Countdown To Avengers: Captain America - The First Avenger

Directed by Joe Johnston
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Cast
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Tommy Lee Jones as Chester Phillips
Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Sebastian Stan as James "Bucky" Barnes
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark
Neal McDonough as Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan
Derek Luke as Gabe Jones
Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine
Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita
Bruno Ricci as Jaques Dernier
J.J. Feild as James Montgomery Falsworth
Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
Richard Armitage as Heinz Kruger
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (cameo)

Out of all of the movies in the run-up to The Avengers, Captain America was the one I was most skeptical of. The whole patriotic flag-waving American thing just isn't something that I can relate to, especially when the costume is so gaudy, old-fashioned, and - unlike other superheroes - barely changed in the last 70 years. Of course, patriotism has been a big part of every superhero that debuted in that era, in which villains were invariably German or Japanese, and then a little later Russian and Chinese, but with Captain America... just his name makes it all that more blatant. Especially as most other superheroes have grown over the years to be flawed, and have the same issues that any ordinary human would have, and from what I can see, Cap has remained the idealist he was at his conception. Needless to say, I didn't bother going to see this movie at the cinema.

This decision turned out to be a big mistake, because not only is Captain America: The First Avenger a far better film that I expected, but it's also my favourite out of all of the movies produced by Marvel Studios so far. Joe Johnston took the 40's setting and ran with it, making a huge piece of pure fun entertainment not seen since Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade.

Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers. A short, scrawny asthmatic who doesn't have the physical specifications to be able to join the army and fight the Nazi's. What he does have, though is the heart and determination. Both of which are noticed by defected German scientist Abraham Erskine, creator of a serum to create a supersoldier. The serum has been used once before - by Johann Schmidt, the head of a secret Nazi group called H.Y.D.R.A. - but although it gave him the increased strength, speed and agility it also left him deformed. After going through boot camp, where Col. Chester Phillips dismisses Rogers out of hand, Steve finally goes through the procedure that is very similar to the one that Emil Blonsky underwent in The Incredible Hulk. Turns out that the super soldier serum takes the character traits of the subject, and makes them physical traits - explaining why Schmidt became the Red Skull, Blonsky began turning into a monster before Banner's blood turned him into the Abomination, and Rogers' pure heart makes him... a tall, muscular, handsome Aryan man. Yeah, it's pretty ironic that America's greatest hero is pretty much Hitler's wet dream.

So after becoming both the perfect physical specimen with new-found superhuman abilities do the army send him into the front line to take down the Hitler personally? No. They instead give him a gaudy costume and send him on a tour to raise war bonds under the pseudonym Captain America. Despite this being a complete waste of a perfectly good supersoldier, I actually think this was a good move by the writers. He didn't design his costume. He didn't come up with the vomit-inducing name. That was all manufactured for him by the army to sell war bonds. That not only makes a lot of sense, it's also a huge improvement on the source material. And it gives the filmmakers a chance to include images of Captain America Issue 1 in the storyline.

Whilst all of this is happening, though, Johann Schmidt has led an incursion into Norway in order to claim an ancient artifact. A tesseract - the same "Cosmic Cube" that was featured at the end of  Thor - which creates some pretty lethal energy weaponry when reverse-engineered. With this, he turns on Hitler, and leads H.Y.D.R.A. on their own path of domination, capturing a US army unit to experiment on along the way. Among the captured soldiers is Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers' best friend. Learning this from Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter gives Rogers the motivation he needs to disobey orders and lead an action-packed rescue mission with the help of Carter and a certain Howard Stark. From then on, this trio - along with the rescued soldiers and Col. Phillips - are an elite unit that are tasked with bringing down H.Y.D.R.A. before their plans come to fruition.

The cast of this movie are probably the most reliable since the original Iron Man. The camaraderie between Rogers, his men and Stark is believable, but pale in comparison to the sexual tension between he and Peggy Carter. There is none of the snark or bickering of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, but that doesn't make every scene they are in together anything less than electrifying. Tommy Lee Jones pretty much plays himself as Chester Phillips, but that's hardly a bad thing. And of course, Hugo Weaving can play a diabolical villain like Red Skull in his sleep. The pacing of the storyline is perfect for the first time in Marvel Studios history, with the movie starting excellently and not dipping in quality once (even for the troublesome final battle that has disappointed in most other Marvel movies in the past). The action is both exciting, and old-fashioned enough to really remind you of the great action scenes in Spielberg adventures of the 80's.

Unlike the other movies, references to the other Avengers' aren't as subtle. With the title and the inclusion of tesseract, the supersoldier program, Howard Stark et al, the entire storyline is pretty much one big reference to The Avengers. Not surprisingly, considering The Avengers takes place in present day, the movie ends with Steve waking up in the 21st Century after nearly 70 years "sleeping", and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury welcoming him. After the credits there is a brief collection of shots from The Avengers... and tomorrow I will be reviewing that movie.