That was a challenge for Steve Rogers in the ’60s, when Marvel brought him out of retirement as an avatar of Greatest Generation values in a world of baby boomer alienation.
CAPTAIN AMERICA THE FIRST AVENGER MOVIE REVIEWS MOVIE
Johnston and the screenwriters, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, clearly appreciate the snappy romantic chemistry of dames and fellas in the movies of the ’40s, and they also accommodate the modern expectation that a woman in an action movie should be able to throw a punch and handle a firearm. The British actress Hayley Atwell, as Agent Carter, the hero’s love interest and supervisor, takes advantage of the opportunity to be more than just the Girl, though she is basically that. and the “Iron Man” franchise and Toby Jones as the assistant bad guy.Ĭaptain America’s team includes Derek Luke, Neal McDonough and Ken Choi his best pal is Sebastian Stan. Among them are Tommy Lee Jones as a crusty Army officer Stanley Tucci as an émigré scientist Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, an important link to Robert Downey Jr. Weaving, with a bright red, noseless face and a classic Hollywood “Chermann” accent, is a fine nemesis, and “Captain America” is well stocked with colorful supporting players. Evans is genial and easy on the eyes, but a superhero with a mask, whether bland or brooding, is rarely as interesting as the sidekicks and baddies who surround him. His name is Schmidt, he is played by the reliably sinister Hugo Weaving, and he is in possession of a magic Norse ice cube (or something) that makes him powerful enough to have a lot of weapons for Captain America to smash with his shield. “Captain America,” based on a character that first appeared in Timely Comics, a precursor to Marvel, in the early 1940s - the era of Batman, Superman and other old-growth, popular-front superheroes - has a winningly pulpy, jaunty, earnest spirit. The succinct judgment of my 15-year-old screening buddy was “Better than ‘Thor’ or ‘Green Lantern,’ ” and while that isn’t saying a lot, it may be saying enough. Shareholders and die-hard fans no doubt already have the opening date circled on their calendars, and many of the rest of us will probably show up as well, either out of curiosity or solemn duty.īut in the meantime this origin story, directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans as the square-jawed, shield-throwing, red-white-and-blue Captain, is pretty good fun. That picture, foreshadowed in the second “Hulk,” the first “Thor” and both “Iron Man” episodes and scheduled to open next May, will be called “The Avengers.” Whether you regard its imminence with resignation, dread or uncontainable glee depends on your standing in the Marvel Universe. Evans makes a hell of an MVP.“Captain America: The First Avenger” turns out in the end - and this is really the opposite of a spoiler - to have been a two-hour teaser for another movie. But it’s Evans, playing it old-school, who has us looking forward to The Avengers next year, when the pioneering Captain leads Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk on present-day adventures. And Hugo Weaving huffs and puffs mightily as the Red Skull, the rogue Nazi freak who heads the Hydra plot for world takeover. Hayley Atwell excels as the Captain’s soldier crush. Evans, who played the Human Torch in two less-than-fantastic Fantastic Four films, brings such humor, heart and vigor to virtuous Steve that our rooting interest holds even when the action gets to be standard-issue, as it did in director Joe Johnston’s The Rocketeer. Here’s the funny thing: Despite all the Captain America rah-rah in costume and indestructible shield, the movie is at its best when the story sticks with skinny Steve. A few Vita-rays later, and Steve – digital miracles have turned Evans into a convincing beanpole – pumps up into the hard-bodied Captain America, a mega fighting and propaganda machine. Luckily, Steve meets Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a doctor who thinks this good-natured wimp is a perfect fit for his supersoldier experiment. I’m talking Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), the Brooklyn kid who tries futilely to pass a World War II Army physical that will get him up in Hitler’s face. It’s about time that a 90-pound weakling got to kick sand in the face of the other heroes in the Marvel Comics universe.
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