Captain America: the First Avenger Review

    I remember really enjoying this film when it first came out and it was one of my favourite MCU films to date. Which is why I was surprised upon rewatching it to find my mind wondering at times and even getting somewhat bored...

    As usual in the MCU, the casting is spot-on. Chris Evans cleans up nicely after "nastier" roles in, say, Scott Pilgrim, and truly embodies the boy next door who happens to be a hero that the Captain needs. Hayley Atwell is good though I found her character lacking in depth; that's on you, writers. Stanley Tucci is a delight as always, Tommy Lee Jones was born to play the old curmudgeon, and Hugo Weaving never fails to deliver, particularly as a villain. However, while there is nothing wrong with his performance, I confess I'm not a fan of Bucky, though that may have more to do with the character than Sebastian Stan.

    Again a staple of MCU, the special effects are top-notch, the "shrinking" of Rodgers in the first act being the most note-worthy. I mean, wow! Even almost a decade later it holds up to scrutiny, with barely a frame in the uncanny valley. My hat's off to the SFX team, bravo. And the same quality is translated into the action sequences (no big punches exchanged in a generic dark CGI wasteland background, you hear DC?...).

    So with all this, how come the end result manages to somehow be less than the sum of its parts? In a word, pacing. At just over 2h, this film should flow easily but instead it drags in places. We spend too long on the first rescue, everything leading us to believe we're in the chunky part of the story, only to then have a whole other sequence, now with a team that feels random and unexplained. Surely it would have been better to pick just one storyline and flesh it out? If this is the Captain's debut, then we don't need the "band of misfits turned heroes" to help him along, who then magically disappear so our main character can have his big one-one-one with Red Skull.

    All in all, I feel both the writing and the directing are at fault here, making what could have been a great movie merely good. Still enjoyed it, though!


Conclusion: Solid [what's this?]


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