Captain America: The First Avenger

"I've knocked out Hitler two hundred times."

I can't believe it took a month for this movie to come out in Finland after its so-called "world premiere". I don't mind the cold weather or high taxes here, but the movie release dates suck. At least this didn't take as long as the Disney movies do...

Captain America: The First Avenger is the fifth installment of the Marvel Movieverse, but takes place before any of the others. Aside from framing scenes at the beginning and end, the movie details the history of the eponymous superhero during the early 1940s. Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans) is a frail but idealistic Brooklynite youngster who is denied recruitment to the U.S. army time and time again due to his asthma. During one of his attempts at recruiting he is overheard by Dr. Erskine, the leader of a supersoldier program. Rogers is recruited to become the prototype of a new generation of soldiers, but ends up being the only one of the bunch.

Stuck with a single supersoldier with no combat experience, the army decides to do what any sensible organisation would. They make him a mascot for their propaganda machine. Rogers in discontent with dancing and singing, though, and strives to get to real heroics. Meanwhile a grim Nazi mystic named Johann Schmidt, or Red Skull (played by Hugo Weaving), who has a connection with Rogers, uncovers an object you might have seen in Marvel's earlier summer release and uses it for his own ends.

Now let's get something out of the way: I personally have almost no patience for nationalism in movies, and even less so for Yank nationalism. It should be an indicator of something when I say that this movie never made me groan or roll my eyes. Braveheart was more overbearingly American than Captain America is, and Braveheart was supposed to take place in freaking Scotland. So to my fellow Europeans or what have we, I implore you: give this movie a chance. It never tells us the importance of liberty and freedom and the apple pie. It's written for everyone, not just for Yanks.

With that said, I liked this movie. It wasn't perfect, but it was probably my favourite superhero movie thus far. Like with Thor, the structure of the plot is its weakest component. The time in between Cap's first mission and the final battle is too short. The movie could have been ten minutes longer, with the time used to either add in some slightly more subtle action or a scene with Rogers visiting his neighbourhood and reminiscing about old times or something. As it is, the movie's speed keeps picking up after the superpower injection, and it suffers from not slowing down enough before the third act

The performances are good more often than not. Chris Evans manages to be idealistic and righteous without being arrogant or holier-than-thou, and he emotes really well. I'm not sure (and am too lazy to check) how they accomplished the differences between his appearance before and after the injections, but whatever the effect, it's really convincing. I kinda wanted him to pull out a skateboard at some point, though. Hugo Weaving could be a bit hammier for increased enjoyability, but I think it would have just turned Red Skull into Agent Smith, which would have been distracting. Hayley Atwell plays the British love interest well enough, though I found the character a bit bland. Tommy Lee Jones does his usual thing as Colonel Totally-Not-Patton, finally redeeming himself for agreeing to do Men In Black 2. Dominic Cooper tries to measure up to Robert Downey Jr. as Howard Stark, but he's kind of forgettable.

The action is great, and there's a wide variety of it. We get sneaking around, fist fights, shield-throwing, gunfights and chase scenes. Some of the bigger action scenes are a bit confusingly written, though, such as a scene where the bad guys' lair isn't in alert while the good guys are swarming around and blowing shit up until Red Skull himself notices it, or when the allied army forsakes all contemporary military tactics and does a WW1-style charge toward the enemy.

I recommend Cap to anyone who likes superhero films or action films. It's a movie about the little guy getting a chance to do big heroics, and despite the name and the setting, it's applicable to all nationalities (yes, even Germans). If you've never seen or read Captain America before, then this is a great way to introduce yourself to him. Don't miss the film.