FILM REVEIW: Captain America: The First Avenger

There seems to be a continuous stream of super-hero movies at the moment and if I'm perfectly honest I'm getting a little bored. Yes, they're all different superheroes and they all have different powers but essentially the plot lines are all the same. Bad guy emerges. Ordinary man suddenly turned into superhero. Superhero saves world. Life goes on. This is why I was so surprised that I was actually really looking forward to the release of Captain America. I had no idea who Captain America was or what he could do but from the minute I watched the trailer I knew this was a movie I had to see. Admittedly I just wanted to see that one scene where Chris Evans steps out of the machine transformed from a puny, little guy into a tall, muscular, lean, mean, fighting machine. It truly was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. I actually googled the movie to see if there was another actor portraying the skinnier Steve Rogers and I was stunned that there wasn't another actor or even a stunt double, it's all CGI! I was incredibly impressed by the smooth transition, but also the fact that the muscles are real. There are no effects used after the transformation so I think Chris Evans deserves a round and applause ladies and gentlemen, god knows how many hours he put into toning that physique!

The story revolves around Steve Rogers, a man desperately wants to do his bit for the country by fighting in the war, the only problem is, he was born into a body that simply wasn't made for fighting. Although his body is frail and weak, his mind and his heart are determined and thankfully for Steve the right people see this in him. Thus begins his transformation from Steve Rogers to Captain America. Some say that when this movie starts to go downhill when the action begins, but I don't think this is true. There are enough high powered leaps and shots fired without going over the top and they make your heart beat just that little bit faster.

The accents in this movie are superb. I've often found that a really good movie can be spoiled when just one character speaks with a terrible accent, thankfully, that is not a problem here. Hugo Weaving and Toby Jones do a particularly good German-English accent and I thought it was very convincing. There are some British actors used in this movie which was good to see, not only because it meant diversity in the cast but also because it showed that the US and the UK were united in the war.

On the whole I found this movie quite believable, many a time I have found myself chuckling throughout a superhero movie because it's just so ridiculous, perhaps it is because Captain America is set in the 1940s during the war which was an actual historical event as opposed to a completely made up story. Also there was nothing silly like a spider bite involved, instead he was injected with what were essentially super steroids, which I'm sure will be invented at some point in the future. One thing that annoyed me a little was that when Schmidt's (arrogant bad guy trying to destroy the world) troops saluted him they said 'Hail Schmidt!' and proceeded to raise both arms in the air, presumably to mimic Hitler's Nazis; however, the effect was rather melodramatic and silly (why on earth would you raise both arms?!).

I was quite impressed by the bunch of actors used in this movie, most of them are not only quite high profile actors but are very talented too. In fact, I think all of the actors are fairly famous. Here are a couple names: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Richard Armitage, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones and Neal McDonough. If you haven't heard of any of those people then you need to watch more movies! ... Or maybe I need to get out more...

Towards the end of the movie as the action dies down the romance is dialled up. Well, every superhero needs a lady! The thing that bothers me about the romance between Captain America and Peggy Carter is that they don't spend a lot of time in each others company, they never go out on a date, but they're completely smitten. I did; however, still think that the ending was incredibly heartbreaking. Speaking of the ending, it was terrible.  The ending made me extremely angry and it was very unexpected, but not in a good way. I guess you could praise the script writer for creating such an unanticipated end to the movie; however, I feel that it left many loose ends, there wasn't enough detail, and things simply did not turn out how I wanted them to!

Overall, I thought that this was a very good movie with plenty of action and there's a good plot. It's quite fast paced, but not so fast that you get left behind; the romantic aspects generated a few 'aww's so I guess that was a job well done and there are even a couple of funny moments which make the movie lighter and more enjoyable. Apart from the ending, which I was very disappointed with, this was an excellent movie and I highly recommend it - to boys and girls.

IN CINEMAS NOW.