I saw Captain America last night with my dad and grandpa although my dad fell asleep halfway through...so I'm not sure if he counts as well as not being sure what that says about the movie.
But I liked Captain America. It is a solid addition to the Superhero collection and is not, by far, the worst superhero movie made. I think that honor goes to Spiderman 3 or Superman Returns...actually no, Catwoman was the worst.
Anyway.
Spoilers after the jump. Although if you haven't seen the movie by now...then I'm assuming you just don't want to see it and don't care if I spoil it. But for the sake of how long this review is probably going to be, jump cut it is.
The Cast:
+Chris Evans as Steve Rogers: I always thought Chris Evans was a one note actor. Going from what I've seen in Fantastic Four (another horrible horrible superhero movie. I didn't think action could get that boring) and The Losers (which I actually liked, more on this movie in another post) and that God awful comedy that I couldn't help but kinda like--What's Your Number?, he always played the sort of goofy womanizer type. (Except in The Losers when he just played the goofy type.) In fact, I didn't really think there was a serious acting bone in his body and assumed that these characters were just him with different names. Guess how surprised I was when I watched this movie and saw him being dead serious, calm, noble, heartbroken and didn't really crack a joke or was the butt of a joke or laugh once throughout the whole movie. He wasn't the comic relief this time and it was refreshing to see as well as probably refreshing for him to play. And I realized that this is huge step away from that other guy he's been playing for years and that he's actually a pretty versatile actor. He has a very expressive face. He doesn't say much in the movie, a lot of the acting is through his expressions, and the look in his eyes. The subtlety of emotion is there which, again, surprised me. It wasn't over the top, it was little moments, like when his brow goes down as he stares at the door that Dr. Erskine's murderer just exited, or when he looks down at his body for the first time after the procedure in a way that says "I can't believe this" without uttering a word, that wince he does before he runs to jump over the exploding factory, or the little half grin he has when he sees himself on the big screen as Captain America or how his face crumbles after he loses Bucky on the train. He was effortlessly charming as "Skinny Steve", with a gravity of a man who had been beat up all his life but wouldn't give up, and surprisingly witty without being goofy. (
+Hayley Atwell as Agent Carter: I had never seen Hayley Atwell in anything before this but had read an article in a magazine where she was talking about her training for this movie. She had said something along the lines of how she was training to look like a woman who could hold a gun and shoot it. And just from that quote alone I knew I would like her. When she first comes out and she actually has some weight about her, that she's not stick thin, I seriously was like "Woohoo" in my head. And then when she socked that guy in the nose for sassing her, I fell in love with her character. I loved how she could be both feminine and strong at the same time. Her acting was superb and I liked the chemistry she had with Chris Evans. The last scene where she's talking to Steve over the radio as he's steering the massive plane into the ground, really tugged at your heartstrings. Her last "Steve? Are you there?" you heard her heart breaking and consequently felt your heart break as well.
+Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark: The only thing I've seen him in was Mamma Mia. I know he was in The History Boys which is an award-winning play that was made into a movie and supposedly is still great in cinematic form. But his choice of movies haven't been the most challenging acting wise since then. I liked Mamma Mia a lot but that's because I love musicals but maybe he should stay away from the singing? And his American accent was all over the place in this one. But his acting is very good. That sort of smarmy genius with a heart of gold worked really well for him. At the beginning you just think he's a rich arrogant bastard who doesn't really care about anyone but himself, but at the end, when they find the cube but not Steve and the look on his face when he says "Keep looking" really changed your perception of his character.
+Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Phillips: I love Tommy Lee Jones in anything. MIB, The Fugitive, JFK, Batman Forever, Double Jeopardy, even in that horrible movie Man of the House (it was something about how he was the house mother of a sorority? I don't even know why he took that job...). So obviously, King of deadpan with his one liners made for some great laughs. But his doubt in Steve and yet his strength in leadership made for an interesting antagonist (in the beginning) for Steve. Colonel Phillips is shown to be a man of narrow mind until someone earns his respect and then he truly cares for them. And you can tell he really cares for his country and for all the men under his care.
+Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes: I was sort of confused as to the role of Bucky. Nothing against Sebastian Stan but I couldn't understand what his feelings were toward Steve. They're supposed to be close friends but I always felt like Bucky treated Steve with a sort of...disdain. Maybe it was Stan's acting but he seemed to just be angry all the time. Or extremely broody...which made for awkward scenes with Steve who's brooding because he can't enlist. Two broody people does not a light-hearted scene make. I guess I expected Bucky with a nickname like "Bucky" to be more a foil to Steve's serious nature with a more light nature but he's not which throws me off. Their banter is cute but not entirely believable considering they both don't seem to be the laughing type. Can you imagine what their playdates would look like if they lived in the modern times? "Hey Bucky, what'd you wanna do?" "I don't know man, what'd you wanna do?" "I don't know...let's go play some video games and not talk to each for 3 hours all the while broodily staring at the tv screen." --Three hours later-- "...You're my best friend, man." "Yeah, yeah, don't make it weird." That's how their relationship went down in my mind. But maybe it's a set up for Bucky to return later as the Winter Solider? Maybe? And Captain America better not die...and get replaced.
+Stanley Tucci as Dr. Erskine: Stanley Tucci. I love you Stanley Tucci. For some reason everytime I think of Stanley Tucci I think of warmth and caring. Maybe because I saw him in Julie and Julia and in The Devil Wears Prada and in this movie where he's the nicest man ever. He is effortlessly amazing at acting. You know it's Stanley Tucci as Dr. Erskine but you start to forget a minute in that this is not a real man but a character. Everything he does doesn't seem thought about but naturally flows from his character. Each word, each action, each look is something inherently within the character and it is just effortless.
+Hugo Weaving as Red Skull: This villain could have gone a lot of different ways. It could have gone extremely campy like Poison Ivy in the worst Batman movie that has ever been released, or it could have gone to the other end of the spectrum of being genius like Heath Ledger as The Joker. I feel like Weaving's Red Skull is slightly more on the campy side than the genius side. His accent sort of annoys me. It's an odd sort of German accent. The clipped aspect on each word is very pronounced and kind of distracting. His teeth sort of remind me of extremely fake dentures which in turn remind me of cartoons. And the uniformity of his red skin does nothing to dissipate the cartoon-y feel. If he had made him more grotesque like they were showing in the featurettes maybe I would have taken him more seriously but they didn't...so I didn't. When he screams out "YOU ARE FAILING" it is not terrifying. It just made me laugh. The Joker is a scary villain because he is not sane. Even Two-Face became scary in the end. Loki was a heart-breaking villain because he was Thor's brother for a long time and then it became disconcerting when you felt yourself sympathizing with the "villain". Even Moriarty from Sherlock was more terrifying that this guy. I didn't feel that menacing quality from him. I mean I love me some Hugo Weaving, I do think he can act, but the writers didn't do much with Red Skull and I think he could have been a lot more rather than being very one-note evil.
+The Howling Commandos: I wish they had done more with these guys. They did a bit but it was only like a ten minute montage and then it was like...nothing. I know this movie is supposed to focus on Captain America and his journey and set up for The Avengers and it probably would have slowed down the pace of the movie but still, these guys rocked.
The Plot: There wasn't much of one. Okay, there was one but it was very simple. Or they didn't focus much on the plot. It's a two hour movie and Steve and Red Skull meet ONLY TWICE. Once at the first factory and once at the last factory and in the sky. That's it. It was really skimpy on the hero-villain interaction which is sort of unheard of. I was a little disappointed in that actually. The origin story of Steve was great but I thought there would be more action and Steve meeting Red Skull a LOT but there is barely enough for twenty minutes of the whole movie. Even in Batman Begins which is an origin story, there is at least more of a villain plot. This ties in again with the Red Skull character not being able to do much and not being frightening, because he was never given the opportunity to be scary.
The Visual Effects: This is where the movie really shines. This and Chris Evans acting. At least in the beginning of the movie. The Skinny Steve portions were amazing. You could hardly tell that it was computer altered. There was one shot where Steve is talking to Bucky where his jawline looked a little bit fabricated but other than that...most of it was freaking well done. It was mostly all Chris Evans with the computer slimming him down. I thought maybe they had gotten a body double and just replaced the head but it wasn't for the most part. That's because they said Chris Evans has a very specific way of moving that they are unable to duplicate. I was really impressed with the Skinny Steve sequences. Not so impressed with the shield sequences. You would think that once they had proven to be masters at visual effects a shield spinning and bouncing off things wouldn't be nearly as difficult as shaving off height and muscle mass from a living person but I suppose it is...because some of those sequences of the shield bouncing around look absolutely fake. Especially when he places it back on his arm. I think Evans did a really great job of miming the shield throw but the visual effects department let him down in the coloring and shine on the shield, it just made it look so unbelievable.
The cinematography: The coloring of the scenes made them look obviously CGI'ed...which I guess I'm sort of picky about. But I don't know why they HAVE to make the coloring "old-timey" with odd lighting and shadows. It's like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Another really bad movie, why do I keep watching such bad movies?), where they were trying very hard to look like a 40's film poster and not succeeding very well. It just looked shallow. And they did a similar thing for the Hydra scenes in Captain America. I know it was probably all CG'ed in because they wouldn't be able to build sets that big but Star Trek had a huge space ship that didn't look fake, why couldn't Captain America's visual effects team make that huge plane not look as fake too?
DVD Extras: It has like 6 featurettes, a commentary by the director, a Marvel One-Shot, and deleted scenes as well as a sneak peek for The Avengers.
The featurettes were interesting. I love featurettes because I love to know how the movie's filmed. Especially how they make Steve look so skinny. As well as about the uniform and concept art.
The deleted scenes, I can understand why they were deleted. The extended Norway scene wasn't needed at all. I wish they had put in Fury's explanation in the extended end scene about how Steve has stayed young and alive all these years but they didn't. I supposed they'll put it in The Avengers? And the Colonel Phillips commending Steve for embarrassing a Senator in front of the press after refusing to show up at the Medal of Honor ceremony was a cute scene but I understand why they would cut it in regards to time.
The Marvel One-Shot was cute. I love Agent Coulson and here you get to see him be a badass...for once. Instead of being Stark's babysitter all the time.
This movie is pretty good. I mean I watched it again.
Thor's probably up next. All in my series to watch the individual superhero movies before THE AVENGERS hits theaters. I am so excited.
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