Review - Captain America: The First Avenger

Dr. Abraham Erskine: Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.

Synopsis
"It is 1942, America has entered World War II, and sickly but determined Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, The Fantastic Four), is frustrated at being rejected yet again for military service. Everything changes when Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl) recruits him for the secret Project Rebirth. Proving his extraordinary courage, wits and conscience, Rogers undergoes the experiment and his weak body is suddenly enhanced into the maximum human potential. When Dr. Erskine is then immediately assassinated by an agent of Nazi Germany's secret HYDRA research department (headed by Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving, Lord of the Rings), a.k.a. the Red Skull), Rogers is left as a unique man who is initially misused as a propaganda mascot; however, when his comrades need him, Rogers goes on a successful adventure that truly makes him Captain America, and his war against Schmidt begins." (From IMDb)

My Opinion

Captain America was one of my first superhero movies. I'd seen Superman (yuuuuuck.... But that's another post for another time....) and Spider-Man (the first of the “old” ones with Toby McGuire – meh...), and didn't really like the sampling I'd had, so, to tell the truth, I wasn't really looking forward to Captain America.  We ended up watching it a few days before the Fourth of July last year and then again on the Fourth for our Patriotic Movie Of The Day.  Flash forward to now, when it's one of my favorite movies EVAH, and Cap is one of my favorite onscreen heroes EVAH, and I have a picture of Steve with an awesome quote that I made as my computer wallpaper.

What makes Captain America: The First Avenger so wonderful? Well, I'll tell ya!

 

The Cast and Characters 

First off, Steve Rogers is just amazing. He's physically strong, yes, but when you look behind that, you can see that he's sweet, has amazing morals (and sticks to them!!), and is extremely humble! Even after “getting strong,” he knows he's still the same guy inside – partially because it's what Dr. Erskine told him over and over – and he isn't prideful about how strong he is or how much he can help people!
One thing I really enjoyed about the storyline because it shows Wimpy Steve before Muscular Steve, so you can see how much he's changed, yet stayed the same.

As for Chris Evans....  He plays Steve to perfection. End of story.

Peggy Carter.  Wow.  : )  She's awesome.  She's one of those amazing heroines you can't help but like, even when they're not at their best.  (Come on.  You can't get much better than encouraging a group of soldiers doing push-ups with a sweet, British-accent-laced "Come on, girls!")  At first, she didn't really think that Steve could live up to what Dr. Erskine thought he could, but she became friends with him even before he became Muscular Steve.  Even then, very few people believed he could do anything other than be a guinea pig for scientists.  She's the one who encouraged him when everything seemed bleak.  Peggy stayed with Steve to the last.  The very last.  *sniff*
Hayley Atwell made me love Peggy so much!!  She perfectly balanced the side of Peggy that had been hardened by the grisly sights of war and Peggy's feminine side.  Loved her portrayal!

Johann Schmidt, a.k.a. Red Skull was a neat mixture of interesting and creepy.  You couldn't help but be infatuated with his life, yet, at the same time, be totally weirded-out by his creepiness!  And after The Bridge Scene (y'all who have seen it know what I'm talking about), when his Big Secret is let out?  Even weirder.  (I, personally, think Schmidt was scarier without the you-know-what on.  Hugo Weaving can do SO much with his eyebrows!!  In a very unnerving, totally un-Jordan Taylor-like way.)
Which brings me to Hugo.  Maaaaaan.....  He did a great job with Schmidt's character and made him the scary villain I love to hate.

And those are all of the characters that the plot mainly centers around.  There are, however, like a million secondary characters that I just can't leave out, so I'll do a quick run-through of my favorites.

Colonel Chester Phillips....  : )  He's the reason for most of the movie's language (more later), but he's so funny!!  "We are going to win this war because we have the best... men.  And they are going to get better."  "If you have something to say, right now's a perfect time to keep it to yourself. "

Buckyyyyyyyy.......  One of the best secondary characters I've EVER seen in a movie.  You can't get much deeper than this character was developed and I loved him to death!  (Or, rather, to the death.  *sniff*)  It was pretty neat to see his change of character during the whole thing.  First he was someone who Steve really looked up to, then, by The First Faceoff, he and Steve had completely changed roles and now it was Bucky who looked up to Steve.

Dr. Erskine....  Such a great guy!  He's the one who first saw Steve as amazing potential.  And I love him for it.  He only has a few minutes of screen time, but he's such a big influence in Steve's life....
Such a great guy.  : )

Howard Stark.  Tony Stark's dad.  Mind. Blown. Howard was played by Dominic Cooper, who played an extraordinarily convincing Willoughby in the '08 Sense and Sensibility.  Needless to say, I didn't trust him in the beginning.  By the end, though, I really loved him.  "Can't see what all the fuss is about...."  *gets blown back by the explosion from The Cube's power*  "Write that down."

Aaaaaaaaaand....  Here's a huge shout-out to....

Richard Armitage as That German Dude With The Awesome Glasses and Awesome Gun (Heinz Kruger)

and JJ Feild as James Montgomery Falsworth.  (YAY FOR AMAZING PERIOD DRAMA FILM ACTOR CAMEOS!!!!)

Random Pictures I Couldn't Fit Anywhere Else  : )

Steve seriously had some of the best lines in the movie....

Bucky's finest moment.

So humble....  : )

Just So You Know...
This movie is rated PG-13 for "intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action," plus some language (mostly the Lord's name taken in vain, a few D-words, a few H-words, and a few other random words) and a mild kissing scene.  We watch the movie with ClearPlay, which bleeps out the language and skips a few shots, but I've seen it without ClearPlay a few times.  To see a more detailed account of the language, etc, read the PluggedIn review.

The Bottom Line
This is an amazing movie.  Honestly, it's one of my favorite movies I saw last year and one of my favorite movies of all time.  I love it to bits and pieces, can't ever recommend it enough, and have seen it nearly a dozen times and it still hasn't gotten old.  Patriotism never does.  : )

~Eowyn~