My enthusiasm for this as one of the great comic book films has gone down over the years, but it's still a greatly entertaining comic book flick, despite a sketchy overall narrative, a disparate series of parts, and a rather forced set-up for Captain America in The Avengers.
A ★★★½ review of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
I always like this film better watching it than I remember liking it. Partly that’s because it’s a combo of multiple plots — the origin tale, the stage production, the war hero — and all of that tied up in the core story of the Red Skull vs. Captain America. These bits and bobs are disparate enough tonally that they fragment the movie as a whole. Coupled with the dubious rationale behind the conclusion (the plane crash), and the lack of a solid…
I can't disagree with you on the movie's faults, but it is by far my favorite of all comic book hero intro stories. It captures my favorite Marvel superhero perfectly.
I was a bit rushed in posting this, so I forgot these links:
Honest Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ist0v3Xhqzk
HISHE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruMO9SXto0Q
This movie actually threw a lot of people I know, because once you take away the flashy effects, it's basically a war movie.
If you go in expecting a superhero, you're going to be disappointed. Captain America, for the most part, isn't.
As a war movie, it's not bad, though, and it stands up pretty well, in that regard.
+James D. It hits that mark pretty well, though I think Iron Man (esp. the first half) is a match for it.
+Patrick Bick Cap is less a super-hero than a super-competent fighter on
steroidsscience! Beyond that, he's a symbol and inspiration, but can only be that once he's moved beyond being an intentional symbol and inspiration.If you think about it, aside from shield-slinging, there's nothing that Cap does that wouldn't be done (in another movie) by the Arnold or Stallone or [fill in Bond actor] or other Action Hero figure. The trick becomes, okay, then how to you make him different beyond the uniform (and shield)? And the answer is, he's a different personality than those guys — less death machine or obsessed vengeance-seeker or devil-may-care agent, and … well, patriot. Good guy. Someone trying to do what's right, less than just take out the bad guy.