Spotlight: Captain America: The First Avenger

Hello everyone, I am finally going to kick back into this blogging and post a lot more frequently then I have been doing. I have most recently posted an interview with Arch Enemy and be sure to read it and see if they are coming to a city near you, as they are currently doing a North American tour.

Captain America: The First Avenger is a superhero film that is based of off Captain America, the Marvel Comics character. It is also the fifth comic to film released under the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This film was directed by Joe Johnston (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, October Sky, Jurassic Park 3) and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia, You Kill Me, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers).

Chris Evans (Not Another Teen Movie, Fantastic Four, Scott Pilgrim vs the World)– Steve Rogers/Captain America

Hayley Atwell (The Duchess, The Pillars of Earth) – Peggy Carter

Hugo Weaving (Matrix, Lord of the Rings, V for Vendetta, Transformers) – Johann Schmidt/Red Skull

Sebastian Stan (Hot Tub Time Machine, Black Swan, The Apparition) – Sergeant James “Bucky” Barnes

Tommy Lee Jones (Batman Forever, Men in Black, Lonesome Dove, No Country for Old Men) – Colonel Chester Phillips

Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia!, The Duchess, The Devil’s Double) – Howard Stark

Neal McDonough (Band of Brothers, Minority Report, Star Trek: First Contact) – Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan

Derek Luke (Notorious, Miracle at St. Anna, Madea Goes to Jail) – Gabe Jones

Stanley Tucci (Big Night, Winchell, Conspiracy, The Lovely Bones) – Dr. Abraham Erskine

Kenneth Choi (Samurai Girl, Red Dawn, Street Kings, War) – Jim Morita

J. J. Field (Third Star, The Tulse Luper Suitcases, The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton) – James Montgomery Falsworth

Toby Jones (Your Highness, The Rite, Harry Potter) – Arnim Zola

Richard Armitage (North and South, Robin Hood, Spooks) – Heinz Kruger

Samuel L. Jackson (Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, The Dark Knight) – Nick Fury

Captain America follows the story of Steve Rogers as he tries his hardest become enlisted for World War II. He is never accepted because of his health and physical attributes. Rogers talks to his friend Bucky Barnes about his attempts to enlist again, at a station in the exhibition of future technologies they are at. Dr. Abraham Erskine overhears this conversation and recruits him to be part of a “super-solder” experiment, overseen by Erskine, Colonel Chester Phillips, and Peggy Carter. Phillips does not believe that Rogers is the right person for the job but is convinced after seeing his performance of self-sacrificial bravery. The night before the treatment, Erskine tells Rogers that a Nazi officer by the name of Johann Schmidt went through an imperfect version of the treatment and suffered side-effects. Schmidt is in the midst of inventions using the tesseract he has stolen, with the help of Dr. Arnim Zola. Schmidt finds the location of Erskine and send an assassin sent out to kill him. After much humiliation of going around promoting war bonds in theatrical appearances across the country, Steve Rogers, now Captain America, goes to Italy to help in battle. Set out to find his best friend Bucky Barnes and to avege Erskine’s death he sets out to demolish and rid the world of the Schmidt’s new age Nazi group Hyrda.

This movie looked interesting in the trailers, but it did not sell me on the superhero. If you are one for fancy effects and actually like Captain America then this movie is for you. The acting is fine and I had nothing against the movie, I just felt as if the high tech weapons did not fit the times. Secondly, the Nazi group called Hydra seemed to me to be toned down Nazis and it made them quite lame. Thirdly, Red Skull’s CGI face did not seem as cool as it did in the movies, it may have just been the hype of the trailer but it looked boring. It could have look a lot more evil then it did. Other than those three things this movie is decent and is worth going to see. I give Captain America: The First Avenger a 3 out of 5.