Movie Review: 'Captain America' takes on the bad guys
"Captain America," subtitled "the First Avenger," currently showing at the Fandango Galaxy cineplex in Carson City, is the fourth in the series of related comic book heroes brought to the screen.
And while it does live up to its pulp ancestry with lots of action and fantasy, it reportedly is a 124-minute promotional effort for a film to come, "The Avengers," all four heroes joining to save the world or do other good deeds.
But forget that, this Captain is a pretty tough guy, although with much less in the super-strength stuff than his predecessors. He starts out as a scrawny teen trying to enlist in the Army (It's post Pearl Harbor days, to set the time frame) as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). He's 4F-ed because of a medical history.
He's observed by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who decides he's the perfect candidate for his biological enhancement program and puts him in the lab after he has gone through basic training as a wimp, but he has a kind of angel in the person of busty Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who is a sort of special agent in some spy outfit headed by Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones who seems to walk through the role but does get off some good one liners).
Rogers gets dolled up in a Captain America outfit, complete with shield, and does some USO-type shows for the troops and is roundly booed. (The dancers who accompany him are a nice page from the comic book past).
Rogers gets fed up with his role and decides to take out some of the factories making weapons for the Hydra sub-Nazi group headed by Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving, in makeup which reduces his nose to a couple of nostrils, apparently the hottest villain fad in Hollywood these days).
The Captain frees a couple of hundred POWs and is now a hero and he goes after Red Skull who has enough weapons to do in many American cities. He is joined by Peggy Carter is a battle in a forest where she fires a pretty mean carbine. She later gives him a quite chaste kiss as he in off on the prowl. The Captain is joined by five of the POWs he rescued in the final battle scene (nobody from Brooklyn in defiance of Hollywood tradition for melting-pot Army).
If you're still with me you have an idea of what's going on here. As a promo exercise, this is a pretty good action film. Enough explosions to keep the kids amused, enough sci-fi stuff to keep adults awake, enough scenery to keep tourists reaching for cameras. Not enough sense in the plot to keep critics rapt, however.
But never mind. Director Joe Johnston keeps things moving along, the cast is adequate (Chris Evans may not be a super actor but he's got fine pecs and abs) and Hayley Atwell makes one wish to see her in something other than Army khaki.
--- Sam Bauman
Directed by Joe Johnston; written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely; director of photography, Shelly Johnson; edited by Jeffrey Ford and Robert Dalva; music by Alan Silvestri; production design by Rick Heinrichs; costumes by Anna B. Sheppard; produced by Kevin Feige; released by Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes.
WITH: Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America), Tommy Lee Jones (Col. Chester Phillips), Hugo Weaving (Johann Schmidt/the Red Skull), Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Dominic Cooper (Howard Stark), Toby Jones (Arnim Zola), Neal McDonough (Dum Dum Dugan), Derek Luke (Gabe Jones), Ken Choi (Morita) and Stanley Tucci (Abraham Erskine).
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