Cinema Review: Captain America - The First Avenger (2011)

As the last of Marvel's A-list names to reach the big screen in the current batch of comic book adaptations, the challenge faced by Captain America is more than simply living up to what's gone before. It presents the unique difficulty of its innate jingoism. Who could take seriously a hero calling himself Captain America, except proud Americans? The way the filmmakers of Captain America: The First Avenger (to give it its whole, clunky, sequel-teasing title) tackle this thorny issue is inspired. They embrace the inherent cheesiness of the concept while simultaneously managing to suppress its ridiculousness. In this incarnation, Captain America is a promotional tool concocted by the US military to raise money for the war effort against Hitler. The goofy costume, faithful to the last thread, even makes an appearance, but no-one is expecting a straight face here. That's not to say, though, that the film is a comedy. It in fact plays everything with real sincerity, sidestepping the potential pitfalls with ingenuity and style.

Of course, this Captain America does not last the whole film without upgrading his duds: the one shown in the promotional photography is the more practical, and frankly cool, version that appears once he starts kicking Nazi butt, against the orders of his superiors. Such an upstanding, morally sound character could have been dull, but in the hands of Chris Evans - the best thing about the Fantastic Four movies, another Marvel property - he's likeable and interesting. He's given a great arc, with an origin story that feels worth the time spent on it; in fact this is one of those occasions where the origin half of the tale make be the best. Evans' Steve Rogers starts out hilariously scrawny, thanks to the wonders of CG trickery, before beefing up in the super-soldier experiment that turns him into the one-man army of the title. The early scenes for once seem worthwhile rather than perfunctory, demonstrating great wit and sense of period.

Indeed, the period setting is one of the reasons Captain America feels so fresh. The World War II era may be well mined on screen but not in this genre, resulting in a mix of the familiar (evil Nazis!) with the new (evil Nazis versus a superhero in World War II!). In fact, Cap's super-humanness is toned down to simply heightened levels of strength, speed and agility, making him more relatable than, say, the impervious Superman. The film's Indiana Jones overtones cannot be a coincidence, director Joe Johnston having worked alongside Spielberg, his career starting at ILM before directing the likes of The Rocketeer (a test run for this film, it now seems) and Jurassic Park III. Hugo Weaving's villain, the diabolical Red Skull, is a match for Raiders' menagerie of menaces, chewing the scenery with glee.

Where it falls short of Indy's genre-defining heights is in its pacing - sometimes sluggish where it should be sprightly - and reluctance to go all-out in the action scenes, none of which offer anything new. But still the film's emphasis on character is commendable, its steady action-adventure construction endearingly old fashioned. Alan Silvestri's score is also a throwback, with not an electronic note to be found and with a pleasing propensity for the traditional fanfare and recognisable themes. These elements cohere in what may be Marvel's best internally produced effort yet - yes, better than Iron Man - and certainly its best lead-in to The Avengers. Unfortunately, the need to set up next year's big conflagration cheapens the finale of this film somewhat, but it still does manage to stand alone as a satisfying adventure within its own right, to an extent that its stablemates have not managed.



Summary
An enjoyable wartime adventure cast from the same mould as Indiana Jones, Captain America may not be quite the effortless heroic yarn it aspires to be, but its sheer entertainment value is hard to knock.