Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

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Captain America: The First Avenger Review

Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 superhero war movie directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans. It is the fifth entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This film is Captain America’s origin story and it follows him fighting in World War II and then it closes off with him joining the Avengers team in the present. Now obviously this is a highly typical origin story seen countless times before. Beat by beat, you know everything that is going to happen here and nothing is ever surprising or new.

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“Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise

me one thing – that you will stay who you are.

Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.“

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But I have to say that the film is so well made and technically well put together that it wasn’t boring watching this typical story that easily could have been very dull. I liked how it introduced us to this character and how it tied into the MCU as a whole with that ending which was solid. I absolutely adored that it was a period piece and to me they brought forties to life beautifully and it was particularly memorable watching it just for that reason alone. It was a different time period than what is usual for Marvel and that made it intriguing.

I liked Steve Rogers quite a bit here. Though bland and typical, I admired what he represents and there are some really good messages and lines in this movie concerning true heroes. Red Skull is never as weak as most of Marvel villains are as he posed some solid threat here and there, but his goal and overall characterization was way too cartoony and familiar. Bucky Barnes is solidly introduced here, though I admittedly never cared for him that much. But Peggy Carter is easily my favorite character in this movie. She is never too much of a feminist despite somewhat being written that way, but I liked how strong of a female character she is, both physically and emotionally, and I loved most of her scenes as well as the relationship between the two.

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Captain America: The First Avenger is the weakest film in the character’s trilogy as both ‘The Winter Soldier’ and ‘Civil War’ are much better and much more memorable movies. That is the biggest offender here – the film is just forgettable and you easily forget it once you’ve watched it. It is the worst quality a movie could have.

But it also has infuriatingly weak action that really hurt it in the long run. For a superhero movie, action is incredibly important and you have to nail it in order for it to work. But here it is uninspired and frankly boring. Some of the earlier sequences are fine, but the entire second half is never as entertaining as the first one and that is mainly owing to that dull action and war sequences which are never exciting and the fights aren’t that well executed.

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I definitely enjoyed its first half and despite its problems, it was actually pretty engaging and even charming to watch at times. Its themes and dialogue were solid and I liked some of the imagery here and the costumes and attention to period detail are all good. The score is also solidly retro and the film is pleasantly old-fashioned, but it is a weaker MCU film for it is too uneven.

Captain America: The First Avenger is very well made with a different and interesting time period for Marvel, solid characters, some very good lines, a solid villain and the first half is very entertaining, but the second half is boring and the film is ultimately a forgettable MCU entry owing to its typical origin story and very uninspired action sequences.