Captain America: The First
Avenger is the best of the “Avenger” origin movies to date. Although well written and directed, special
recognition is in order for the film’s excellent casting, studded with
marvelous actors and nuanced, layered performances. Hugo Weaving is a delight as always—that is,
until he takes off his mask, at which point he loses his broad range of
subtleties and becomes a mere caricature (as disappointedly expected in the
superhero genre). Chris Evans displays
remarkable flexibility in his transformation into Steve Rogers compared with his
previous performance as the Human Torch in both Fantastic Four films wherein Evans plays a character who could not
be more different. Impressive
performances by Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones are also unavoidably worth
noting.
Invested into the story is an intelligent journey toward the burgeoning
of Captain America as superhero, playing upon not only the usual choices of
balancing heroism and humanness but also the very idea of Captain America as an
icon of World War II symbolism. Captain
America ends up parodying his future self before actually taking the plunge
into his role as true hero. Few
superhero stories can boast an equally clever step. To cement his role as hero icon of the War,
Captain America also makes the choice to not live to fight another day (in his
own time), but makes the ultimate sacrifice—the mark of a true hero—one few
comic book “super” heroes make, even though the term “hero” implies such a
requisite act in order to receive such a lofty title.
Still, at times the action pushes beyond the realm of believability,
which is further exacerbated by a few sub-par special effects and the obligatory
comic book-like action sequences in the third act (which are always a bit
harder to swallow). Also, one finds the glaring
lack of visual verisimilitude in Steve Rogers’ pre-superhero physique annoying
to the point of distraction while the minions of Hydra appear plagiarized from
an unrelated videogame called Return to
Castle Wolfenstein (2001).
Overall, an enjoyable superhero film with a little something more.
Rating: 4 / 5