way Bucky was presented, that the montage was filmed as is so that we can return Cap to WWII in flashback scenes for sequels, which would flesh out his friendship with Bucky and wouldn't sever Cap completely from his wartime roots. While this does make sense, I would think that a longer, better edited montage would have allowed for this objective while simultaneously offering more action and development for Cap, Bucky and the Commandos. Besides the montage issues, the final battle with Red Skull seems anticlimactic (like the Whiplash fight it runs too short), but the emotional turmoil that Cap and Peggy go through in their last moments before the plane crashes makes up for it. The modern day bookend scenes do a great job of setting up for the Avengers, but like I mentioned earlier they're also tainted by the tragedy of Cap's realization that he'll never see Peggy again. This does wonders for his emotional arc, and sets up the fish-out-of-water angle for Cap in the Avengers that forms a key part of his character in the comics.
As to the other Avengers easter eggs (because this is a Marvel film, after all), the Cosmic Cube and Howard Stark are more than enough to provide set up. It is no coincidence that the HYDRA weapons sounded like Iron Man's repulsors firing. It's heavily implied that the new element Tony discovers in Iron Man 2 comes from the Cosmic Cube, and the reference to the Cube as "the jewel of Odin's treasure room" plus the Bifrost effect it does to the Red Skull tie the artifact into Thor. There are obviously huge plans for the Cube in the Avengers (as evidenced by Thor's own credits scene) and I can't wait to see them. Plus, it also gives hope that the Red Skull is alive in one of the Nine Realms, which is an exciting possibility for sequels. Then of course is the credits scene, a lead in to a small trailer for the Avengers film itself. I freaked out when I saw this in theaters, and even on blu-ray, a day before the release, that teaser still gives me the jitters.
And now that I have taken all of the pluses and minuses into account, I must ask what my final verdict on Captain America is. Personally, I think it's a great comic book film, whose excellent cast and WWII setting make the film feel fresh and give it the unique opportunity to be both a standalone picture as well as Avengers set-up. Yes, the second half feels too rushed, so the story doesn't get a chance to develop as well as I hoped, but there is plenty of leeway for development in sequels, and the characters still make me invested in what happens. And, unlike Thor, the montage, no matter how poorly edited it is, does give the film the opportunity to present the passage of time in a manner that allows the characters to grow. Like I said, this has the best romance out of all the Marvel films, given greater weight by its tragic ending. If I had to rank all five Marvel films right now, Captain America would be a step below Iron Man but above The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man 2. The characters are sharp, the story feels genuine (if sometimes rushed) and the ending is perfect.
This concludes my first series of retro reviews. The larger picture of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is now clear, but having all these pieces raises just as many questions as it answers. The Avengers is the last piece of the puzzle, and I look forward to seeing it tomorrow now that I have a full understanding of the story up to this point. I shall post my review of the Avengers once I have seen it, so as to end my journey through the Marvel Cinematic Universe in proper fashion.
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