Captain America: The First Avenger - Review

“Captain America: The First Avenger” is a good film. It is fun action packed and does justice to the character. It celebrates the spirit of the American ideal without being smug, superior or jingoistic. It even manages to give non-North American countries there due in WWII, something even ‘serious’ US war films usually fail to do. It is polished, well acted (considering), well paced and entertaining. I’d say it slides in just under the Iron Man and Thor films. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Chris Evans is actually spot on with his portrayal of Steve Rogers. Putting aside the more usual jocular performances that made him ideal for The Human Torch he gives us quite an earnest and noble Captain America.

However I still feel just a teensy bit disappointed by it. Marvel seem to have found the perfect formula when they made Iron Man and I feel they aren’t trying to push the boundaries because of this. It was a good film but they could have made it brilliant. Instead of having parts that made you go “Wow! Cool!” it could have parts that made you go “OMG! WTF! Awesome!”.

There is also did get a very small feeling that the film was more of a set-up for The Avengers than a stand alone film in its own right. This is probably because it is, in reality, just that. Doesn’t stop it being worth the £10 for a ticket. Don’t forget to stay after the credits to see a teaser trailer for The Avengers. It doesn’t look like Stark and Thor will get on.

Still at least Marvel have shown (yet again) they can make a good solid action film. Captain America is still way above the dregs of this summers blockbuster season. Pity they couldn’t recover the rights to the Spider-man franchise.