From Wow to Yawn !

Rating: 6/10 (3 September 2012)

Another superhero movie? OK. More than 10 years now, and we're still living the same. Though, what's the problem, since the outcome is fancy action. Here, there was fancy action, however with not one problem, but many!
First off, let's be evenhanded. The cast was well-selected. I believe it's (Tommy Lee Jones) first superhero movie, and he stole the show for me, owning the best line "I won't kiss you!". The "digital plastic surgeries" technique, or the way how (Chris Evans) was pictured shrunken in the movie's first half, was done superbly. I thought it deserved at least an Oscar for its miraculous work. Director (Joe Johnston), who made 20 years earlier one of the best superhero movies and the most overshadowed gems ever (The Rocketeer), did fair job. He dazzled me much during the first half; for example, the first action sequence of running after Dr. Abraham Erskine / Stanley Tucci killers. Plus I loved the last sequence in specific, of "I had a date". As you see, mostly the good things lie in the first half. So what about that infamous second half?!
Since the first mission of Captain America in battle filed, the events run strangely. Suddenly he has a team of uninteresting, or not taken care of, characters, there is a montage of many missions (read: cold victories), and none of that leads to a snowballing climax, not to mention that none of that alleged team does anything in the finale battle (or else!). That finale battle itself is near to a joke. It has dumbly made chain of fights; the movie transforms there into a video game with someone so used-to-it playing; meaning the lead is having victory effortlessly, killing all without a scratch, going his way facing no danger, and we are watching in bore. And to top it all; there isn't one-on-one fight with the bad guy who, by the way, dies idiotically. In other words; this is the death of thrill ladies and gentlemen!
Nevertheless, the biggest problem that this movie has is its emotional core which was explicitly and unashamedly killed. What does provoke much is that the title character was basically meant to generate sentimentality more than many other superheroes, otherwise why the whole line of being sickly, then turning into Mr. superpower?, why the matter of "We chose you to value power more than others"?, or why Dr. Erskine pointed to the heart while he was dying, as if to assure the noble choice? Actually, the script forgot all of what it already made in the start, and got busy with nothing but the explosions thereafter.
And if you think that the sacrifice thing at the end was the possible answer, then let me wildly remonstrate. It was unconvincing with unforgivable holes; the lead could have jumped the plane earlier, and the military could have found him easily later. Furthermore, how he stayed alive after 70 years of coma in the snow? He didn't eat or drink? And I don't remember Dr. Erskine injecting him with a serum for immortality! In brief, that "sacrifice" was entirely forced. Clearly they fabricated it just to make Captain America catch his role in (The Avengers) movie, one year ahead, which simply takes place in the 2010s. Gives you a hint that the movie's second half had "else" people involved in its writing!
Then, the biggest problem "I" have with this movie, which sure concerns its inventions. Well, this is a sci-fi that takes place right in the 1940s, however the shown designs, of everything, were so 3000s! OH MY GOD, if Germany had these planes in WW2, they could have not taken over the world alone, rather the galaxy! At one point, I witnessed a Nazi tank in a size of a 3 floors building! And the soldiers of Red Skull seemed like an army of super monsters from the future that needs a doomsday to finish, not one poor Captain America! Even the look of the "exhibition of future" was too flashy and hip for 1942!
Unlike the hairdo of Hayley Atwell, or the exquisitely nostalgic closing credits-the image of technology seen throughout failed to offer the feel of its era, being too advanced to even make believe that it was anyway near the 1940s. The issue of advanced-weapons-in-older-times has been done before in movies like (Wild Wild West - 1999), (Van Helsing - 2004), or (Jonah Hex - 2010), yet in a way that made them look fit and sort of believable. This round they just looked so unreal, not having anything in common with the 1940s, or bothering to have. It's disgracefully bad when you describe a movie with the word "unbelievable" purposing the wrong meaning!
The first half has one annoying downside too. There is a lot of talk about the history of the movie's villain, Red Skull, and his connection with Dr. Erskine, however you won't get it rightly, or at all, which pushes you to ask; why not "showing" any of that earlier?!
At any rate, it's still in the second half. It was uninspired, soulless and routine at best. That caused a sad case of "Hey, it's cool", then "Ok, I was a fool!". However, you're not the fool, it's other people who had huge amount of money to make a movie, while they're not smart viewers in the first place, because if they were, they could have known better about important elements like thrill, feelings, credibility, and made a more hot, human, effective Captain America, not the uneven, 6 out of 10, movie that I watched!