"Captain America: The First Avenger"

Okay, who here thinks this is just a rip off from Indiana Jones? The subtle line, “And Hitler searches the desert for trinkets,” kind of gives it away, and the entire premise of some Nazi driven general seeking power from an ancient relic does as well. And they can get away with it because Paramount made both Captain America and all the Indiana Jones movies.

However, this has to be the most action packed film yet. Steve Rogers shows his determination in joining the U.S. Army, despite being declined at multiole recruiting stations, and he’s taken under the wing of a mysterious German scientist who is in charge of a secret military program to genetically modify soldiers. When the scientist is killed, the program goes under and Rogers is the only subject. He, then, is used in a bond selling campaign for the war. His chance to really show off his skills was when he escaped to rescue his friend, Bucky Barnes, and his military division. They form a special team to hunt down Johan Schmidt, the leader of Hydra. Schmidt was after the mysterious cube we saw at the end of Thor, the Tesseract. The cube emits an unprecedented amount of energy, which he harnesses to power his weapons. During one of the raids, Steve loses Bucky when he falls to his death from the Hydra train in the mountains. In an epic showdown, with a hint of revenge, Rogers defeats Schmidt, who is the Red Skull, and sacrifices himself by bringing Schmidt’s plane down.

Is this how we get Captain America? I thought Captain America was created to fight communism. And this is the first time, except for Iron Man, that a superhero was aware of its own comic books and trading cards.

We see much more of Tony Stark’s father, Howard, and he is just as charismatic and playboy-ish. I know Steve Rogers knew better than to ask, as a soldier, but there is no doubt that he was wondering why this quack of a scientist, whose flying car failed to get six inches off the ground, was working for the military. Speaking of Howard Stark, so the “new element” Tony made in Iron Man 2 isn’t vibranium, which brings back my original question, what did Tony invent? And if that was all the vibranium they had, why did they put it all into the shield?

The movie did a good job hiding the Red Skull while dropping subtle hints until they threw it all away when an arrogant Nazi soldier says, “the Red Skull must stop,” quoting the Fuhrer. Having said that, you ruin the reveal that Schmidt is the Red Skull. Now that I think about it, they didn't bother hiding him at all in the trailer nor in the poster (see below).

Hayley Atwell gives us the most badass love interest yet in Agent Peggy Carter, but her love for Steve is the shortest in the MCU surpassing Jane and Thor’s; they really didn’t get to show affection until the very last scene.

It makes sense that Rogers was able to survive the crash. In fact it even makes sense that he is practically immortal, since his cells now have a regenerating power. And I know they didn’t know that he was able to decipher the radio broadcast because he was at the baseball game that was playing, but the whole act was cruel to a man who was asleep for 70 years.

There was no end credits scene this time around. Instead, it’s a sneak peak scene and trailer for the next film in the series.

I'm calling this a win, to be honest. This is the most believable origin story of the MCU so far. Let's see, we got arrogant billionaire taken down a peg (Tony Stark), arrogant scientist taken down a peg (Dr. Bruce Banner), arrogant prince taken down a peg (Thor), and a wimpy kid with heart from Brooklyn becomes a war hero (Capt. Steve Rogers). You may not be impressed by this movie, but you have got to admit, it's been the most fun since Iron Man at this point, maybe not even then. Roger kicked a lot more ass than Tony did. Tony took out the seven guys that held him hostage and Stane, and Rogers took out EVERY HYDRA HE MET! Including Schmidt.
Okay, sure Schmidt was unfairly killed, but remember, he was seeking power from a cube. Put it that way, it can be justifiable. Yeah, yeah, it's a magical cube with immense power, but it was power that he could barely control, and it got better of him. That's a common trait in sci-fi/adventure flicks. Don't believe me, watch all the Indiana Jones movies, including the wretched Crystal Skull, you'll see what I mean. Another example? National Treasure. Sure, there's no power involved, but the bad guy got caught hunting the treasure on government property.

I hope you liked this. Be sure to subscribe and leave a comment about what you thought or if you want to recommend a movie for me to review. Thank you for reading. I'll return next week with another movie. See you then.

Special Update! Starting in the new year, I will be writing a new blog series called "Before I Go See It." It is where I will be giving my thoughts on upcoming movies before they hit the theaters, based on their trailers. It'll be like this, but you get a taste before you go see the movie. Once up, I will share a link on this blog as well as share a link on social media. Thank you, and have a Happy New Year.

Released On: July 22, 2011
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Joe Johnston Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79% Certified Fresh
IMDb Score: 6.9/10

Awards
Saturn Awards

• Best Science Fiction Film - Nominated
• Best Actor Chris Evans - Nominated
• Best Supporting Actor Stanley Tucci - Nominated
• Best Music Alan Silvestri - Nominated
• Best Production Design Rick Heinrichs - Nominated
• Best Costume Anne B. Sheppard - Nominated
• Best Special Effects Mark Soper, Christopher Townsend & Paul Corbould - Nominated

(Click here to view awards for "Captain America: The First Avenger")

Videos
CinemaSins - Everything Wrong With Captain America: The First Avenger
Screen Junkies - Honest Trailers - Captain America: The First Avenger
How It Should Have Ended - How Captain America Should Have Ended