As part of the build up to The Avengers, due for release in 2012, another of the Marvel superheroes gets a big screen outing. Chris Evans has the title role, and support comes from Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, and Dominic Cooper, with Hayley Atwell starring as Peggy Carter.
Captain America: The First Avenger
In the modern day, an aircraft is discovered in the ice of the Arctic, and a strange circular object with a red, white and blue motif is discovered.
Flashing back to 1942, a Nazi solider named Schmidt (Weaving) is on the trail of a bright blue cube (that anyone who has seen Thor will immediately recognise). After finding it, he orders the village where it was discovered destroyed. Schmidt is the leader of HYDRA, an organisation which develops new sciences and technologies, supposedly to aid the Nazis but is in fact a group that follows Schmidt’s own plans for power.
Meanwhile in New York City, pipsqueak Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is yet again refused permission to join the army. After attending an exhibition of future technologies with his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), where one of the people demonstrating technology is none other than Howard Stark (Cooper), Rogers impresses Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci). Erskine allows Rogers to enlist and subsequently selects him to take a serum that will transform him into the first in a new breed of super soldier.
Infusing him with the experimental serum is successful but Erskine is killed and with him goes any hope of recreating the super solider serum. Rogers is put to work in a costume and named ‘Captain America’, instead of fighting he travels the country promoting war bonds. He ends up giving his usual speech to soldiers on the front line where he is given a frosty reception.
Longing to be more than he is Rogers disobeys orders after learning that his friend Bucky has been captured by the forces loyal to Schmidt, and sets off on a one man rescue mission. A mission which leads him into a confrontation with the vicious Red Skull.
Chris Evans Taking On Another Marvel Character
Fans of either Chris Evans and/or film adaptations of Marvel comics will instantly recognise him as the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four films, where he and Michael Chiklis were easily the highlights. This time he abandons the flaming tights of the Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm and takes on the straighter role of Steve Rogers/Captain America. One of the most impressive features of the film is making Chris Evans appear weak and weedy with creative use of CGI. Evans doesn’t have the freedom to play around with the character as much as he did with the Human Torch mainly because such antics would have been out of place in the grittier Captain America.
The supporting cast are also on fine form with Hugo Weaving doing a superb job of being Captain America’s opposite in almost every way. Schmidt does not value human life, views others as being inferior, etcetera, and the makeup/CGI that transforms him into the Red Skull is also flawless. Tommy Lee Jones plays a character that has been done a thousand times before, the gruff military man who also has a soft spot for his men, but despite that he still makes the role his own.
The film is seeped in Marvel Universe tie-ins, most of which are geared towards the up and coming Avengers. Howard Stark is obviously none other than Tony Stark (Iron Man)’s father. With the suggestion of how Thor is going to return also included. As usual there is a bit after the credits and this time there is also a teaser trailer for The Avengers.
Thankfully by now, Marvel adaptations are drawing A-List casts and the time is being taken to work on their special effects and story lines. Unlike the instantly forgettable Daredevil or the truly awful Elektra, filmmakers have finally realised that audiences are demanding a lot from their comic book heroes. Captain America delivers the goods and like any truly great film it is next to impossible to find anything negative to say about it.
5/5
Excellent film that adds another great character to the Marvel Universe and gives a tantalising glimpse into the upcoming Avengers movie.
Christopher Sharman - In 2009 I self-published my first novel entitled The Darkness Saga: The Light (currently available at amazon.co.uk) which has been ...
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