Captain America: More "Average" Than "Avenger"

Joe Johnson’s Captain America has a lot working in its favour: an iconic hero, a charismatic leading man, a World War II setting, a plot that favours the underdog and a power-hungry villain - not to mention a ready-made fan base of Marvel devotees. On paper, it is box-office gold. And while Captain America will undoubtedly be a huge hit both sides of the Atlantic, I couldn’t help but feel that these aspects do not come together as well as they should.

We first meet Captain America when he is plain old Steve Rogers (a digitally-reduced Chris Evans), a skinny, illness-prone young man who is nevertheless determined to join the army and do his bit for his country. After numerous rejections, his relentlessness finally catches the eye of Dr Abraham Erskine, who recruits him for a top-secret experiment which will create a “new breed of super soldiers”. One dose of Erskine’s magic formula later and Rogers is performing ill-advised army propaganda shows, wooing no-nonsense Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and battling evil Nazi/super-villain Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), who has managed to harness the power of the gods.

Chris Evans certainly looks the part (there was an audible gasp from all the girls in the screening when Rogers re-emerged after the experiment – if you’ve seen the trailer you’ll know what I’m on about!), but he didn’t display the same cocky charisma that made his Fantastic Four character so likeable. I couldn’t help but compare Steve Rogers to Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr’s hero from the Iron Man films: RDJ’s natural screen presence and quick humour made Iron Man one of the best comic-book movies to date, and without an equally engaging leading man, Captain America does not even come close to stealing the crown. There will be a lot of big personalities in the Avengers movie, and it would be a shame to see Evans lost in the mix.

Characters are wasted, and character development is scarce: we feel no connection to the team that Rogers assembles (Marvel fans will recognise them as the ‘Howling Commandos’ but with no introduction and very little screen time, us less Marvel-hip viewers are left slightly bewildered) and the love story is too slow in developing, meaning that the intended emotional payoff falls slightly short.  However, watch out for stand-out performances from Tommy Lee Jones as the grizzled Col. Phillips and Stanley Tucci as Dr Erskine, who both provide several comedy moments.

Parts of the film play like a slow-mo medley of explosions and action sequences (many of which seem to be there purely for the 3D element), and the climax is, well, more of anti-climax actually. Captain America is meant to be the ultimate superhero – after all, he was designed to be the perfect soldier – and it is disappointing that the film does not reflect this. At times it seemed like it was nothing more than an introduction to the Avengers movie; the subtitle – ‘The First Avenger’ – would seem to back me up on this point.

There are plenty of redeeming qualities (not the least of which is Chris Evans’ topless bod) - it is a good mix of action and comedy, with just enough cheese and a pleasantly retro vibe – but these are outweighed by the negatives. Captain America is not a terrible film, but it is frustrating that it is not as good as it should have been.

Pssst! Stay past the end credits for a first look at The Avengers, due out next summer!

Catriona Davidson