Box Office Review - Captain America: The First Avenger

The best thing about Captain America is that it's fun. This seems to be a rarity in today's theatres, especially in the Summertime when movies are supposed to be fun. The film is extremely simple, but this is a positive. Captain America is good and he wears blue. Red Skull is evil and he is red. Red fights to destroy the world and blue fights to save it. This is pure comic book formula and it is nice to see a film that doesn't try to be anything more than its source material.

Seeing as comic book films have been popular for years now, big name actors are often brought it to portray characters, even if said actor isn't the right choice. Thankfully Captain America is one of the best cast Marvel films so far released. Chris Evans gives a performance filled with sincerity and heart, and even when he is portraying the pre-transformed Steve Rogers he is great. The same can be said for Hayley Atwell who plays Captain's love interest Peggy Carter. Not only does she give a performance that is both strong and sweet, but she and Evans have very good chemistry together. Hugo Weaving gives a good bad because he is bad performance as Red Skull, and his German accent is solid. Attention should also be given to Toby Jones, Dominic Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones, and Stanley Tucci who all do a good job filling out the supporting cast.

Captain America is directed by Joe Johnston, who also directed The Rocketeer, and if there is one thing in common between both films, it is the classic action scenes. Captain is filled with scenes involving explosions and people getting punched. These scenes take place in weapons factories and secret bases in the alps. Capt. rides around on a motorcycle that has a flame thrower on the back of it and he disposes of motorcycling badies like he is Luke Skywalker on the moon of Endor. I guess it is just nice to have a hero, especially a super one who destroys his enemies in a practical way rather than with outlandish super powers.

I was hoping that I would enjoy this film and I did. I have seen it twice now, and had fun watching it both times. It does suffer from being a bit long and I hope that the trend of making Blockbusters two plus hours long will die soon. If a film is long, there better be a reasons for it, and there is no reason why Captain America should be two hours. I feel it would have been a better film if it ran a tight hour and thirty minutes. This is a small quibble, but the length does affect my wanting to watch this again anytime soon. Still, the most important thing about this film is that it delivers a fun time and that is more than I can say for the majority of movies this Summer.

A Good Banana