Captain America: The First Avenger Movie Review – Or: Spectacular Star-Spangled Shield Slinging Summer Sizzler!

Yell! Magazine review:

It’s been a very bi-polar summer movie season for comic book movies. Thor was a hit with both critics and fans, earning a healthy half billion at the worldwide box office. X-Men: First Class was well reviewed but received lukewarm audience reception, earning the lowest gross of any movie in Fox’ mutant franchise. Green Lantern was righteously savaged by both camps, as of today it’s still struggling to earn back its astronomical budget. We’re now entering the waning days of the summer movie season, the upcoming month of August is usually when studios dump their less ambitious projects on audiences, such as horror movies (Final Destination 5, Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark) or the latest entries in the endless wave of Hollywood remakes (Conan The Barbarian 3D, Fright Night). But in this, the final week of July, movie audiences still have to decide the fate of the final comic book movie of the season: Captain America.

Based on the Marvel Comics character, Cap first appeared in 1941, many months before the notion of America joining the overseas conflict against Hitler’s gang of Nazis was even a glimmer in the general population’s eye. In an iconic first cover, now legendary, the flag-wearing hero is seen punching Hitler square in the jaw.

Gott In Himmel! Why couldn’t you ask for my autograph like that nice archeologist fellow?

In keeping with the tone of the original comics, Captain America: The First Avenger is a very patriotic movie. However, it’s not the same brand of rah-rah-America-kicks-ass style patriotism one might find in a movie such as Armageddon. What director Joe Johnson (The Wolfman, Jumanji) strives for is a revival of the more innocent, less macho vision of what it meant to be American in the first half of the 20^th century. Embodying this ideal is Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, a kid from Brooklyn who wants nothing more than to serve his country in any capacity it requires of him. Steve doesn’t particularly want to kill people, he’s not a glory-hound or a thrill-seeker, he’s only motivated by a desire to give back to a country that’s done so much for him. In early scenes, before getting his Captain America physique, Evans seems to be channeling such all-American performances as Gary Cooper in Sergeant York.

Click through to find out our take on some of the characters’ development and portrayal, plus we’ll talk a bit about the special effects…