Review: Captain America

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Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell & a crowd of soldiers in Captain America

Perhaps Iron Man made me expect too much from superhero movies. That Marvel film combines a great storyline and thoughtful acting along with the requisite blow-'em-up special effects. While Captain America: The First Avenger is a fun summer movie, it's far less cohesive than that related film, and far less memorable as well.

First off, I'll admit that I'm not very familiar with the Captain America canon. I happened upon this primer on NPR's Monkey See blog the day I saw the film, so I knew a little of what to expect, but there were still some surprises thrown in!

Captain America: The First Avenger is mainly an origin story of how Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) comes to be Captain America, WWII propaganda figure and hero of the Allied armed forces. Rogers begins the film a 98-pound small-statured man who keeps trying to enlist, but is continually denied because of his size and health conditions. His pal Bucky (Sebastian Stan in a vanilla performance) takes him along to a "World Expo," where we first see Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper, quite believable as Iron Man's dad).

Even at the World Expo there is a recruiting station, so Rogers makes one more attempt to sign up for service. Thanks to a German scientist (Stanley Tucci, hooray!), he is finally accepted and after displaying courage and smarts in boot camp is selected to take the scientist's serum to become a super-soldier. A despicable act by a HYDRA baddie, played by Richard Armitage, sparks Rogers' desire for revenge.

There's a parallel storyline featuring the previous recipient of the scientist's serum who's in charge of HYDRA: Nazi Captain Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), aka Red Skull. Schmidt is your typical movie Nazi bad guy. He's obsessed my Teutonic mythology and -- of course -- listens to Wagner in his lab of evil. There's not much that is subtle about Weaving's performance here.

Captain America has a slow start, and doesn't truly get flowing until Tommy Lee Jones' Colonel Phillips shows up onscreen ... about 15 minutes into the film. Along with Jones, another high point is the character of Peggy Carter, played by brunette Brit Hayley Atwell. Carter is a sure shot who holds her own and finds herself slightly attracted to Rogers even in his inital "weakling" state. The film also captures the overt patriotism of WWII-era America fairly well, especially with the Captain America roadshow -- the accompanying song by Alan Menken is too perfect.

Now for the weaknesses. For some reason, director (and native Texan) Joe Johnston decided that filmgoers like montage sequences. It seems about a third of the movie is montage, and this halts what there is of a storyline. While Evans is nice to look at and pulls off a courageous figure, his character feels incomplete. Rogers is so sure, there's a lack of much inner conflict. Perhaps this is how Captain America is in the comic books?

Captain America is the first 3D film I've seen that actually gave me a headache. This may have been from the ill-fitting glasses that kept sliding down my nose, but I think it more from the quality of lighting used in the film. There are many spots in the film that have an unfocused feeling, with dim lighting that doesn't make it any easier to see what's happening onscreen. Besides, the filmmakers don't really use 3D to its full potential. If you want to see this movie, I'd recommend trying to catch a 2D showing. Hopefully that version is clearer and less headache-inducing.

Despite the slight headache I got from Captain America, it is a fun ride while it lasts. Just don't look for too much depth in the film.

An added note: Unless you want to stay through the credits to show appreciation for the folks who worked on this film, there's no other reason why you should. A very disappointed audience at our screening expected a tag scene, and all we got was **SPOILERY** "Captain America will return in The Avengers!" **END SPOILER** or something to that effect, which we knew already.

[Editor's Note: At my screening, we did see a post-credits sequence that was essentially a glorified trailer for The Avengers, which the audience adored. However, it was an Ain't It Cool sponsored screening so the scene may have been special lagniappe. We at Slackerwood can't figure out whether regular audiences will see this scene, or only experience what Elizabeth saw. Let us know in the comments if you got a post-credits trailer sequence, or something else (or nothing at all).]

Austin connections: Director Joe Johnston grew up in Austin. Victor Diaz reports he lived in the Deep Eddy area.

Post-screening clip

Yes, there is a stinger after the credits of general Captain America screenings, at least the one I saw on Saturday night had it.