Captain America

Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones

Synopsis:

After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.

Despite a well worn plot in 2011, that would have been highly original back in the 40s, Captain America has enough to keep viewers interested. It has character, pacing and flair in its favour. The retro look is a welcome change from comic book movies set in either the present day or “A few years in the future”.

As Joe Johnston was responsible for The Rocketeer movie, I wasn’t at all surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed Captain America . His Jurassic Park 3 is my favourite of the dinosaur franchise, so far, too. This guy knows what he’s doing when it comes to genre releases. After all, this is the man responsible for the final designs for Boba Fett and Yoda, back when a Star Wars movie meant something special.

Chris Evans is perfect for the part of Steve Rogers. He has enough likeability and, initially, a quiet strength underlining his vulnerability, to pull the part off with ease. Hugo Weaving is effective as the German villain The Red Skull. Hayley Attwell plays a 1940s heroine with an understated sex appeal. She looks and acts the part very well and stands her ground among the many macho characters in the movie. If J K Simmons hadn’t done such a good job of portraying Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-man trilogy, I’d have thought Tommy Lee Jones would have been ideal.

But TLJ brings his signature style to the role of Colonel Chester Phillips. Sebastian Stan is good as “Bucky” but seems a bit underused. His fate is definitely out of whack with what I remember from the comic book. As both supporting characters, Stanley Tucci and Toby Jones excel in their roles of Dr Erskine and Armin Zola respectively. Stanley Tucci gives Erskine a much needed humanitarian depth and contrasts with the sort of scientist involved in the later Weapon X experiments that produced the adamantium laced bones of Wolverine. Jones adds depth through his flickers of questioning doubt, whilst working for the Red Skull. It’s great when so many actors put in such good performances and treat the subject with reverence. The effort shows on the big screen.

The mis-en-scene is very good, capturing both 40s America and Norse God-technology at the same time. All the “futuristic” equipment doesn’t look totally out of place within the time period and in context of the story. A lot of time and trouble must have gone into this to get it right. I think the production team did a great job of designing a Captain America uniform without making it camp and ridiculous. In this movie it looks functional and the symbol that the character is supposed to be. I wholly believed that men would follow the Cap into a dangerous firefight when asked to.

The only niggles that I have are with the screenplay and some of the clichéd scenes that play out, such as the “oh know I’ve been found kissing someone else” scene. It doesn’t spoil the film but seems a little redundant.

Summary:

If Star Wars stole the essence of Republic serials, then Captain America steals it back. I can’t say that this is a Star Wars style movie for a different generation as it hasn’t quite got the appeal of the 1977 film but it’s not far off the Lucasfilm/Spielberg vibe. It reminded me a little of Raiders but it isn’t as similar as some have said. There’s nothing deep and particularly meaningful in Cap, it’s superhero fun all the way.

What it does do is put the super back into superhero. If you like your hero dark, moody and complicated, you won’t find much to like here, but if you welcome a return to a more positive outlook and a straightforward scrap between the white hats and the black, you’ve got it right here. Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers comes across like a proper hero and one that the kids can look up to. He’s no anti-hero, like Superman, and is all the better for it.

It’s cross generational appeal means that families can watch it together. There is violence but it’s hardly worrying for a parent.

8 out of 10 (Wayfarer)

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