"I can do this all day"

Rating: 6/10 (28 October 2017)

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) has his heart set on joining the army, but is constantly rejecting due to his physical weakness and various ailments. However, upon learning of his determination to help his fellow countrymen scientist Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) approves Rogers to join the army, but enlists him to take part in an experimental programme (which makes him taller and stronger). As a result of his scientific enhancements, Rogers becomes Captain America and with the help of Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell) and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) Captain America must take on a dangerous Nazi enemy Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) whom is waging a war against the world based on something that he acquires which he believes is a gift from the gods...
In its early stages, the protagonist shares many traits with Spider-man; a nerdy kid who finds himself bullied constantly suddenly transforms into a super tough vigilante type character. Like Spider-man, Captain America sets up a nice foundation for its story, but if I'm honest I didn't think the first Captain America film was quite as good as the first Spider-man film...
The problem with Captain America is that it spends an awful long time setting up the origin story - it's never done to a point where I became disinterested, but I did keep thinking to myself 'OK I've learned enough now, can we just crack on please?' Once we get past the experiment and we learn of Schmidt's masterplan then the film does become enjoyable (albeit in fits and starts).
One problem that this film has is that a lot of the time it is devoid of tension and suspense - our hero and villain don't share much screen time and what screen time they do share never does anything to get the pulse racing. Schmidt's crazy plan for world-domination is interesting, but it doesn't really get much focus and just seems to be there in the background in order to keep the story moving. I also found it amusing that an aerial slide was conveniently positioned right above a railway line - I mean yeah because you see that sort of thing everyday right??
The good points of this film mainly lie with Hugo Weaving who makes for a wonderful villain here; he could have easily thrown himself too much into this role or underperformed, but he pitches it perfectly bringing just the right amount of menace to the role. Evans is good here as well, but he's perhaps a little too serious here - although I can possibly understand this as he may have been trying to make sure that he didn't play Captain America too closely to his role as the human torch in The Fantastic Four. Evans is good here and has just about enough charisma to make this work, but he is a little dry truth be told. The supporting cast all fare well, but this film belongs to Weaving who steals every scene that's he's in.
Captain America: The First Avenger isn't a brilliant film and is far from the best of the Marvel films but it has just enough about it to make it work. The acting is good, the special effects are good (and more importantly they don't overwhelm the film) and as Steve Rogers/Captain America Evans injects just about enough likability to the role to get you behind him and will him on to save the day, but at the end of the day at close to 2 hours in length Captain America: The First Avenger is padded out and far too long and these things make the film feel like a bit of a slog at times. It's worth sticking with, but trimming some of the backstory would have made it a better film.
SIDE NOTE; Where was Stan Lee? I was looking for a cameo from him, but didn't spot him. This was a minor disappointment, but has no bearing on my rating for this film.