Captain America: The First Avenger Review

This review contains some SPOILERS. Captain America: The First Avenger is that rare summer movie that delivers on everything promised in its trailers, and that's about all it does, which isn't to say it's not a good movie.

Rather, it's just a "good" movie, a very efficient and enjoyable piece of matinee entertainment. It's a summer movie adventure whose story takes place across a few years and several locations, and it has a fun time doing it. But like Iron Man 2 and, to some degree, Thor, Cap seems content with being a base hit instead of going that extra, edgier mile to become a home run; to be that movie you revisit time and time again because you're still trying to master it.

After one viewing, Joe Johnston's best movie since October Sky leaves nothing new to be found; there are no significant discussions of subtext or nuance to be had after leaving the theatre, like we had after seeing X-Men: First Class, Dark Knight or Spider-Man 2. But that's better than leaving the theatre discussing the black-out rage issues a movie like Green Lantern has that Cap, successfully, avoids.

Broadly speaking, superheroes generally have the same origin story parameters. It's a formula that Marvel, for better or worse, has capitalized on. (The names and settings change, but the mold stays the same.) With check-list precision, Cap's origin story hits all the expected beats while laying another stone on the path to The Avengers.

The howl of arctic wind leads us to a snowy wasteland, where a present-day government team discovers a frozen... something. They excavate the site, locate Cap's frozen shield and before we can ask "where's its owner?", we're back in WWII, New York City, where we meet our hero, Steve Rogers. Here, Chris Evans invests the First Avenger with an unstoppable amount of likability, as Steve goes from a bullied weakling who lacks the "I quit" gene, to a genetically-enhanced super solider who has proven his mettle to his country selling war bonds, but still has to win over his fellow soldiers fighting in WWII.

Enter Dr. Johann Schmidt, AKA Red Skull (the always reliable Hugo Weaving) and his HYDRA army, a collection of ultra-faction Nazis hellbent on making Hitler's campaign look like a square dance. With the all-powerful Tesseract/Cosmic Cube in hand, and an endless supply of well-armed canon fodder at his disposal, Skull takes to the skies with a massive single-winged death plane named Valkyrie, and only Cap can stop him.

Along the way, key players from Cap's Marvel history help him out. Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) plays both sympathetic mentor and scientist in charge of the Super Solider program. Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes is Cap's best friend, with Stan playing the role in such a way where we wish we had more time to spend with the character, one whose ambiguous final moments more than hint to his darker, Winter Solider rising in a sequel. The (never named) Howling Commandos, whom Cap breaks out of a POW camp, are extended cameos that deserve their own movie. Most of their action is relegated to an enjoyable, ol' fashioned montage showcasing their explosive brand of field ops alongside Cap, and the scene is one of the movie's best. It's a testament to how much Johnston and the actors sincerely like these characters that they feel fully realized, despite their limited screentime.

Watch Captain America In Action

There's Tommy Lee Jones playing a bulldog of an Army Colonel overseeing Captain America in action, and getting most of the film's best lines. And to those who had reservations about Evans taking on the role, the actor does not disappoint. Since Evans took on the part, inevitable comparisons to his portrayal of The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films were bound to come up. Thankfully, Evans keeps the two portrayals separate. He negotiates that fine line between being a Boy Scout and being a hero with effortless charm, thus ensuring that the last piece in the Avengers puzzle is a hero worth investing in.

The heart and soul of the movie rests with Hayley Atwell's Peggy and Evans' Steve. Their dynamic gives Marvel their most believable and satisfying romantic coupling on the big screen yet. Atwell's understated work, coupled with Evans' ability to find the right amount of emotional credibility in any scene, gives First Avenger an emotional center not usually found in these movies.


What personality the movie has comes through in its 1940s "futura" style, which informs everything from the action-packed set-pieces to the production design. An early sequence at a Stark Expo-type World's Fair feels like a 1940s Max Fleischer Superman cartoon come to life. Johnston commits fully to this tone, without veering into camp or whatever compromised Sky Captain, a movie with a similar aesthetic. Captain America may not be the most daring comic book movie ever made, but visually speaking, it is one of the genre's most interesting.