Road to Endgame: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Directed by Joe Johnston
Release Date: July 22, 2011
Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones
Box Office Worldwide: $370,569,774

Captain America: The First Avenger: In our 5th installment of the MCU, we get to meet a character who is better than all of us combined: good ole, family friendly Captain America.

The movie follows nerdy virgin Steve Rogers as he tries to weasel his way into the U.S. Army, but he’s got like a 10 different health issues that prohibits him from joining. What a loser!

But we love him for that, and Marvel Studios does a great job to make him a marketable, family-friendly, inspirational character that can appeal to all ages. I would argue Captain America is the true soul of the MCU (even over Tony Stark, whom I adore!). He does stuff for the sake of good all the time. Marvel Studios hit a gold mine when they

Let’s dive into why Captain America is such a sweetheart with my positives/negatives.

Positives

• The first act and the exploration of Steve Rogers is sentimental, uplifting, inspirational and really well done! If I were just judging the movie through the moment when Steve Rogers gets transformed into Captain America then I would give the movie a solid “A-” grade. Like I said above, Marvel Studios does a phenomenal job to build up Steve Rogers as the lovable loser who never gives up. He’s a guy that doesn’t have a lot going for him but he displays courage, optimism and doesn’t back down from a fight (all that cheesiness). MCU knocked it out of the park with developing a character the audience can adore… and be willing to spend a lot of money on
• My favorite moment in the entire movie is the scene when Rogers gets transformed into Captain America. It’s intense and displays Rogers’ courage again as he fights through the pain of his freakin’ cells being ripped apart. Steve Rogers is worth all of us combined. He’s a damn national treasure.

• Even at the end of the movie, Rogers sacrifices his own life to save millions of others because that’s how good of a guy this specimen is!

• We get our first look at Captain America’s sworn enemy Red Skull and Hydra. It’s classic and was a smart villain in the first Captain America movie. Red Skull is played by SciFi legend Hugo Weaving and he does a solid job (which is not surprising at all since he played Elrond in Lord of The Rings, V in V For Vendetta and he voiced Megatron in Transformers).
• At the core of the movie, it’s a simple “Good VS Evil” story. It’s simple but good! They show the two routes of taking the Super Soldier Serum. Red Skull takes it, turns into big red Crayon and takes an evil path. Rogers takes it, turns into a buff superhero and goes down the good path. Simple but effective!

• I already touched on Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, but all the actors of main characters are really good. Chris Evans is a PERFECT Captain America, Haley Atwell plays a good Peggy Carter and Tommy Lee Jones is a mean Col. Phillips. Well done, crew!
• BONUS POSITIVE: Natalie Dormer (who plays Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones makes out with Captain America)

Negatives

• The biggest problem with the movie is everything after Steve Rogers becoming Captain America. It’s not that the rest of the movie is bad, but it fails to live up to the hype of Rogers becoming Captain America.
  • I’m not any expert critic AT ALL, but the problem lies within the pacing. The first hour is a slow buildup to becoming Captain America (and it’s great). The second hour hits and it’s sped up 40X. It goes from one fight scene to a montage of fight scenes to Bucky dying to the final battle in a snap of the fingers. The fight scenes aren’t THAT entertaining either. They’re decent…
  • I’d argue Bucky’s death doesn’t feel that big either because it’s slammed in the middle of the war montage and the final battle. He gets blasted off of a train, Captain America mourns for one scene and then were on to the final fight. A big F U to Bucky.
• The Howling Commandos (Captain America’s personal team) are blah. No one in the group is charismatic and they all of a sudden become good friends with Cpt. America for no reason? They’re just okay… don’t hate them…. certainly don’t like them.
• OK, I hate to be this curmudgeon but why are Germans talking in English? I usually look past this kind of stuff but I couldn’t look past Hitler’s officers speaking in English to Red Skull… why? Idk. I’m ashamed that it bothered me.  

Overall Grade: B

It’s a good introduction to Captain America. The audience fell in love with the character and it had some intense moments. The movie lost some steam at the end, similar to Iron Man, but overall the first half was so good that it earned a solid B and was one of the best Phase 1 movies… which doesn’t say a lot because Phase 1 is by far the weakest.

MCU Ranking

1. Iron Man
2. Captain America: The First Avenger (It’s easily ahead of the other 3 movies but easily behind Iron Man).
3. Thor
4. Iron Man 2
5. The Incredible Hulk

NEXT UP: The Avengers