Review of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) by Liam C — 28 Dec 2014

Captain America: The First Avenger is a very good movie that has quite a lot of unique elements that set it apart from other super hero flicks.

As is to be expected from Captain America, the origin to his character is very good and, like I said, unique. Where it takes place is very refreshing and how it all develops is interesting to watch. The overall story is good as well and it is all very watchable, the acting certainly helps, when you're dealing with people in blue suits in WWII, as sometimes things that work in print don't translate well to film, it could have gone bad very easily but with steady direction and everyone doing a great job, they pull it off. And his WWII costume always looked cool anyway.

Chris Evans does a good job and he plays his character well, you wouldn't know from watching this that he was Johnny Storm but, hey, that's what an actor is supposed to do and he pulls it off. Hugo Weaving was an interesting choice and does a good job as the villain, not to spoil it for the people who haven't watched it yet but his total commitment to something that, again, could go bad quite easily, is great. Everyone else does a good job and it was a joy to see Tommy Lee Jones in here, it just made me smile. It was also interesting to see a young Howard Stark in there. All of the characters are given good development, especially Steve and Peggy but Weaving's character might be debatable, even though some might argue he's 2D in wanting to destroy everything, I think it works in this as they explain in his backstory, it makes sense why he is the way he is.

One thing I have to mention is that the movie is very memorable, I saw it a few years ago and writing this in 2014, I have to say that I remembered quite a lot about it, which is always a positive of a movie. Before a few scenes happened I said to myself, 'oh I remember something like this, I think I know what's going to happen next', and I was very pleased with what I watched; it was nice to watch this again.

The movie looks great and the sets look even better as they are really detailed but some of the effects, mostly the ones at the start, look a little questionable and it is mostly when Steve is small, for obvious reasons. The movie also has some silly moments, one of which is the clichéd moment when someone aims a gun, that is not a rifle, on a target that's really far away and makes a perfect shot, it's nothing too bad but I did notice it, clearly. Some call the movie campy and while I don't agree as I think the comedy scenes work for what they were trying to do; the only complaint I have is that the bombs have names of where they are going to be dropped on them and that just seemed a little out of place but maybe they did that in WWII. Also, what happened to his suit? He goes from looking pretty cool in this one to looking pretty lame in 'The Avengers', I know it's the classic look, but still.

Captain America: The First Avenger is a very good movie that does right by its characters and is a very enjoyable watch. It goes at a great pace, develops everything smoothly and naturally and quite a lot happens in just under 2 hours, it's quite impressive. It's solid entertainment and does everything it sets out to do.