Review written by Christian Garcia
Today I am looking at Captain America! One of Marvel's most iconic superheroes!
I was first made aware of Captain America through the Marvel vs. Capcom games. His bright and colorful costume caught my attention, and he was one of the heroes I always chose. I remember getting an action figure of him that also came with Akuma from Street Fighter. Spider-Man: The Animated Series did a story arch about the Six Forgotten Warriors, and it was here I learned more about Captain America's story and first learned about the Red Skull.
When I heard that Marvel was going to do a Captain America film, I was excited to see how he would look on the big screen. Upon my first viewing of the film, I was not a big fan. I fell asleep halfway through and thought it was campy, corny, and boring. A few years later, I gave it another look and enjoyed it much more the second time around. Now upon my third viewing, does this film hold up? Let's take a look.
The Hero:
Steve Rogers is an honorable man who never backs down from a fight even if he knows he can’t win. As he always says, "I can do this all day." That never say die attitude is what makes Captain America an iconic role model.
He is not the biggest or the strongest, but he is tough and has heart He begins as scrawny, weakling with a lot of heart. He keeps getting beat up but never stays down. He wishes to join the army not to kill anyone but to stop bullies and to protect people. Once he is given the super soldier serum, he becomes stronger and more agile. But even with his added physical attributes, he still maintains his morale core.
He always stands up for what is right and puts others before himself. His choices throughout the film are usually made for the betterment of others rather than for himself. He risks his life to save his best friend, Bucky. He makes a choice at the end of the film that he knows will cost him everything but will save the rest of the world and he stands his ground in doing so. His biggest pro is also his biggest flaw in that he is always putting others before himself and as we see in later films, the cost of that begins to weigh on him. Watching him deal with the consequences of his choices in later films make him one of the most compelling of the Marvel heroes.
The Hero's Journey:
In the beginning of the film, he is a skinny young man with a list of medical issues that prevent him from joining the army. He applied 4 different times and was rejected each time. He meets Dr. Abraham Erskine who sees something in the young Rogers. He allows Rogers to enlist and keeps an eye on him.
During training, Rogers meets Colonel Chester Phillips (played by Tommy Lee Jones) and agent Peggy Carter (played Hayley Atwell). Phillips dismisses Rogers due to his small stature, but Erskine and Carter see the heart that he has. He throws himself in front of a dummy grenade during training to protect others and Phillips begins to relent. Erskine selects Rogers to undergo the Super Soldier experiment. They have a touching conversation the night before, where Erskine warns him about what the serum did to Johann Schmidt and makes Rogers promise him that no matter how strong the serum makes him to always be a good man.
The next day, Rogers undergoes the experiment and becomes the Super Soldier and right away puts his new attributes to the test as an assassin infiltrates the demonstration, kills Erskine, and attempts to steal the last vile of the serum. Rogers makes chase and eventually foils the man. Rogers makes headlines after this and is made into a war hero known as Captain America and tours the country in a colorful costume. He is not satisfied being just a stage show act and wants to do more. While performing another one his shows, he is heckled by servicemen and comes to grips with what he's doing. He learns that his best friend Bucky is MIA and refusing to leave his friend to die, goes on how own to rescue him. He infiltrates HYDRA's headquarters and rescues Bucky and his unit, comes face to face with the Red Skull and returns as a hero.
Afterwards, he assembles a team with Bucky and other soldiers, and they take down the remaining HYDRA locations. Unfortunately, during one of their missions, Bucky falls off the train during battle and is lost. Rogers is crushed by the loss of his best friend but does not stay down for long. Like Thor, Rogers is the kind of hero that even at his lowest moments does not stay down for long, picks himself up and keeps going. He leads an assault on HYDRA's stronghold and has a final confrontation with the Red Skull. After Red Skull is defeated, Cap must make a tough decision he knows will cost him his life but save millions of other lives. He bids his love, Peggy farewell, makes a date for a dance before presumably plunging to his doom. Again, making a choice for the betterment of others rather than his own self-interest.
The film ends with Cap waking up in modern day New York and discovers he has been asleep for 70 years. A result that will weigh on him heavily in future films.
The Villain:
Johann Schmidt, aka the Red Skull, (played by Hugo Weaving) is the head of HYDRA, the special weapons division of the Nazi Party. Being one of Hitler's confidants, Schmidt had more ambition which lead him to Dr. Abraham Eskrine and his Super Soldier Serum. Schmidt ends up testing the serum on himself but since it was not yet perfected, he suffers devastating side effects from it that leave him disfigured and gains him the name, the Red Skull.
The film begins with Schmidt finding the Tesseract which he believes will give him the power to win the war and rule the world. Schmidt is driven by his ego and ambition for world domination. At first, he is acting on behalf of the Nazis but once he discovers the power of the Tesseract, he believes he has outgrown being behind Hitler's shadow. He demonstrates the power of the Tesseract on three Nazi commanders and vows that he and HYDRA will rule the world.
The Film's Pros:
Chris Evans
Chris Evans makes Captain America come to life. He captures the kind nature of Steve Rogers and fits the physical description of Captain America. When I watch this film, I don’t see Chris Evans playing Captain America; I see Captain America.
He shows the toughness of Captain America and the vulnerability of Steve Rogers. When Steve is at his low moments, you feel it and sympathize. He is not comical like Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark or Hemsworth’s Thor, but he doesn’t need to be. Captain America is more of the straight man and the ultimate good guy. He brings the role model aspect of Captain to life and makes the viewer want to get behind him.
This film is a great redemption for Evans, who previously worked with Marvel in the less than Fantastic Four movies. It is nice to see him get another chance to be a superhero and he knocks it out of the park. In recent years I have become a fan of his work. His performance in later Marvel film as well as in films like Knives Out really show what a talented actor he has become.
Peggy Carter
Peggy Carter is one of the best female characters in the Marvel Universe. She has the same tough, never-say-die attitude that makes us and Steve fall in love with her. Her introduction is great where she punches out Gilmore Hodge for mocking her British accent and for making misogynistic comments. When watching this with my girlfriend, she cheered at her actions and as the film went on grew to love Peggy. She is not a damsel in distress and can fight her own battles. Even when Steve saves her, she chastises him claiming she had the shot.
She is also a great support system for Steve. She encourages him telling him he is meant for so much more. When he goes off to rescue Bucky and his unit, she goes with him and helps his cause. After Bucky is lost in battle, she comforts Steve and reminds him that Bucky made a choice to be there for him and that Steve needs to honor that.
What makes her a great love interest is the fact that she and Steve have great chemistry. Their first interaction is touching when she makes fun of him for not knowing how to talk to women and they talk about dancing and finding the right partner. Their chemistry makes the ending even more gut wrenching when Steve must bid her farewell knowing he will likely perish. But instead of a tearful goodbye, they make plans to meet up and have a dance. It is a touching moment that becomes more heart wrenching when he wakes up 70 years later with the last line being, “I had a date.” My girlfriend reacted with “Aww that’s so sad.”
Peggy would go on to have her own show and deservedly so. She is an empowering character that held her own amongst a group of men and at times towered over others. She is a great support for Steve and helped make him the hero that he becomes.
The Film's Con:
The Red Skull
Like Obadiah Stane, Schmidt is a good obstacle for Captain America to overcome. He represents a threat to the people that Cap is sworn to protect and must be stopped. He fills the role of the classic super villain that wants to conquer the world. However, while he fits the role of that antagonist, he does not bring much more to the table. He, like Stane, does not make for an interesting villain and is even less interesting than Stane. He is a more run-of-the-mill type of villain. He does not really pose much of a threat to Captain America either. Without the Tesseract, he felt like someone that Captain America easily could have beaten. He and Captain America do not interact that much throughout the film so there is no rivalry built between them. They have one interaction when Rogers is rescuing Bucky but after that they do not see each other again until the climax. The climax itself is not that bad but again, when these two came face to face, it is not that epic.
Red Skull took the same super soldier serum as Cap, albeit a less perfected version that left him disfigured. But that felt like something that was going to factor in later and it ended up not amounting to anything. If they were going to include that factor, they should have given him the same strength and agility that Captain America had and made them evenly matched physically. Cap using his newfound strength and agility against someone who had the same enhancement for years would have made for a more interesting rivalry. They should have fought one on one, no weapons and after seeing that he could not best Rogers, then resort to using a weapon, acting both cowardly and villainous. Or they could have revealed a weakness in the Red Skull that came from the serum before it was ready and factoring into his defeat. Had they fleshed this out more, Schmidt would have made for a stronger villain and rival.
As is, Red Skull is more of an obstacle for our hero to overcome rather than an interesting villain that we want to see be stopped. He does not leave much of an impact on the film and results in another weak villain in the MCU.
Notable Mention:
CG Tiny Chris Evans
This is more of a nit-pick than a serious issue with the film which is why I chose not to make it a con. But the CG used to make Chris Evans appear smaller is laughably bad. It does not look convincing at all and reminds me of the flashback scenes in George Lopez where they would put his big head on a child's body for comedic effect.
In my last two viewings of this film, I found myself laughing at the first site of Steve Rogers. CG has been better perfected in years since this film so I won't rip on it too much. This is not even the worst use of CG in a film that I have seen. Older films have used CG to worse results so again this is not a major problem that hurts the film in any way. This does not hinder my enjoyment of the film at all and in a way actually adds more enjoyment since it always makes me laugh.
Final Thoughts:
Captain America is a fun comic book adventure film that holds up well. Like Thor and Iron Man, it does a great job of setting up the hero and establishing who they are and why we should care about them. His adventure for the most part is fun to watch, aside from the weak villain, and it does a good job of bringing the iconic hero to the big screen. This film was the final piece of the puzzle to build to the long-awaited Avengers film, and it did its job very well. I would not call it one of my favorite Marvel films as I believe the later sequels are much better and take what’s established here even further. But for what it is, it is a fun film that comic book fans and movie goers will enjoy and have them coming back for more.
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