It is strange to think that with the proliferation of extremely long franchises, that films are entering in the vaunted territory of the comic book. It has always been assumed that comic books are a perfect source for renewable, adaptable material for film due to there reoccurring storylines, easily marketable characters, and built-in fan base, but I wonder if anyone ever thought they’d be grappling so heavily with the world of comics biggest issue: continuity. Marvel has made the decision to draw together it’s heaviest hitters of the film-comic world (sans the ones they don’t own) for a massive superhero spectacle, The Avengers. To get there though they’ve had to back-load their most recent pictures (Iron Man 2, Thor) with dense continuity heavy side plots to make sure the worlds were properly prepared for their eventual meeting. It’s scuttled the better aspects of both films and had this critic worrying that Marvel was sacrificing the individual visions of their films. Enter X-Men: First Class earlier this year - a 60s spin on the diluted franchise - and now Joe Johnston’s brilliant Captain America. Johnston’s take on Captain America is an earnest adventure flick settled in the beautifully rewrought world of the 1940s, allowing it exist as its own film separate, for the most part, from the entanglements of Marvel’s grand old plan.
The film starts
as any good Captain America flick should, with government
agents discovering Captain America’s shield frozen in the
ice of the Arctic Circle. From their the film jumps back in
time to the roaring 40s with a scrawny Steve Rogers (Chris
Evans, in the role he was born to play) facing rejection
from the Armed Forces recruitment station yet again. Rogers
is a good man hampered by his physical inabilities and wants
only to serve his country during wartime. There’s no
pretension to Rogers, no cynicism or doubt, he simply acts
on his instincts which are invariably geared towards the
greater good. And, of course, a military doctor (Stanley
Tucci) recognizes this inner quality and recruits him for a
secret super serum project that will eventually turn him in
to Captain America. Johnston doesn’t just turn Rogers in to
Cap though and then thrust him in to warfare, he shows his
abilities in a great chase scene through 1940s Brooklyn and
then, for lack of better word, sidelines him. Johnston’s
Captain America is deemed an experiment and sent to perform
U.S.O. shows to garner more bonds for the war. It’s a great
choice, because it lets the audience see Rogers in his new
form and it lets his character build. The war is raging
overseas and Rogers wants nothing more than to get out there
and kill some Nazis, but he’s stuck dancing with showgirls
in front of children and this pushes Rogers in to the role
of superhero when his life-long buddy Bucky Barnes
(Sebastian Stan) is captured by the super secret Nazi
science group Hydra.
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