17 August 2011

Captain America : The First Avenger



Plot Summary 
It is 1942, America has entered World War II, and sickly but determined Steve Rogers is frustrated at being rejected yet again for military service. Everything changes when Dr. Erksine recruits him for the secret Project Rebirth. Proving his extraordinary courage, wits and conscience, Rogers undergoes the experiment and his weak body is suddenly enhanced into the maximum human potential. When Dr. Erksine is then immediately assassinated by an agent of Nazi Germany's head of its secret HYDRA research department, Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull, Rogers is left as a unique man who is initially misused as a propaganda mascot. However, when his comrades need him, Rogers goes on a successful adventure that truly makes him Captain America and his war against Schmidt begins. imdb

Movie Box
Director Joe Johnston
Producer Kevin Feige
Screenplay Christopher Markus
Stephen McFeely
Based on Captain America by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
Music Alan Silvestri
Cinematography Shelly Johnson
Editing Robert Dalva
Jeffrey Ford
Studio Marvel Studios
Distributor Paramount Pictures
Release Dates 19 July 2011 (World Premiere)
22 July 2011 (United States)
Running Time 2 hours, 4 minutes

Cast
Chris Evans Steve Rogers/Captain America
Hayley Atwell Peggy Carter
Hugo Weaving Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
Sebastian Stan Sgt. James "Bucky" Barnes
Tommy Lee Jones Col. Chester Phillips
Dominic Cooper Howard Stark
Neal McDonough Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan
Derek Luk Gabe Jones
Stanley Tucci Dr. Abraham Erskine
Kenneth Choi Jim Morita
Bruno Ricci Jacques Dernier
JJ Feild James Montgomery Falsworth
Toby Jones Arnim Zola

REEL Review 
I know nothing about Captain America, aside from the fact the he is a Marvel superhero. If it were not for my college friends who invited me to join them, I might not watch this movie on big screen.

Chris Evans portrayed the character well. Aside from his yumminess like Thor (but i still like Thor more), his acting is good. Maybe because it was my first time to see Hayley Atwell, that is why I think there is lacking in her. Her team up with Evans has no chemistry. I don't know if this is because the romance part is not really given emphasis on the film unlike the Spiderman film and Transformers. A different actress might make the love team 'waffier'. 

I appreciate the 40s setup and costumes. Hayley's make up and hair looked good on her. Some might even feel nostalgic - you know, the nazi stuff and all. Made me wonder at first if there would be other villains besides Red Skull. And speaking of the villain, Hugo Weaving had finally came out on screen to act as the bad guy himself after voicing Megatron on the three Transformer films (not to mention his great portrayal of Elrond on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy). 

Johnston was able to extradite the sense of this superhero film. It was during World War 2, the height of the war. How will anyone think of having a great looking guy perfect to look like a superhero and represent and promote war bonds? A mixture of a serious and jest progeny. Yet the director and his writers (Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely) have successfully surmounted the plot. And from being a role model and promoter comes out the outburst of Captain America, triggered by his kind and friendly personality. The writers were also able to overturn the usual military vs Nazi setting to a military vs some villain context lead by Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) where they were in search for the Red Skull's bases called the Hydra.

And talking about CGI these days, would there any be impossible things left? From a tall, hunky and lumpy Chris Evans comes out a short, skinny and frail pre-super-serum Steve Rogers. I just noticed that some of the angles make Steve really small, specifically his scene with Peggy in the taxi on their way to the lab for the treatment. He was like a 9-year old kid there.

What I like best in this movie is having Howard Stark, Iron Man's daddy, to be conjoined in the film - bridging the conception of Marvel characters.

Rolling of credits in the end of the movie took 3-5 minutes, but we really waited to see the epilogue, connecting Captain America to next year's summer hit - The Avengers. 

Maybe not one of Marvel's best films, but Captain America : The First Avenger was able to show good perception as to what a superhero should be. The skinny Steve Rogers was not actually a superhero in the making, but already a hero to the world. Iron Man film is better than this, still I'm giving it a positive review. A typical superhero film, nothing so special, yet decent.




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