Growing up, I was constantly surrounded by superhero movies. Marvel, in particular, was always in theaters, in toy stores, on T-shirts, everywhere!
I never really had much interest in Marvel until my parents decided to rent this movie through Netflix, and it came in the mail in the red envelope (yes, that’s how long ago it was). I didn’t love it at first, but over time and in hindsight, I credit this film for my obsession with Marvel movies. I think it’s one of the strongest films in the franchise, potentially even one of the best superhero movies of all time.
Captain America: The First Avenger tells the origin story of Steve Rogers, a young man who wanted to fight for his country during World War II but wasn’t strong enough to enlist. He is then chosen to be experimented on with a new serum, making him taller and giving him the strength to fight against the Nazi-based organization HYDRA.
Per usual, I want to discuss how good the acting is in this movie. Chris Evans is a known movie star nowadays for good reason: he is fantastic at playing a fish out of water in war with a strong desire to protect his country, like Steve Rogers. I’ll admit, however, that he’s a little hard to look at in the first part when he’s not all muscled up (his face was computer-generated onto a smaller body to achieve Steve’s pre-serum look). The supporting cast is excellent as well, composed of Hugo Weaving and Toby Jones as villains, Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci as military good guys, and Hayley Atwell and Sebastian Stan as Steve Rogers’ love interest and best friend.
On top of the acting, there are other really great elements. I love a good period piece; the music and action scenes help add to the atmosphere. The music by Alan Silvestri is upbeat and patriotic, and “Star Spangled Man” is catchy and hilarious within the USO montage in the middle of the movie. The action scenes are safe and comic-bookish in the best way, with lots of punches flying and “people getting bopped on the head,” in my mom’s words.
One of the biggest complaints against this movie is that the character of Steve Rogers is a bit boring. Even compared to the other Avengers, he’s just a very righteous guy who wants to fight for his country. While the problem arguably gets solved in later movies (the sequel to this is a perfect movie, but that’s a story for another review), this movie treats us to an extremely righteous Steve Rogers, almost to an annoying extent. However, I think this is done purposefully to emphasize his innocence, which gets muddled by the horrors of loss and war, and the insane time-jump ending.
Long story short, this movie is a fantastic origin story for one of the MCU’s best heroes!
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