Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Starring Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, and Stanley Tucci
Directed by Joe Johnston
I don't know whether it's the fault of the script, an inherent flaw of the character itself (for I'm not a comic book fan in the slightest), or the performance of Chris Evans, but Captain America is utterly bland. While there was some promise when our hero was the gangly and weak Steve Rogers, a man desperate to serve his country via the military, as soon as he is recruited into the army and injected with some superhuman steroids, the buffed-up Captain America turns into a muddled mess. Sent out on various missions to help take down the Nazis in WWII, our hero lacks any defining personality and, because of the fact that he's essentially just a really strong and smart human, he is devoid of any really cool superhero power...sorry, a bulletproof shield just ain't gonna cut it in terms of cool gadgets.
It certainly doesn't help matters that Captain America is surrounded by bland supporting actors as well. Sure, Tommy Lee Jones was perfectly adequate as the gruff army supervisor and Stanley Tucci made the most of his bit part as the quirky scientist who turns Steve Rogers into the fighting machine that he becomes, but they lack the pizzazz needed for a good supporting cast member in a film like this -- if your superhero is bland, you better at least surround them with some secondary characters who at the very least provide a laugh or two. Similarly, although Hayley Atwell is beautiful to look at, her role as the required love interest is such a throwaway, lacking any reasoning for existence in the grand scheme of the plot. You're not required to give us a love story, folks, if it doesn't fit in the grand scheme of things.
And you can just couple all that with a villain who just didn't work for me in the slightest. The notion of why the Red Skull - a Nazi "defector" of sorts -- does what he does beyond the vainglorious eccentricity of his outrageous schemes is all but lost. As the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) tries to take over the world with his undeniably cool laser guns that seemingly evaporate his victims into thin air without a trace, there was never any real sense of danger and, quite honestly, much like his heroic counterpart, there wasn't any personality to either fear or love to hate.
Admittedly, the effect of placing Chris Evans's face onto the scrawny body of Steve Rogers Benjamin Button-style was cool and surprisingly successful in terms of technique. And, as I mentioned above, I appreciate the rather nifty 1940s style director Joe Johnston brings to the film (including a nifty "cliffhanger-ish" ending like the serials of the past), but he's done this vibe before in a much better movie two decades ago -- The Rocketeer. Considering there are better comic book films out there this year alone, Captain America simply isn't worth your time.
The RyMickey Rating: D+
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