This is a time when political strife pulls at the fabric of a nation already threadbare from an unending economic downturn. It is a time when the country needs a hero to rise above the fray and strengthen the ties that bind. The United States needs a Captain America if you will…it just doesn’t need the one portrayed in Captain America: The First Avenger.
A Country in Need of a Hero
To be fair, the movie is not exactly a terrible movie. It’s just that the film is emblematic of many of the problems that have befallen this great country. Captain America: The First Avenger is painfully mediocre.
Mediocrity doesn’t have to always be a bad thing of course; it has its time and place when a mental break is needed. But when it is by and large all that is offered up, mediocrity tends to wear thin.
Comic Book Adaptations
And nobody knows mediocre like Hollywood, especially with comic book adaptations.
Seriously, what is their track record with this genre? How many tiresome bores must be sat trough just to experience one Dark Knight or Iron Man? The answer obviously won’t come with this offering.
Serving the Nation
A viewing of the tedious Captain America finds a feeble young man named Steve Rogers desperate to enter the US armed forces as the nation mobilizes for World War II.
Rejections pile up as his friends leave for the European theater. Rogers is about to loose hope when a defected German scientist working in a covert US operation offers Rogers a way to join the battle.
Rogers undergoes a scientific procedure that strengthens all of his attributes, mind, body and soul. Injected with all that is good and right with the country, Rogers becomes Captain America.
The problem is the scientist had already injected a German fanatic named Johann Schmidt with a similar serum. Schmidt of course then pulsates with everything evil about the Nazis as he morphs into the Red Scull.
Yes it is that cheesy.
Going Through the Motions
What follows is a half-hearted attempt at a love story, a little bit of male bonding, and some well-choreographed battle scenes.
The movie goes through all the motions of what should make up a summer movie; it just doesn’t take the time to develop any quality. Captain America: The First Avenger has no heart, no wit, and no lasting memories.
It is just a precursor and set up to next summer’s The Avengers. Maybe that film will be the next great comic adaptation, this movie just a requisite sit through. It just would have been nice had the makers of Captain America understood greatness doesn’t happen overnight, it is a process born not of mediocrity.
Maybe then this is the Captain America this country needs: a cautionary tale for the nation to stop settling for mediocre products, educations and politicians and to reach for something greater.
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Starring Chris Evans
- Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
- Directed by Joe Johnston
- Year 2011
Running Time 124 minutes
Gregory Dew - Greg is a freelance writer with a Bachelors of Art in Journalism from The Ohio State University. He has been writing about the arts and ...
Join the Conversation