Captain
America: The First Avenger
This
summer has been decreed “the season of the superheroes” in multiplexes. Due
to the past popularity of such masked marvels as Spider-Man, Batman, The
X-Men and Iron Man, Hollywood is in search of any vigilante who has
ever donned tights to fight crime.
Problem is, the major names in comic history have already been done –
Superman, Batman, The Hulk, Spider-Man. Even much of the b-team (The
Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Wolverine, Daredevil) have been used up.
How
many of these guys are left?
The
main names of this summer’s superhero blockbusters have all been lesser
lights: Thor, The X-Men (yet again), The Greens (Green Hornet and Green Lantern) and this
anachronistic character.
Captain America
is the best film of the
four. Still, you have to wonder if his film is really necessary.
Captain America
the movie takes place
during World War II and the movie is old-fashioned, square and earnest. And
yet, in its sepia-toned own way it is rather comforting and enjoyable.
Probably the best move they made was not going out of their way to sexy the
character up. Captain America is a square, old-school guy who feels at
right home in the world of Brillcream commercials, USO dances, military
bonds and gorgeous dames with gams that don’t quit.
Smartly, they hired Joe Johnston, a long-time b-level director who had
nailed this old-fashioned vibe years ago with his extremely similar 90s film
The Rocketeer (also based on a graphic novel about a square guy who
becomes a superhero by using a technical innovation during WWII).
Chris Evans, who has some Marvel comics experience from playing the Human
Torch in two Fantastic Four films, makes an impressively square hero
as a 90-pound weakling who becomes America’s greatest new fighting hope
through a mixture of science, patriotism, training
and good ol’
American hard work.
If
those laser guns the bad guys use seem a little futuristic for this 1940s
setting, it is in keeping with the lightly anachronistic thrills.
The
biggest complaint about this otherwise solid-if-not-overwhelmingly-good
series boot is that the entire concept behind the character is eventually
basically dumped in a tacked on coda which prepares the man in red, white
and blue for the upcoming Marvel All-Stars film The Avengers.
This
ending is, I think, supposed to be bittersweet, but instead it feels like
the character is being manipulated to make him something that he is not.
Dave Strohler
Copyright ©2011 PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Posted: July 29, 2011.
