After the horrible movie that I had to sit through last week (see last weeks blog post ) I would have watched just about anything in an attempt to get the rancid taste of lazy “wand battles” out of my mouth. Potter disappointed so badly that I almost couldn’t stand to get my hopes up for the much anticipated Captain America: First Avenger. However, only minutes into Captain America, I had already seen more good footage than the entire time that I sat through the overhyped bloated waste that was Harry Potter. Captain America: The First Avenger proved to be a great origin story for one of my favorite comic book heroes.
When young Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) tries to enlist in the army, he fails….more than five times. He didn’t have what the Army was looking for. They needed a soldier with size, with strength and with speed. But what they overlooked was a soldier with heart. When Steve is selected to be part of the Super Soldier Program he gladly accepts. He walks in to the complex a short weakling, and emerges as the greatest soldier that the US Army has ever seen. After the complex is attacked, Rogers makes it his mission to bring down the Nazi plague that has ended so many lives. With a hand selected team on his side, Rogers decides to take the fight directly to the Nazi Party, and more specifically to The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). He may have entered the Army as Steve Rogers, but he leaves it as Captain America.
This movie is not your typical superhero film. It splits its workload between blockbuster superhero film, period film, and action-comedy. The movie works on so many levels. It doesn’t offer the amount of action that Transformers 3 did, but what it does offer is action of a higher quality. They don’t just slip a lot of fighting and explosions in for the sake of doing it. The action is only a necessity, while the heart of the story focuses on the inner strength of a man that only wants to “do his part”.
Worth the admission? Does Captain America Turtle Wax his shield? Not only do I think that this is a great movie, I think that it is the best superhero film of 2011. It refuses to be one dimensional. And with hilariously dry one-liners peppered throughout the film by Tommy Lee Jones, the movie brings in some much needed levity to some otherwise serious subject matter.
Make sure you check out the bonus footage after the credits and let me know what you thought .
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