Captain America The First Avenger Blu-ray
Captain America leads the fight for freedom in the action-packed blockbuster starring Chris Evans as the ultimate weapon against evil! When a terrifying force threatens everyone across the globe, the world’s greatest soldier wages war on the evil HYDRA organization, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving, The Matrix). Critics and audiences alike salute Captain America: The First Avenger as “pure excitement, pure action, and pure fun!”
Well, the summer will soon be nearing its end, although the temperatures outside don’t seem to agree. With the changing of the seasons also comes the inevitable conclusion to the summer of superheroes (that’s what I dubbed it a few weeks back). And now, with the release of “Captain America: The First Avenger” this year’s heroic reign over the box office for beloved comic book icons will soon be coming to a close.
“Captain America: The First Avenger” is the story of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a young man who wanted nothing more than to fight alongside the brave soldiers in World War II against the Nazi onslaught. After being rejected repeatedly due to his frail physique, Steve volunteered for an experimental treatment that would transform him into a living, breathing super-soldier. Meanwhile, a Nazi scientist named Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) is attempting to harness power beyond anything this world has ever seen, and Captain America may be the only one strong enough to stop him.
After so many entertaining entries this summer ranging from Marvel’s “Thor” and “X-Men: First Class” to DC Comics’ “Green Lantern”, did the heroic summer end with a triumphant victory or a disappointing defeat?
The answer, as evidenced by the movie’s opening weekend box office victory over “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″, combined with mostly positive reactions from critics, is that the summer of heroes definitely ends on a high note. And I for one wouldn’t have expected anything less from the star-spangled avenger.
Taking heavy cues from classic Hollywood escapism, the likes of which haven’t been seen in quite some time, the film embraces its more traditional atmosphere without being heavy-handed or cheesy in the process. Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”) this film easily feels right at home in the ever-expanding pantheon of Marvel’s self-produced comic book movies, but with some noticeable differences in storytelling.
One of the big differences you’ll notice, aside from the aforementioned atmosphere, between this movie and the ones Marvel Studios has released prior (including this summer’s “Thor”), is that the story is much more serious-minded than the others. The majority of the previous films tied into this universe featured serious dramatic story arcs, but always with heavy doses of humor laced throughout to keep things sort of light-hearted.
That type of approach worked fine for those characters, and in the case of Thor it probably made his transition from comic book page to big screen that much easier to believe. However, for Captain America, a story filled with jokes, one-liners and sarcasm, even if they feel appropriate to the story, would have been completely wrong for the ever-stoic soldier and future leader of the Avengers.
Thankfully, the writers paid attention to this (most likely with some heavy hints from Marvel) and avoided those mistakes. While there is still the occasional joke, they are few and far between; leaving us with a movie that captures the essence of Captain America perfectly. Plus, having a little joke here and there is good to break up the potential monotony of the drama unfolding, I was just glad Cap wasn’t the one cracking wise.
Another major difference between this film and the others, is that here we are presented with a hero who always dreamed of doing nothing more than fighting for what’s right. In today’s comic book movie landscape I can’t think of any characters with this mindset. To me this was so refreshing because finally we get to see one of the few characters that’s doing precisely what he’s always wanted and sought after. As opposed to having the heroic mantle thrust upon him by circumstances (Iron Man or Spider-Man) or being born into it (Thor).
Now, to clarify I am a comic book fan so I already knew that Captain America was one of the few heroes that willingly accepted the heroic mantle placed before him. I just wasn’t sure if the movie would keep this aspect intact or change it to be more cookie-cutter and follow the tried-and-true recipe of so many of the other adaptations over the years.
Despite my foreknowledge of that particular character trait for Cap, I still found it a fresh approach to a genre that has so many similarities within origin stories. After all, there are only so many types of origins one can tell before you become repetitive.
One last difference with this film, that I shall touch upon briefly, is that this was a pure origin story from start to finish. With most other comic book films the origin portion of the character’s first movie comprises approximately half to two-thirds of the overall running time. This movie doesn’t finish Cap’s origins for this cinematic universe, meaning taking him from first becoming the hero to being ready for next summer’s “Avengers”, until the credits roll.
This was important because the other Marvel Studios movies featured stories set in the modern day; whereas, Captain America was created during World War II. So, for him to believably fit into the modern day landscape of 2012′s “Avengers” team-up film, the movie had the unenviable task of introducing the character and doing justice to his time in World War II. All the while, somehow bringing him up to the modern day setting we’ve become accustomed to with the other films. Not an easy set of tasks, but one that the writers and director Joe Johnston pulled off quite nicely.
Speaking of director Joe Johnston, I was personally a little skeptical when he was handed the reins to this key piece of the “Avengers” film puzzle. He’s a director that has been hit-and-miss with big budget franchises or franchise makers throughout his entire career.
