As I’ve stated before I’m not that big a fan of movies based on comics. I do watch most of them, but I hardly feel I missed out on something when I see it a couple of months later. Captain America is a character I didn’t know before this movie, so going into this I was like a blank slate ready to learn more about this superhero. Did it manage to wow me or is it just a movie which had to be made to get to the Avengers movie?
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) has a dream of getting into the military and fight for his country. He has a problem though as he’s slim, not very strong and gets tired quickly. He tries to enroll several times, but time and time again the military reject his application. His heart is in the right place though and he’s got a very strong sense of what is right and is willing to fight for it, even if that means getting his ass kicked. He is noticed by a man who offers him an opportunity to get into a secret military experiment, which results in him having the body of a body builder and turns into Captain America, who is initially is helping at fundraisers, but over time leads the troops into battle.
Of course every superhero movie needs a bad guy and in this one it’s Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). Although he is a nazi it seems he’s running his own country and has nothing to do with the rest of the German army. He has found a power which enables to obliterate anyone and of course it’s up to the Captain to fight him.
Although the movie has the looks, it lacks a lot of things that make it a good movie. The love story seems underdeveloped and never did I have the feeling there was a moment the characters fell in love or really cared about each other. I felt there weren’t that many big action scenes which wowed me. I was very surprised that this movie had a montage of action shots. Why not actually show them instead of just showing a couple of seconds of cool things happening? At the end of it this movie somehow reminded me a bit of Sucker Punch. Sure it looked cool, but I wasn’t invested into the characters enough to really care. Out of all the movies preparing us for the Avengers movie, to me this felt like one of the weakest ones.
Score: 5
I think we both have similar thoughts on the movie. It never wowed me. It served as a good origins for Avengers, but that is about it. I liked how it fit in the whole Avengers universe with the Stark Convention and all, but other than that a big dissapointment.
Yeah, I liked the convention as well and the sense of wonder of a past era about the future has been implemented greatly. It lacked that wow factor…
Awww man, I really enjoyed this film for the popcorn entertainment it was. Sure, it never felt “realistic”, but then, I don’t think that was the point. It was as close to a living comic book of a film I’ve seen in ages.
And I can’t wait for The Avengers!!!
It was a popcorn movie which I’m a big fan of, but with this one I never could get into it, but I’m not expecting everyone to agree of course 🙂
I truly did enjoy this film and thought that it focused on what made Steve Rogers be Captain America. That was the strength of the movie.
But I can see where you’re coming from! I really hope more people try to give Capt a chance at being its own movie and not just a prequel for The Avengers! (which is going to be awesome, btw)!
Nice write up!
I always try to watch movies that seem interesting even if they are not completely my thing.
I completely agree, it does look amazing; it just lacks something to make it a fantastic movie. Great review as always!
Thanks Amy
Totally agree Nostra. I was a bit perplexed that most people seemed to enjoy this because it felt like a completely generic and underdeveloped movie with few truly compelling moments. Red Skull was a total disappointment and overall it was just an underwhelming film.
I can understand why people enjoy it, but personally I was expecting more of the story. Like you say it felt underdeveloped.
I have high hopes for this, but it was a bit of a let down. I still enjoyed it though!
I wasn’t expecting anything and unfortunately wasn’t in for a nice surprise.
Now this is one film I still haven’t seen, which is surprising as I love comic book adaptations. I’m not that familiar with Captain America, though, and it wasn’t really high on my priorities.
I will see it eventually but I think I’ll rent it, not buy. Good review, Nostra!
I didn’t know the story of Captain America either and this does make it clear, just not in the best way in my opinion.,
Hi, Nostra and company:
Excellent catch and review.
There seemed to be a lot of beating to fit and painting to match in attempting to recreate the wonder and splendor of Jack Kirby’s story from the 1960s. Some, the film got right. Though most of what remained was woefully not up to snuff.
Way too early to introduce Red Skull and Hydra for more than a cursory cameo. Even if they did have some very cool toys, Don’t even get me started on the Howling Commandos!
The film tried to do too much with not enough resources and created a mediocre product.
Good, but certainly not great!
Nice info and glad to read you have the same feeling about it.
sorry you didn’t like this film much, I pretty much loved it (comic book geek!), but you still gave a great review.
Also, i’m now following your blog, care to return the favor?
Thanks a lot!
hi guys love ur reviews and a big fan, notin new to get out of the pix but its just aosweme to look at, but guys hope you do a video on comic-con i don’t leave in america but love the event and can’t wait for your review on captain america cos i just saw it and felt it was great thanx guys p.s. roth is hooooooot lol
Hi Nostra, pardon the lack of comments as I’m on holiday. Glad you gave this a shot but I’m sorry you’re not as into it. I understand that comic-book films aren’t for everybody but I certainly think this one is one of the better Marvel adaptations, and it made me look forward to The Avengers even more.
No problem Ruth, I was down and out for a couple of days so I had no energy to respond anyway. I’m back to normal now. Enjoy your holiday!
I probably like the first Iron Man movie the most out of all of them.
Nice review mate, but I have to disagree with you on this one…I loved ‘Captain America’ and thought that they brought it to the screen beautifully. I was a big Cap fan before and read a lot of the comics growing up.
I’ve always believed that Captain America was more than a just a man, he was an ideal who stood for the things that every American wanted to be and strive to embody at the point in time, and I thought that Chris Evans was able to convey that inner-strength.
I do agree that I wish there were a few more action scenes instead of just the montage but overall I thought it was great film and really looking forward to seeing more of Cap in ‘The Avengers’.
As per usual, good review, looking forward to the next one!
If you’re interested, here’s my review on Captain America.
http://137exactly.com/2011/08/05/captain-america-one-of-my-favourite-films-of-the-year/
Thanks and no problem disagreeing! 🙂
I wonder if you have read all the comics that you might add a lot of background story yourself. I saw it without any knowledge and thought it was missing a lot. Sure it was clear that he was a courageous guy despite his appearance, but I wasn’t convinced by his struggle before change.
You know what? I think that having a sound understanding of the character’s background through the comic books would have helped cover any plot holes in the film…not that I noticed 😉
On the plus side it looks like The Avengers has plenty of action in it!
I think that’s probably it. If you have been reading about the characters you know them and care for them. Coming in fresh it did miss something.
Haven’t watched any Avengers stuff, but I am looking forward to it.
I quite enjoyed Captain America, but it did feel there was something lacking – like you say, I wasn’t as involved in the characters as I would have liked to be. I’m super excited for Avengers though! 😀
Same here!
Great review and well written. Have a read at my review,
http://pgtipsonfilms.com/2011/08/05/captain-america-film-review/
What do you think?
Thanks, will give it a read.
This one gets panned a fair bit but it was one of my favourites of the Marvel superhero movies. I thought they just nailed the characterization of Steve Rogers and actually brought a vulnerability to the character you don’t get in the comics. I do have to say though that colouring my feelings of the movie was knowing what happens to the character over the course of his career — the WW II hero thrown out of time and being revived in the modern day. As it turned out, this became Cap’s defining quality in the comics — he was a bit of an anachronism but one who inspired confidence in others. I liked seeing the origins of that in this movie, and thought it was very entertaining as well.
Well, I never read the comics, so this was a completely new character to me and without all that background it was a movie that just didn’t manage to wow me. It just seemed to quickly go through the motions in order to prepare for The Avengers movie. There are quite a lot of people who think it’s one of the best Marvel movies out, so I can respect that opinion as well.
It will be interesting to see how the sequels go (both to Captain America and The Avengers). On seeing The Avengers, it seemed Cap’s storyline, as well as that of Iron Man’s, had the strongest continuity between the solo movies and the team-up.
Yeah, looking forward to see what they will do with them, although it’s going to be difficult to top the fun of The Avengers.