Review of Captain America (1990) by Cameron J — 18 Sep 2011

I'm a nerd, but I'm not a huge one. Still, this film will probably make anyone a nerd, because no matter who you are, you're gonna look at this and say "This is an offense to The First Avenger." Wow, calling him The First Avenger isn't helping my case that I'm not that much of a nerd. But seriously though, this film is an absolute mess, but, like all a lot of other widley-panned that I dread having to call passable, this isn't terrible. Lord knows that it's not good, but it's not an absolute pain. Again, like other widely-panned superhero films, this is just incompetent.

Sure, there are good things here, but not good enough to hold your interest. See, one of the worst things about this film is its being just so terribly dull. It's underdeveloped and messily told, with many abrupt events, usually thanks to such choppy editing. The cinematography is so bland, and the score is so underwhelming and generic, but at least better than the mainstream soundtrack that definately shows that no matter how much worse music has gotten, there's always been terrible songs hiding somewhere in each generation. Dialogue is so-so, but not snappy enough to forgive it's being very generic, as well. Really, I'm almost glad that they have the silly stuff, only because it is actually interesting. Of course, the reason why it's so interesting, is because you can't believe how stupid this "serious" film gets.

This is an utterly incompetent superhero film, but unlike other incompetent superhero films, it had potential and has the strengths needed to meet that potential. The production designs aren't terribly outstanding, but are still rather impressive for this small of a budget, which is more than you can say about the visual effects. The action is actually fairly good. A bit cheesy and dizzingly over-edited, but on the whole, pretty exciting and well-choreographed, with sharp sound to raise tension. Of course, action choreography isn't the only complement I can give to these performers, because with the exception of most of those wooden secondary and tertiary (look it up) villains, the acting in this is surprisingly decent. Leading man Matt Silinger boasts charisma and a strong atmosphere and Scott Paulin's slickness make him an effective villain, and when these two work off of each other, it's electric, or at least it would have been if their characters weren't written so badly. Here we have two competent actors giving good lead performances, but there's so much incompetence in the direction and writing behind them, that it dilutes their strong performances and presence to where they become just as generic as everything else in this.

Overall, it boasts a promising concept, carried by surprisingly strong leads, but with generecism, messy storytelling and general blandness, Albert Pyun (His name sounds like the bullet I'm sure everyone wants to here darting towards his head) "Captain America" stands as nothing more than an utterly forgettable waste of potential.