Four down, this makes five!
Now, as I said in the original Avengers Week post – I wasn’t really looking forward to this one. Captain America, eh? First of all, he’s too much of a goody-two-shoes. There’s no killer edge to him, and no real mystery. He’s an open book, and wears his red, white and blue heart on his sleeve. Also, he’s very… American. And I’m not. That’s not to say I cannot be a fan of anything that isn’t British, far from it, I’m just not as enamoured with stars and/or stripes as Americans are.
However – I really enjoyed this film!
Getting to see the plucky pre-Captain Steve Rogers was a very good move, it really made me empathise with the character. The special effects were also very well done – I didn’t see any of the glue they used when sticking Chris Evans’ head on a skinny actor. I thought he’d be sent off to war straight away after his augmentation, but was pleasantly amused that he was not. Instead of fighting Nazi bad guys, he was sent to various American states and used as propaganda. This comprised of the original Captain America costume from the comics (which, lets be honest, is the most ill-suited to a live-action movie of all these Avengers films), and an absolutely super Captain America “Star Spangled Man” song. When he was eventually sent to the front-lines, it was still as a role model, a symbol, rather than a soldier. Of course, the real soldiers think Cap is a doofus, and they hurt his feelings, which makes him want to go and punch evil Nazi dudes even more. So he does.
It was pretty good how they integrated Bucky into the story. In the comics he was Cap’s young side-kick, but in this film he is skinny Steve’s friend. After being powered-up, Steve still very much values his friendship with Bucky, but never calls him a side-kick, even though Captain America is a hundred times more powerful than him. Hugo Weaving was superb as the utterly insane Red Skull – although I liked how he didn’t very much appreciate being called “The Red Skull”. It was also pretty funny when the Red Skull took a little glance at one of his monitors, saw Captain America destroying his goons, and calmly proclaimed that his forces are outmatched and begins the self-destruct…
I can’t really not mention the most iconic part of Captain America – his Shield. Being that the character is about defending the weak rather than defeating the strong, a shield is a perfect accessory – It even had it’s own unique sound effects! His choosing of the most basic shield was another nod to his humble character. Overall it was a decent story, and one that actually had me caring for someone I really had no intention of caring about before I started watching it. I also noticed that the film kinda looks old-fashioned. It’s quite muted and drab, sepia almost, further heightening that it happened in the past. Compared to how bright and colourful it becomes when Cap wakes up in modern day New York, it’s a nice touch.
Next up – the big one!
