In 1941, Captain America was introduced to the world by Marvel Comics and drawn by Joe Simon. But when I say Captain America, what does this conjure into your mind? Comic books, that many of us read as kids, hiding under our covers with a flashlight after bedtime? To me, it’s the image of Captain America on the cover running with his red, white and blue star shield held high, or running through the cover of the comic book ready for battle with his shield down low. Inspiring us through his adventures with battles with HYDRO and the Red Skeleton.
So, like me, I’m many of you were excited at the making of all our favorite comic book heroes coming to life. Opening day today and I was like a kid in a candy store. I paid my $13.25 admission and retrieved my 3D glasses. I settled into my seat in the middle of the theater. Not to high that I didn’t feel like I would miss the effects that it was intended for, but not so close to the screen that I felt I had to crane my neck up to look at the screen properly.
I sat through the movie, but not without fidgeting. I felt that I could have been somewhere else doing something more productive with my time. While Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black and Double Jeopardy), delivers and outstanding Colonel Chester Phillips, his role in the movie isn’t quiet as pivotal as one would think. The great Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia and The Devil Wears Prada), who always charms and makes me laugh, plays the good Doctor Abraham Erskine, who created the serum that would change both Steve Rogers/Captain America, and his archnemsis Red Skeleton/Johann Schmidt, played by Hugo Weaving (Transformers and Lord of the Rings). Amplifying the good and evil in each of these gentlemen. Unfortunately, Dr. Abraham Erskine is killed within the first 15 minutes of the movie and never has the chance to see the change, other than a brief glance.
Captain America, played by Chris Evans (Push and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) wasn’t a bad choice, as he looks, physically like the comic book character we’ve all grown to know. He’s supposed to be a humble boy from Brooklyn, New York, but he doesn’t sell it. He seems to have a chip on his shoulder. At the pivotal point in the middle of the movie, he tells his love interest that he alone must go and save the 177th Infantry Division on his own. His love interest Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell (Mansfield Park and The Duchess), can’t sell the part of a girl in the Army. Her English pedigree comes through and she shows that she is more suited for her past parts in the period pieces she is known for.
While the explosions and graphics are amazing, it wasn’t worth the price in 3D. It was mediocre at best, adn the dialogue could have been quite a bit better. While our hero doesn’t survive the war, he doesn’t perish to never return. They have him frozen in the Tundra in the plane he went down with carrying the weapons that Red Skeleton had placed on a course to destroy America. The directors left it open for the modern day world and wars to make a sequel. I highly recommend waiting for this to go to a dollar theater or even waiting to come out on DVD. You aren’t missing much, Captain America might be the hero, but the movie was not!
