7-29-2011
Captain America has made quite a comeback in the last decade or so. When I was a kid growing up in the 80's, he was not even in the discussion when it came to who was cool in comics. Thor wasn't either for that matter, but I've already talked about that (Movies in SK: The Mighty Thor!) In a time when big guns, bigger muscles, and adamantium claws ruled the comics world, a guy with a shield, a flag, and 1940's sensibilities couldn't catch a break. These days however, thanks to Marvel putting A-List writers and artists on the book, Cap has commandeered the cool kid truck and is driving right along with the rest of the Avengers (April 2012) into the upper echelon of superhero icons.
So how exactly do we know Captain America has made it into the A-List hero conversation? Two things: first, he died (Captain America #25, March 2007) and eventually came back to life. All the great ones do - Batman, Superman, Spiderman, the X-Men, etc. Secondly, what do all of the aforementioned heroes have in common? That's right - they all have movies based on them. Now Cap can be included in that list. Although Iron Man, the Hulk and Thor have never actually died in the comics (though Thor has visited the underworld on numerous occasions), given their current courses in pop culture, I'd expect at least one of them to possibly bite it, albeit temporarily, in the next few years.
So speaking of said movie who's image graces this entry, what was my verdict, you ask? Well, it was my most anticipated film of the summer, even more so than Thor, mainly because I thought Cap had a better chance of being a "good" movie than Thor. I had mild expectations with Thor and was pleasantly surprised. I had moderately high expectations for Cap, and for the most part they were met. My biggest fear from watching the trailer was the realism of the cg representation of Chris Evans as wussy Steve Rogers before he is injected with the Super Soldier Serum (no spoilers I hope since this was shown clearly in the trailers). As in the trailer, the movie fell victim in a few scenes to the infamous "floating head" effect (also see Green Lantern 2011), where Chris Evan's head didn't quite feel in sync with the tiny, golem-like body it was attached to. There were also a few effects of Cap "super" jumping here or there that seemed a little quirky, but that's about it as far as complaints go. It was cool to see secondary characters like "Dum Dum" Dugan and Bucky Barnes make it appearances, and where would Captain America be without his arch-nemesis, the Red Skull? Hugo Weaving was an excellent choice to play the Nazi commander/Hydra cult leader, and his makeup was fantastically well done. Looking back, I would've loved to have seen Cap single-handedly take on a score of green-suited Hydra soldiers, punching and shield-bashing their faces in as he does in the comics, but you can't squeeze everything a fan would want into a 124 minute movie. Overall it was a fun superhero flick and another excellent showing from Marvel.
On a few side notes, Korea released this film a week after the US, which was contrary to previous recent Marvel Studios releases Iron Man 2 and Thor, which were each released a week before the US. Lame.
Also, the movie was not called Captain America:The First Avenger in Korea, Russia, or the Ukraine, but instead it was simply titled The First Avenger.
Lastly, in contrast to all the other times I've reviewed a film and complained about the small, unenthusiastic Korean "crowds", there was actually a decent number of people at this showing, which was around lunch time on opening day, and around half stayed until after the credits! Either I've been previously going to the movies at the wrong time, or a lot of Korea is secretly reading my blog! I think it's the second one.
Grade: B+
