The Film Thugs Movie Show

Captain America

When it comes to comic books there are two wildly different worlds: fans and outsiders. The distance between the two is so vast and rigid that they are essentially different species. The fans have their own language, customs, and lens for viewing popular culture. Even though there are different levels and faction, but they are all very much in the same camp.

This makes it kind of difficult to navigate the world of comic book films. They are made for everyone, but have to appease two completely disparate audiences. To outsiders comic book characters are top tier super heroes (Superman, Batman, Spiderman, The X-Men, Iron Man [as of the movies], The Hulk), recognizable ones you know nothing about aside from maybe their powers (Green Lantern, Daredevil, The Punisher, Captain America, Thor), and the completely obscure (Alpha Flight, Elektra, Iron Fist, etc.).

That’s how they break down in outsider circles. To insiders all of these characters are somewhat familiar. Hell, even the top tier ones are more familiar. I would wager that I was the only person at my advanced screening of X3 who knew, before seeing him, why Jamie Madrox could be problematic.

However, as I mentioned in my “X-Men: First Class” review, Hollywood is the girl who falls in love during the first date and knows that this relationship will last forever and never have any problems. Some comic movies started doing well, therefore everyone everywhere wants to watch comic book movies all the time and will never ever ever get tired of them. How do you balance the known with the unknown? Which will be popular?

For years all you could really count on were Superman, Batman, The Hulk, and Spider Man coming around every few years. Then, a few second tier properties became mainstream. X-Men was big in the insider world, but not really known outside of it. Then the movie hit and everyone was suddenly wise in the ways of mutants. People were aware of Iron Man, but probably couldn’t name Tony Stark until the Faverau movie came out.

There is always a gamble. Is this going to be the obscure property to break through?

I was a bit of a fringe outsider for years. There were a few books I read, mostly mainstream alternative titles, but just being part of the world forced an awareness that most outsiders don’t have. Suddenly I was aware of multiple human Green Lanterns. I knew that Hal Jordan was the holy grail, but that John Stewart was pretty popular, and that Kyle Rayner was pretty powerful. I know that there is little respect for Aquaman or Prince Nemor. For some reason I even know that Wolverine was a member of Alpha Flight for a while. It’s just a part of that world.

So, the recent spate of comic films has been… well, a bit perplexing to me. Having inside heroes like Green Lantern, Thor, and Captain America all come out in the same year just feels like stacking gamble on top of gamble.

I know very little about Captain America. Basically, I know that Steve Rogers was a physically weak man with an incredibly strong will and fierce sense of duty who becomes part of a military experiment to create a unit of super soldiers. The procedure is a success, but the scientist who perfected it is killed before any more people can undergo it. He goes against a villain named Red Skull, who is so named because he has one.

The only reason I know this is because I saw the 1990 direct to video disaster. That being my main background, my hopes were pretty low.

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised. Captain America: The First Avenger isn’t a Spider Man or Nolan Batman level success, but it is a fairly solid action movie with a lot of heart.

Chris Evans has done a good job moving beyond the wisecracking pretty boy roles he seemed destined to play. He delivers a fairly compelling performance as both the small and frail Steve Rogers and transitions that sense of fierce determination beautifully to the superhero persona.

Hugo Weaving nails it as Red Skull, but there isn’t really much surprise there. The rest of the cast is pretty spot on, especially Haley Atwell who comes off both stern and sensitive as Peggy Carter, one of the military liaisons to the Captain America project.

The CGI was not, thankfully, distractingly over the top as it is in most of the movies of this type. Yeah, there was no shortage of it, but it was reserved in usage.

All in all, I enjoyed it. The recruitment, training, the struggle to gain respect, the missions were all decently entertaining. But the ending got a bit wacky. Gratanted, we were dealing with a superhero film, so wackiness is something you kind of expect. But there is an actual story here that is told pretty well. This wasn’t just a collection of cool action scenes and impressive looking set pieces. The very ending was a bit much for me, but it did fit, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

In the end, Captain America isn’t a movie I will seek out to watch again, but I am by no means upset that I saw it. I only wish more productions took this angle, focusing on a person who goes on a journey based on decisions they made based on their established personality and not just some guy who can do cool things that a bunch of stuff happens to and near. But I realize that this is asking too much. So, enjoy one of the good ones and accept it for what it is and try not to worry too much about the upcoming sequels that will quickly choke out any and all good will you have towards it.