"Captain America: The First Avenger" is very good fun, but arguably the weakest entry in "Phase One" of the "Marvel Cinematic Universe"...

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2012)

Chris Evans stars in director Joe Johnston's "Captain America: The First Avenger", the fifth film in the ever-growing "Marvel Cinematic Universe", a franchise that was launched in 2008 with "Iron Man." And while "Captain America" is a fun little film, it was slightly a bitter-sweet watch. Despite being an interesting effort and a decent entry into the series... it felt like a bit of a letdown.
Evans plays Steve Rogers, a scrawny young man in 1942 America, whom desperately wants to defend the country in World War II, but can't because of his various health concerns. While talking with his best friend Bucky about his desire to help out, a scientist overhears him and decides to let him take part in an experimental new super-soldier program. Under supervision of an American general (Tommy Lee Jones) and a gorgeous British Agent named Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Rogers is eventually given the experimental treatment and turned into "Captain America"- a muscular, superhuman man whom is first used as a sort-of mascot for the US Forces, taking part in rallies, tours and theatrical films to raise money for the war effort. However, when Bucky's unit is captured, Steve is forced to use the help of Peggy and Howard Stark (father of Tony from Iron Man) to re-invent himself as a superhero.
At the same time, the evil Nazi/Hydra commander Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), whom is also known as the deadly "Red Skull", is trying to track down and learn how to channel the "Tesseract", an artifact of untold power which may or may not be related to Asgard from the Thor films.
To give credit where it is due, the acting is fairly strong. Evans makes a great Captain America, and Weaving is an adequately menacing villain, often sounding like a German-ized version of his iconic "Smith" character from "The Matrix." Hayley Atwell is beautiful and gives a touching performances, and supporting roles by the likes of Jones and Sebastian Stan are all well-played.
The direction by Joe Johnston, whom I usually quite like as a director, is very mixed. It is very uninspired, and the camera-work is fairly basic, which cheapened the film. Each of the other directors of the Avengers films (including Kenneth Branaugh, Jon Favreau and Louis Letterier) gave their movies a unique, personal quality to the aesthetics, but Johnston just seems to throw his hands up and settle for the most basic, boring shots. It actually took me out of the film, it was so basic.
The script is another huge problem. The script isn't bad, I will say that. But it's severely underdeveloped at times, and the flow is a bit too slow. My main problem is that the villains (particularly Red Skull, whom is an icon in the world of comics) are not developed at all. We are just told in a quick flashback that Red Skull is "evil", and that's all the development he gets. His cronies and goons are also just stock Nazi characters. This was my major concern for the film- I didn't care about any of the villains, which meant I wasn't emotionally invested in the heroes struggle against them. It was a betrayal of the audience.
Those fairly major complaints aside, I will say this movie isn't a total loss. It's a lot of fun to watch, and has a lot of clever moments. (In particular a hilarious musical sequence in which the good Captain is turned into a glorified mascot) And the action is a bit more substantial than Summer 2011's other Avengers release ("Thor"), and it feels slightly less anti-climactic.
But it's still easily the weakest entry in the first-phase of the series. It's worth seeing for fans who are awaiting the upcoming Avengers crossover, but I don't know if it would appeal to others quite as much. I give it a pretty-good 7 out of 10. Good fun, but ever-so-slightly underwhelming.