Marval Movie

Captain America: The First Avenger is currently my favorite out of all the Marvel movies to be released (except The Avengers, obviously).

We first meet our big strong pahlawan as the skinny little Steve Roger, with very little muscles or stamina but more guts and heart than anyone. Luckily he has his friend Bucky (Sebastian Stan) to give him a hand when he needs it. The effect of taking beefy Chris Evans and turning him into this weedy, twig of a person are amazingly well done, it is seamlessly executed. So much so that at times I thought Chris Evans might have really lost an unreasonable amount of weight and dropped a few inches in height.

When I heard that Chris Evans was going to play Captain America I thought "BOO!" I never liked him as the Human Torch and wasn't looking forward to his performance in this movie. But lo and behold he was just the right person for the job. Apart from his great physic, he has charm and charisma. He does the most important thing with being a character that is so purely good, you believe him, you believe that he is a good person through and through and that is becoming harder and harder to do as the years go on.

When it comes to superhero movies, I prefer the more quiet moments rather than the big action moments. It is in these scenes that remind me why I cling to these characters and crystallizes them in a way them hits me to my core. Two moments in this movie do that perfectly, the first is when little Steve is asked why he wants to join the war and he says "I don't like bullies". The other scene is when it is the night before he is about to be put through the super-soldier aktivitas and Dr. Erskin (Stanley Tucci) has a quiet word with him. He tells him how his previous attempt failed, not just because the serum wasn't quite right but because the man wasn't right and beyond all the strength and power Steve must remain a good man.

Director Joe Johnson is a director that knows how to put together a fun movie. Here he really gets the pulpy, swashbuckling feel of a fun superhero movie set in the forties.

Hayley Atwell plays Agent Peggy Carter and she is just a delight. She's beautiful, she's smart, she acts well and she is a concomitant female character, that stands with the men on the exact same level. There that's all I ask for and I get it in her, DONE!

Tommy Lee Jones plays Colonel Chester Philips, a rough and tough military man through and through. This is a role that Jones could play in his sleep. But it doesn't matter because he is so entertaining, with his charisma and distinctive voice.

Our villain is played by Hugo Weaving. Weaving belongs to a special group of actors, the likes of Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, William Shatner and Tom Baker. Where they could sometimes give a technically bad performance but it is impossible for them to give a non-entertaining one. Here, no surprise he delivers a menacing but still fun bad guy. And the effect to turn his face into a red, expressive skull makes him look like his comic character, as-well-as believe him as a live action character.

The costume is something that this movie did so right! The Captain America costume is something that works on the page as a drawing but not so much as a practical thing. Here they took the color scheme and put it in an actual soldiers uniform. His helmet is an actual soldiers helmet but blue and with the wings painted on the side.

The shield was something that was really well executed almost with its lack of execution. Most modern superhero movies feel a need to explain absolutely everything about the character. Here he has a shield because he wants to when he gets one that can stand up to the lasers, he picks up the round one because it feels right. Makes all the other movies explaining seem really pointless.

Why is Captain America my favorite Avenger? Well, I think it comes from me being old-fashioned to start with, the second is that out of all of them he is the only nice guy. There are some that have said that that's the reason they don't like the Captain, but is it so bad just to have one nice guy in the room. Iron-Man is an asshole, Thor is stubborn, The Hulk...is Hulk. So why is it so wrong that we have one nice guy.

Captain America is my favorite Marvel movie because it does something so much harder than being cynical or darkening up the character and putting him in a mean gritty world. It was fun. The pahlawan was fun and the world and characters were fun and god forbid I go to a superhero movie and get some fun out of it!

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 4