Captain America: The First Avenger. Rated M (action violence). 124 minutes. Directed by Joe Johnston. Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Based on the comic books by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
Don’t let the title confuse you. While Captain America might be ‘the first avenger’ (he first appeared in comic form in 1941), it’s actually the fifth instalment in the Marvel Comics’ ‘cinematic universe’ which will culminate in next year’s eagerly-anticipated The Avengers in which each of the Marvel superheroes will finally appear together. (Fans should note that there’s a sneak peak at what’s in store in a snappy post-credits sequence.)
The set-up has been intense, with Robert Downey Jnr blitzing the field in Iron Man and Iron Man 2 (with Iron Man 3 underway), several attempts at getting The Incredible Hulk right (Mark Ruffalo gets the big green guernsey in The Avengers), Chris Hemsworth’s formidable Thor, and now Captain America.
It is 1942, and evil villain Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) is in possession of a super-powerful energy source which he has refined into a weapon of mass destruction. To avert cataclysmic disaster when Schmidt unleashes his plan for world domination, the Americans have been refining their own creation of a “super-soldier” – hand-picking the skinny young try-hard Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) to become their Captain America prototype.
Johnston (The Wolfman, Jurassic Park III, and Art Director on the Star Wars films) does a solid enough job, even though Captain America suffers from a feeling of being over-edited – with the surprisingly clunky, jumpy action sequences, in particular, never realised with the same flair as those in either of the Iron Mans or Thor. The overriding sense is one of nervous anxiety that the whole thing is ultimately going to collapse into an unforgivable shambles.
What holds it together is Evans’ (Fantastic 4, Sunshine) star turn in the title role and an equally committed supporting cast including Weaving (whose metamorphosis into The Red Skull is a highlight), Hayley Atwell (a sublime Peggy Carter), Tommy Lee Jones (romping through as leader of the American Armed Forces, Colonel Phillips) and Dominic Cooper (perfect as Howard Stark). The digital trickery that reduces Evans’ to his pre-serum geek is brilliantly achieved – and one of the many occasions littered throughout Captain America when it is hard to believe your eyes. And this film has just enough of those moments to ensure it takes its rightful place in the Marvel superhero-dominated world.
This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.
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