America’s shield wielding hero is back on the big screen. Marvel’s Captain America is set to continue the summer Avenger trend. So, will this movie shield bash you in the face or will it avenge previous movie efforts of the franchise?
The Good
Chris Evans: Captain America was the perfect fit for Evans. His portrayal of Steve Rogers is spot on and it’s hard to picture someone else taking his place.
CG Steve Rogers: Before becoming Captain America, Steve Rogers is a wimpy fellow that tries to make his way into the army to serve his country. What’s amazing is how they managed to incorporate Evan’s face onto a different body for the role. There are a few moments where it may seem a bit odd, but overall you really believe that it is Evans right there as the skinny soon to be Captain America.
Tommy Lee Jones: Jones manages to add his own set of character to the movie. He plays a grumpy old know it all Army Colonel that pushes others around. His role really fits in well with the movie and he has some funny one-liners.
Stan Lee’s Cameo: In typical Marvel fashion, Stan Lee makes an appearance in the movie. His appearance is sudden, but also hilarious.
Howard Stark’s role: As Tony Stark’s father his role in Captain America plays out as a key tie in to all the differing Marvel universes. The tie-ins that the recent Marvel comic book movies have been doing are enjoyable to fans and it brings both continuity and depth to the franchises. Additionally, Howard Stark fits perfectly into the mix as he plays as a supportive yet additionally humorous character.
Choreography: The action scenes are impressive and you believe that captain America can take on a bunch of soldiers with just his bare hands and a shield.
The Bad
Montages: There are two montages in the movie that feel like a slap in the face. The first montage involves a 40s like dance sing along promoting the war. From the very beginning of the scenario you will see Captain America’s face cringe. If you had a mirror, your face, along with the entire audience would have a look on their face that says “get on with it!”
The second montage is bearable since it isn’t annoying. The montage basically consists of various actions against Hydra, which isn’t bad, but they just threw it at you to fill a gap as fast as they could. It felt like they didn’t know how to budget their time well enough for the movie so instead they just slap you with a series of scenes to play catch up with the audience.
Ending Credits: The ending credits slaps you with the same music from the first montage with the 40s War promotion. This wouldn’t be as annoying if you just walked out of the theater, but you need to stay to see the trailer for the upcoming Avengers movie in May as well as the extra scene after the credits. Fortunately, the next song they play has nothing to do with that whole montage scene, but you will find yourself along with the entire audience face palming until it ends.
Conclusion
Captain America is a decent super hero movie and if you’re a comic book fan it should be on your list of must see films this summer. Unfortunately, there are some annoying moments as well as areas that skip around in order to make up for time constraints. Fortunately, it all comes together with Chris Evans excellent portrayal of Steve Rogers and the assistance of the superb supporting cast. Overall, Captain America delivers a solid experience with a cliffhanger that leaves fans wanting more from the film. It seems that Captain America fans will just have to wait for the Avenger movie in 2012 for more.
Captain America Movie Review by FacTor-X and XMACHINE9000
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I loved the War Bonds montage. It was funny and it looked like Chris Evans was having a lot of fun with it. It had to be a montage to keep the pace of the moving going. They couldn’t spend too long on it as it would have completely killed the flow of the movie. Same with the Hydra montage. They could have spent more time on it, but without making the movie super long there wasn’t much choice they had to make Cap and Howling Commandos seem like a credible threat to Hydra and make their actions look like they had an impact. Cap is just over 2 hours long and I honestly can’t think of a single part that could have been cut to extend the montages.
I’m disappointed that you didn’t mention how good Sebastian Stan (Bucky) and Hugo Weaving were in the movie. Weaving is always a great actor, but he really captured who Red Skull is and managed to make him resemble his comic book counterpart and not make it cheesy or unbelievable. Stan took what could have been a bit role and did a great job. Readers of Cap comics know that Bucky plays a HUGE part in Cap’s life so I was expecting them to go a totally different route with the character. I won’t spoil what becomes of Bucky in the comics, but let’s just say I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.
I mentioned that the supporting cast was superb at the end. I am unfamiliar with Bucky and the comics, so in the movie he was kind of there as his best friend for me, which is why I mentioned other supporting actors over him in the review. The War bond montage was annoying and having them play it again at the end lead to quite a few grunts in the audience. Like I said in the movie Steve Rogers himself initially is all like WTF himself at the start.
Although the movie is long enough the second montage seemed just thrown at you because they crammed too much into it. For me it did ruin the pacing of the movie because those parts just seemed way to fast compared to everything else for me. Sure, they needed to do it, but only because they crammed too much into it. I guess we will have to agree to disagree in that regard.
Hugo was okay, I kind of thought they could have made the face a little bit more shocking and roughed up, but it worked. When I first saw him I kind of laughed a bit because he is typecasted in my mind as agent smith despite his various other roles, doh. But, yeah, he managed to do a decent job.
I thought it was a pretty good movie overall. The action was great, and much better than many comic book movies out there. It also did a great job of tying in to the Avengers universe.
As for the war bonds montage music playing during the credits…I’m convinced they played that to torture the audience. They wanted to make sure that only the strong willed were able to stick around and watch the Avengers movie trailer at the end of the credits! 😆