A close friend of mine bought me the single disc version of movie, Captain America: The First Avenger. If you don't have a Blue Ray DVD player, or a desire to own a digital copy of the film, I don't see any sense in spending a ton of money for some of these 3-disc sets that the studios are putting out now. I mean the only thing I want besides the film are some descent "Behind-the-Scenes" featurettes. The rest of these packages are worthless in my opinion.
Anyway, I have vague memories of the Captain America comic books from the sixties when I was growing up, but the movie this summer, Captain America: The First Avenger, got the better reviews from amongst Green Lantern and Thor, so it seemed like a good one to watch. Plus, 99% of the movie takes place during World War II. I like really that period of time in American history, though I wasn't born till 1950.
The movie starts off in the present with scientists finding an aircraft frozen in the ice with a body not far from it. The frozen individual has a red, white and blue suit on, along with a round shield. Now, cut back to World War II and to Chris Evans (he played the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies)who's playing a young, rather fragile Steve Rogers with asthma problems. Steve wants to enlist in the Army, but can't pass the physical. All of this friends are enlisting, and he feels the need to carry on the tradition of his father. The fact that he's getting beat up left and right by bullies doesn't seem to faze him about fighting the Nazi, who are meaner and tougher.
When Dr. Abraham Erskine (played by Stanley Tucci) overhears Steve's problems and his ernest desire to serve America, he offers the young man a chance to be part of a new scientific program called Rebirth. Steve jumps at the opportunity and soon his body is transformed into the ultimate male speciment with enhanced speed, strength, agility, and thinking abilities. During the transformation, Dr. Erskine is murdered by a Nazi Spy that was sent by Hydra Organization, runned by the evil Red Skull. Steve, in his new body, chases down the killer through the streets of New York City and inadvertently has his picture taken. He quickly becomes a national hero, and the Army is fast to use him as a mascot to sell War Bonds, dressing him in a costume and calling him Captain America, which the soldiers boo and make fun of.
Naturally, Steve Rogers wants to be in Europe, fighting the Huns and saving the world from domination. He soon gets to do that when his best friend, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is captured by the Nazis. Against the advice and wishes of Colonel Chester Phillips (played by the old-looking, but still powerful Tommy Lee Jones) and the gorgeous agent, Peggy Carter (played by Hayley Atwell), Steve goes to rescue of his friend and dozens of other soldiers from the same regiment. This is his first encounter with the Red Skull (played by Hugo Weaving).
Because of this successful rescue, Steve is soon referred to with all seriousness and respect as Captain America and dresses the part. This starts a series of takedowns of the Red Skull's lairs and a personal battle between this crazed Nazi soldier and Captain America. Also, Peggy Carter has fallen in love with Steve, but he fails to notice it until it's too late.
I wish I'd seen this movie as a kid. It was a great Saturday-morning pulp feature with lots of action, special effects, and patriotism thrown right into your face. It was certainly a feel-good movie, until the ending that takes you back to the present and the beginning of The Avengers as led by Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson in his best tought-guy role).
If the Fantastic Four is brought back as a third film, the studios will need to find someone else to play the Human Torch. Chris Evans is Captain America, the ultimate American hero, and I don't see him going back to playing a matchstick. I have say that Chris captured the role perfectly, showing strength, bravery, flaws as a human being, and the naivete of the young men at that time. In other words, he plays a damn good hero that you quickly learn to care about and root for in the battle sequences.
Also, it took me a while to figure this out, but at first I thought Dominic Cooper was playing Tony Stark (Iron Man), and I kept wondering what he was doing in this particular time period. But, it was Howard Stark, which I assume was Tony's father. He was a scientific genius who created all sorts of neat and usable gadets for Captain America to use and to make his fabulous fortune which Tony would inherit down the road.
Hugo Weaving was fantastic as the Red Skull with his deep, resonant voice. Hugo knows how to play villians and always gives it his all. I did, however, keep expecting him to say something from The Matrix like, "Do you know what that is, Mr. Rogers? That's the sound of inevitibility." The makeup for the Red Skull was right on. It looked like his actual skin.
Now, I wasn't familiar with Hayley Atwell as an actress before this movie, but when she came out in her red dress to give some information to Steve Rogers, my heart did a little flip flop like I'm sure his did. She played a great, very strong, female character for the time period, and I hated not to see them get together by the end of the film. This isn't a spoiler because you know something happened due to the opening scenes in the movie.
Boy, either Tommy Lee Jones had a lot of old-age makeup on him, or he's gotten old as hell during the past couple of years. Seeing him as this Army character reminded me of how old I've gotten, and that's not a pleasant thought. Still, Tommy always plays a man in charge perfectly, and I found myself jumping to attention whenever he came on screen.
As you can tell, I enjoyed this movie. It was fun and entertaining on many levels. I do wish there had been more special featurettes on the disc, but this was the single-disc edition, and the studios aren't putting much on them any more, wanting you to instead buy the more expensive versions. The disc did have a couple of featurettes on the history of Captain America in the comics and the creation of his uniform and shield and how some of the special effects were done. They were quite informative, but left you wanting more, especially if you like the stuff about the making of movies.
Like I said, this is a great film to watch on a Saturday. It will make you feel like a happy kid again, which is a good thing. Give it a shot and see what you think.
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