Reaction & Review | Captain America: The First Avenger

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2011. That movie is "Captain America: The First Avenger".

Now, as has been established way back during my review of the 1990 "Captain America" movie, I'm not really a huge fan of the Captain America character. Much like with Wonder Woman of DC, I find the character to be kind of dull. Mind you, he's nowhere near as dull as the Hulk is, but that's not really saying a whole lot. With that said, I did end up liking the "Captain America" film from 1990, and I said that I would be interested in covering more movies involving the character if the opportunity ever came to me. Well, it took a while, but I'm finally getting around to covering this thing, and I honestly cannot wait to watch it.

Now I should mention a couple of things about this movie before I dive right into it. I do know that this movie is one of the very earliest films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe next to movies like "Iron Man" and "Thor". I should also mention that I actually have seen one other Captain America movie in the MCU, which was "Captain America: Civil War". A movie that I thought was decent, but was overblown to all hell because MCU fanboys unfortunately still exist, and they'll cream all over everything involving this movie franchise. However, I am going to ignore those people, because once this tired cinematic universe ends, I'll be opening a massive kegger for myself, and all the MCU fanboys will eventually quiet down, hopefully.

But anyway, assuming you haven't already clicked away from this review after that little snark, let me continue on here with what else I know about this movie. Which, in real honesty, isn't very much. Now from what I've heard, this movie is sort of a mixed bag with some fans. I've heard some people say that it's great, others I've heard say it's heavily flawed but still OK, and even a few people have openly admitted that the movie is a piece of shit. So you know what? That makes my job here a whole lot easier. I'm going to find out where this movie is gonna land with me, and whether or not it will be any good at all. And the only way I'm gonna find out the answer to that, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Captain America: The First Avenger".

12 minutes later

Wait, so we're actually getting a cameo from Tony Stark's dad? All right, that's sorta cool. I had no idea that he was even alive in the 40's. I figured he wouldn't be doing what he does until the 50's or something. But then again, it actually kinda makes sense now that I think about it, considering this movie is taking place during wartime and all. But still, I wasn't really expecting an appearance from Howard Stark of all people, you know what I mean?

11 minutes later

OK, guys, this movie teaches you a very valuable lesson. If you want to get a flag down from it's pole, simply remove the screws that are holding onto the pole and let it fall down to the ground. You really do learn something new everyday, don't ya?

14 minutes later

Well, I can definitely say that the Super Soldier serum most certainly works. And Steve definitely looks more jacked up than usual, rather than looking like a scrawny little kid from what he was a moment ago. Granted, I know that's part of Captain America's origin, but still, at least we know it works.

12 minutes later

I didn't think this was possible, guys, but somehow, this early Captain America costume that Steve is wearing looks even more goofier and cheaper than it did in the 1990 movie. Now yes, I'm sure that's suppose to be intentional, given the time period and everything, however, I just can't help but notice how glaringly cheap it looks, you know what I mean?

19 minutes later

Is Cap really trying to get Bucky, who I should mention has been held in captivity for God knows how long by Hyrdra, to cross a very shaky-looking steal beam, despite the fact that the whole damn place is exploding?! OK...well, at least he made it across. Admittedly, I thought it was kind of a stupid idea to do that to begin with, because I figured Cap would try to preserve as much health for Bucky as possible. But perhaps that's just me.

17 minutes later

Well...it does suck that Cap wasn't able to save Bucky in time. But considering that I saw "Captain America: Civil War" long before this one, it kinda lessens the impact of this scene. Mind you, the film is still really good so far, but the scene I just saw involving Bucky unfortunately didn't really do much for me.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Captain America: The First Avenger". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well, I am gonna start by saying that this movie was really enjoyable. I really had a good time with this movie. And I suppose, on the off chance anybody might ask, where would I rank this out of all the MCU films that I've seen up to this point? Well, it's certainly better than a lot of the others that I have seen, however, given that I'm not a die-hard fan of the MCU, that's not saying a whole lot. And out of 10 films that I've seen from the MCU, only 4 have been worth holding onto for my DVD collection. And I'm gonna include this movie as that 4th film, because I enjoyed it enough to hold onto.

So with that said, let me back it up a bit and start this review off proper by talking about the writing. The writing here is really strong throughout most of it's slightly over 2 hour runtime. What helps it the most is the fact that it's an origin story. About how a scrawny, small-looking Steve Rogers that started off wanting to get enlisted into the war, and would ultimately become America's most beloved hero at the end of it all. And you really get to see the struggles he has during this time period, in which he's given the Super Soldier serum, acts more like an ambassador for the U.S. Army, before finally becoming Captain America. Now yes, he was acting as the role of Captain America during his bit involving the showgirls, but he ultimately ends up adopting this role, and later gets his famous shield. And what I really liked more about this is that, even though he ends up getting better gear for his role later in the film, he doesn't go out of his way to outshine anyone else either. There are moments during the latter half of the film where he's seen with his soldiers, and they each get their moment to shine, with *maybe* the exception of Bucky Barnes. I'll get to him in a moment. But anyway, I still really like the fact Steve isn't just some would-be hero that's trying to outshine the rest of the army. He's there to help lead them, and everyone feels like a winner in the end, if you know what I mean.

Now since this is an MCU movie, I do want to touch upon the humor for a moment. And if you're new here, I'll briefly explain why I'm mentioning the film's humor. I've talked about this before a couple of times, but one of the big reasons why I'm not a huge fan of the MCU is, in a lot of cases, they will try to shoehorn in humor as much as possible in their movies. Even in situations where's it not even called for, they will still try to force in a joke whenever they can. A big example, of course, is the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie. I hated the humor in that film, and almost every joke in that thing fell flat on it's face, and it ruined what could've been a really solid film. Now as with the case of "Captain America: The First Avenger", the humor in this movie, for the most part, knows what it wanted to be. And this film wanted to be a drama/action movie with a little bit of campy humor here and there. Now mind you, the humor here isn't really all that great. I may have gotten a chuckle once or twice out of this thing, however, it still does it's best to not interfere with the film's overall tone. Which, if you seriously want to compare it with the 1990 movie, the tone in that film felt like it was trying to be serious, but ended up being unintentionally hilarious because of the fact that the tone there was somewhat clumsily misguided.

So with the talk of humor out of the way, let's talk about the characters. Just about everyone here, in terms of our main cast anyway, is very fleshed out and are mostly really likable. I already talked Steve Rogers earlier, so there's no need to go into him again. Agent Carter is also kind of endearing in a way, and she definitely is very likable. Tommy Lee Jones character, at first, isn't all that great, but he does end up getting better and does get more use to Steve Rogers as a hero. The only character who I feel like is a bit one dimensional is our villain, Schmidt AKA the Red Skull, who I don't even think gets called by that name at all in this movie. I could be totally mistaken there, but I'm pretty sure he never actually gets called by the Red Skull. But like l said, his character is kind of one dimensional, but he's still mostly competent. The only other character who I feel like needs to be mentioned is Bucky Barnes. Now I will say, first and foremost, that his relationship with Steve Rogers is genuinely good. That being said, though, without going too much into spoilers, I felt like at the point where he and Steve Rogers separate permanently honestly didn't really do anything for me. I say this because, again, I watched "Captain America: Civil War" long before I finally got around to watching this thing. And yes, I am kind of aware of what happens in it's second sequel "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", though I haven't seen that one yet. But the impact of what happens here unfortunately just does nothing for me. Now perhaps maybe if I had actually watched this movie first and saved the sequels for later, I would probably get a better reaction out of it. But as it stands, the scene just left no impact on me, and that's really disappointing.

But, with that said, I am not gonna let that one small point get to me too much, because, as I said, this movie is still really good. The writing here is still really strong, and the characters are mostly well developed. All of that holds this together, and it does a really good job of doing that. And top of all that, we have really strong acting. Everybody turns in a fantastic performance here. Nobody is phoning it in, and that includes everyone from Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, and even the minor actors who are suppose to be playing as the solders. *Everyone* turns in an awesome showing, and it's what happens when you have a very tightly written script that everyone is given something to work with. I do have one minor quibble, and nobody's gonna notice this except me, however, it's something that stuck out at me and I kinda want to address that part. See, it happens right when we first get to see Steve Rogers first appearance as a scrawny muscle-less guy. And as soon as he first spoke, I couldn't help but hear Chris Evans's older voice when I first heard it. Now again, I want to clarify and state that this is a completely minor nothing, but to me, hearing him first speak sounded really off-putting to me. I don't know if he was meant to sound like that when we first see him, or if Chris Evans forgot to sound like he was playing a younger version of himself. I don't know, but it was something that kind of caught me off guard. But anyway, that's something no one will care about except sad bastards like me who are almost trained to notice it. And aside from that, the acting here is still fantastic from the entire cast.

Special effects are pretty standard in what you would see in an MCU film. There are instances of pyrotechnics, which makes sense, given the time period that this movie is suppose to take place in. The CG is pretty much the kind of thing you would see in an MCU flick as well. It's nothing special, but it is still really well done for what it is. The costuming here is also really well done. And even though I did *sort of* nitpick the ultra cheap-looking costume from earlier, I will say it did have some kind of charm to it, as it reminded me a bit of what I saw from the 1990 movie. Now of course, when Captain America gets his updated costume, he doesn't have the silly little plastic wings on his head. And it's a fine modern design for the character, so I have no complaints about that. All of the other costumes involving the soldiers uniforms look really good, and the makeup effects on the Red Skull look really good, as well. So yeah, everything involving costuming and special effects are pretty good.

Camerawork here is really solid, the lighting here is lit very well, the sound-mix is mixed perfectly, and the score here is also pretty good. But then again, considering this a big blockbuster movie we're talking about here, I don't think any of those would be an issue unless if they actively went out of their way to make all of that look bad. It's possible they might've done that with their recent films, but I can't really comment on that too much.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Captain America: The First Avenger"? Oh, absolutely yes! This movie is really good, and I really enjoyed the hell out of it. Which is saying something, considering that I'm not a huge fan of the character to begin with, but I will say that this movie is definitely the kind of film that will satisfy fans of superhero movies, and could also bring out your inner patriotism as well, assuming you're even into that kind of thing. But anyway, yeah, this film is great. And if you can find it anywhere, be it on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, or even Disney+, go ahead and check it out. This movie is a very solid entry in the Phase 1 edition of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I'm rather happy myself to add this the other handful of MCU films that I have on DVD. And speaking of which, I'm kinda in the mood to go back an re-watch the first "Iron Man" movie again, because I *love* that thing to bits. So I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done putting this review together.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.