Review of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) by Haroon S — 07 Aug 2016

"I could do this all day".

Captain America: The First Avenger is a jumbled yet glorious piece of USA propaganda.

We follow Steve Rodgers, a complete weakling set out on a path of looserhood, but he has a determination to fight. After some obstacles, he overcomes the barriers and turns into the famous Super Soldier himself.

So, as always what were the good parts? Chris Evans is impressively cast, he seems to nail the traditional and battle celebrity that Captain America is. He oozes confidence which acts well with the overall structural mishap, bolting through blandness like a torpedo. The action sets were relatively impressive. That's really all to say about the stand-out good aspects. The rest of Captain America? It's....ok.

This is not a bad film by any means. It is just perfectly messy enough to fit it's wildly patriotic character without the guts to seek for true emotion in wartime apart from a couple deaths and petty squabbles. Whenever this film should stick to something, it moves on to try and get our hero to the conclusive battle in the longest way possible without expanding deeply on the glaring or potentially extravagant, rich and sentimental motive that is standing right in front of us.

Overall, Captain America is to comic book films as to what a school laboratory is too NASA. It's over the top qualities are measured in cheesy dialogue moments and relentlessly annoying decisions instead of humour and explosive madness (which is what 'The Avengers' achieved with a comfortable ease). It is completely harmless, watchable and some sections initiate grins. You really like this character, but the movie surrounding it is a bit of an attempt to seem appealing without ever putting effort into the key moments.

Blimey, I hope Winter Soldier (the next film to watch before Civil War) AND Civil War blow me away, I want to SCREEEAM for this character, not 'woot woot' for him!

C+.

59/100.