Captain America The First Avenger
So now we have our next member of the Avengers, who just so happens to be the first Avenger. So does Cap add anything to the Avengers formula or should he be left out of the club? Let's find out.
The film opens with some explorers coming across something buried in the ice. Once inside, one of them discovers a certain someone. We flashback to the years of WWII where we find men joining the army. One of the men, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is turned down for numerous reasons, mainly for having asthma. He's tried joining in several different states, but each one turns him down. He goes to a theater where he gets into a fight for asking someone to be quiet. His friend saves him and offers to take him out for the night. They attend the showing of Howard Stark's (Dominic Cooper) newest invention, the flying car. It breaks down, so Steve walks away. Eventually, he tries to get another physical for the military and meets a scientist. This guy claims that he can help Steve get into the military with a little experiment. He agrees to the procedure and is immediately allowed into the army. He goes through all the basic training exercises with Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) leading the way. After a while, Steve is taken back to town for the experiment. The experiment is performed with the scientist and Howard Stark performing it with other people watching how well it works. Once it officially gets going, the machine appears to malfunction. Stark is about to turn it off when Steve claims that he can handle it. Once it's over, he comes out taller and completely built. So now Steve returns to what he does best in the army in hopes of taking down the crazy mad man, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving).
This movie is just flat out hilarious. Tommy Lee Jones as the Colonel is one of the funniest things that these Marvel Avengers line up movies have had yet. There's a sequence pretty much right after Steve agrees to help out the army after getting the experiment done on him that was surprisingly funny. The army uses this super soldier to perform shows across the country to get them to buy war bonds. Honestly, when this started out, I thought it would be incredibly stupid and just a waste of time. However, by the end of this rather lengthy section, I ended up laughing a lot more than I thought. It's hard to explain, so just check out the movie to see what I mean. As for the action sequences, they were pretty fun to watch. They showed off all of Captain America's abilities and gave a great show. As for the main villain, aka Red Skull, well, the outfit looks well done and Weaving's acting is amazingly good.
So now it's time to take a look at some of the more lacking parts of the story, the biggest being Red Skull. He's an alright villain, but you never really feel his presence once Steve becomes Captain America. Yeah, he kills a few people, but that's it. The rest of the times he appears is just him driving around talking to people and a fight at the end of the movie. They talk about needing to take out some weapon buildings that Red Skull had set up, but if you replaced him with someone like Hitler, there wouldn't be a difference. As for the final fight itself, it's rather disappointing. All that happens is Red Skull fires his gun at Cap, obviously missing or only hitting the shield. Then a short little fist fight before the end of the fight. It's rather short and isn't quite up to par with some other final fights in this series, such as the one from Iron Man. Also, the side characters just feel like throwaways. They're not at all interesting once Captain America makes the scene. Even the lackluster love interest isn't brought up much.
So should you watch Captain America the First Avenger? Yes. It's a decent addition to the Marvel Avengers line up and shows off some really fun action moments.
The film opens with some explorers coming across something buried in the ice. Once inside, one of them discovers a certain someone. We flashback to the years of WWII where we find men joining the army. One of the men, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is turned down for numerous reasons, mainly for having asthma. He's tried joining in several different states, but each one turns him down. He goes to a theater where he gets into a fight for asking someone to be quiet. His friend saves him and offers to take him out for the night. They attend the showing of Howard Stark's (Dominic Cooper) newest invention, the flying car. It breaks down, so Steve walks away. Eventually, he tries to get another physical for the military and meets a scientist. This guy claims that he can help Steve get into the military with a little experiment. He agrees to the procedure and is immediately allowed into the army. He goes through all the basic training exercises with Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) leading the way. After a while, Steve is taken back to town for the experiment. The experiment is performed with the scientist and Howard Stark performing it with other people watching how well it works. Once it officially gets going, the machine appears to malfunction. Stark is about to turn it off when Steve claims that he can handle it. Once it's over, he comes out taller and completely built. So now Steve returns to what he does best in the army in hopes of taking down the crazy mad man, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving).
This movie is just flat out hilarious. Tommy Lee Jones as the Colonel is one of the funniest things that these Marvel Avengers line up movies have had yet. There's a sequence pretty much right after Steve agrees to help out the army after getting the experiment done on him that was surprisingly funny. The army uses this super soldier to perform shows across the country to get them to buy war bonds. Honestly, when this started out, I thought it would be incredibly stupid and just a waste of time. However, by the end of this rather lengthy section, I ended up laughing a lot more than I thought. It's hard to explain, so just check out the movie to see what I mean. As for the action sequences, they were pretty fun to watch. They showed off all of Captain America's abilities and gave a great show. As for the main villain, aka Red Skull, well, the outfit looks well done and Weaving's acting is amazingly good.
So now it's time to take a look at some of the more lacking parts of the story, the biggest being Red Skull. He's an alright villain, but you never really feel his presence once Steve becomes Captain America. Yeah, he kills a few people, but that's it. The rest of the times he appears is just him driving around talking to people and a fight at the end of the movie. They talk about needing to take out some weapon buildings that Red Skull had set up, but if you replaced him with someone like Hitler, there wouldn't be a difference. As for the final fight itself, it's rather disappointing. All that happens is Red Skull fires his gun at Cap, obviously missing or only hitting the shield. Then a short little fist fight before the end of the fight. It's rather short and isn't quite up to par with some other final fights in this series, such as the one from Iron Man. Also, the side characters just feel like throwaways. They're not at all interesting once Captain America makes the scene. Even the lackluster love interest isn't brought up much.
So should you watch Captain America the First Avenger? Yes. It's a decent addition to the Marvel Avengers line up and shows off some really fun action moments.