Captain America the First Avenger Review
Leading up to the release of Captain America: Brave New World I thought it would be fun to go back and review all of the previous three Captain America movies. So today we are talking about Captain America the First Avenger. Let’s get started!
The Good:
First up, I think the cast for the movie is just pretty great and everybody fits the roles so well. Of course, you have to talk about Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. And obviously, Evans as Rogers is one of the best performances in comic book movie history, and it’s so hard to imagine anybody else besides Evans in the role of Steve Rogers. Even getting actors like Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, and Stanley Tucci in supporting roles bring a certain level of gravatose to the movie and are great. I actually really like Tommy Lee Jones when he’s just being this cranky old man, he gets some subtle funny moments in this movie. I think this is the best that Hayley Atwell has been as Peggy Carter, and I love her relationship with Steve in this movie. But honestly, everybody here is great. And finally, I think that Hugo Weaving as Red Skull has great casting. He's so good at playing menacing characters and he brings his talents to this movie.
And I love the character arc that they gave Steve Rogers in this movie, and I think it really really works. Where when we first see him he’s this skinny scrawny kid that is too sick to join the army, but he has a good heart. He doesn’t like bullies, he wants to do his part but he can’t. And then Stanley Tucci’s character, Dr. Erskine sees some good in him and gives him a chance. And it leads to him becoming Captain America, and it’s such this inspiring journey for a character. And you have this conversation between Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones, Jones wants the big muscular man as Captain America, because he’s a soldier. But Tucci thinks he’s a bully, and he wants a good man over a soldier as Captain America. And it’s such an inspirational story that fits into who Captain America is so well.
Another thing here is I just love how the movie takes you back to the 1940s. To the production design to the costume design to the long cars that Red Skull drives. It makes you feel like you’ve gone decades in the past. And now that we’ve had over 10 years of MCU movies and tv shows, this is really the only period piece movie within the MCU. Obviously we’ve had movies set in the past before, or sequences set in the past. But to this day, it’s the only period piece within the MCU and I like that about this movie. It provides something new and different for the MCU, it’s fun that one of the original MCU movies is still a super fresh and unique experience within the MCU.
And I think this movie has one of the best scores in the entire MCU. And Alan Silvestri is a pretty great film composer and I think this is one of his best scores to date. And the movie just fills in the gaps for the movie, it makes the scenes better. And it has this sense of patriotism to it, and it helps add that to the movie. Other MCU film scores might have gone bigger, louder, and more epic. And sense this score isn’t that, it might not stand out to most people but for me it absolutely does.
Finally, I think the romance between Steve and Peggy is great. And to this day, I think they are still the best relationship within the MCU. And the little flirts they send each other throug-out the movie work for me, I buy them as two people that very clearly have feelings for the other person. And as you move into the finale when they are talking about their dance, they both know that Steve isn’t going to be there. And it’s this moment that was set up earlier in the movie, that maybe could have been a throw away line of dialogue that has big impacts for this moment. And since we’ve seen Avengers Endgame eight years later it sets up that moment so well.
The Bad:
The first thing that comes to mind is I think there are a few too many montages in this movie. And like the movie montages over the training camp, which could have been cool to see more of. And then after Steve Rogers rescues The Howling Commandos it montages over World War 2 and then overtaking Red Skull and HYDRA. And I wish we got to see more of it, and I’m not saying each needed to be like 10-15 minutes long. But the movie is only 2 hours and 4 minutes long, so it’s not that long of a movie. So maybe adding two minutes of non-montages for those could be good.
Second, I think a few to many times Red Skull is used just to deliver exposition and I don’t know if that was the best usage of the character. Because he’s the audience's entry into exploring what the tesseract is, and it sets up The Avengers and future MCU projects. But that stuff doesn’t really have anything to do with the plot for this movie. So while it’s interesting, I don’t know if this is the information Red Skull should be explaining. And I wish we got to see more of the mastermind side of the character.
Final Thoughts: Captain America the First Avenger is one of the most underappreciated MCU movies out there. I think the cast, character arcs, production score, and emotion are all great in this movie. And I love the character of Captain America and Chris Evans playing Captain America so I just really like this movie for that reason. Now it’s not a perfect movie, I think the movie didn’t need as many montages as it has. And I wish Red Skull was used a bit differently, but overall a great movie.
The Score: 8.9/10 (B+)
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