Captain America

Released: July 19th, 2011
Director: Joe Johnston
Ok, so Marvel have taken the gloves off now, forget all the nudges, winks and eyepatches the last few films have been subtly ramming up our bums, it's Avengers o'clock and here's the first one! Captain America introduces one of the trickiest characters for an audience to attach to in the Marvel (sigh) Universe, America have sort of blotted their copybook by doing some fairly unpopular wars over the past few years and to push being "American" to be as good as being "Iron" or "Hulky", is a tough sell.


So what have they done? There's a British lady in it! Dominic Cooper plays Howard Stark! There's a man in a Bowler hat! In other words, lots. It's really pushed into the background how American this guy is, the doctor that makes him super is a German, and the Americans he's fighting for (except for the bloody brave soldiers) tend to look a bit like dicks in this film, and that's pretty brave for the filmmakers.



One feeling I did come away with from this movie was, "What's next?" All the way through, I felt like I was waiting for the real movie to start (This feeling is known as Incepectation) and I don't think it really will until we see the Avengers. It trotted along nicely with some nice set pieces and some not too boring exposition, setting 95% of the film in Old-Timey days was a good move too, it puts the audience in a mindset of "America is OK" and also "All of this crazy stuff probably did happen" so alot of the mad science can be forgiven. There's alot of silliness at the start with skinny Chris Evans but it basically does the job of setting the scene. Although this film is basically a big AVENGERS IS COMING WE PROMISE it does it's best not to feel like it, and Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant.



Here's your crib sheet:
Best Bit: Captain America and Red Skull Facing off over an exploding warehouse, really dramatic first "Proper" meeting of the leads. (Hugo Weaving is flipping brilliant)
Worst Bit: When the idiot ginger kid gets dropped in the river, Captain America has time to stop and let him crack wise? The bollocks alarm has gone off.
Say This: An entertaining movie with the right amount of explosions to keep the story going. 
Don't Ask: Why was the guy allowed to keep his bowler hat on? In a WAR?