Over ambitious, sprawled out yarn

Rating: 4/10 (20 March 2012)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans-a nerdy TV personality over here) is a scrawny, unmasculine weakling who wants to be big and strong so he can fight for his country in the Second World War. His prayers appear to be answered when a German scientist (Stanley Tucci) invites him to be his guinea pig on a new serum that induces super strength, which proves successful and he becomes Captain America, a force for good and strength during America's dark days. But he faces his greatest nemesis in the shape of Captain Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) a mad Nazi who plots to mis-use the serum and even becomes his even more twisted alter ego, Red Skull.
Superhero movies are a pretty reliable and consistent money spinner for the studios, with a pretty loyal, solid fan base who can always be relied on to pack the theatres out on opening weekends and get the box office coffers spinning. It would take some pretty lousy reviews and test screenings to have a really big impact on their chances in these regards, and Joe Johnston's latest, big budget effects bonanza would appear to have escaped this fate. But if more of the reviewers had been like me, maybe that wouldn't have been the case.
The superhero genre is still a fairly successful, winning one that churns out a lot of successes and still has a lot of potential, but while Captain America might have generally won favour with the audiences and critics, I found it to be an over ambitious, over long and over blown misfire, which appears to have ended at least three times but carries on, dragging the story on and playing out in a mispaced style, the end effect of which is just one big bore that all the big action set pieces and effects in the world can't put right.
Performances wise, Evans makes for a fairly standard, unmemorable hero, while the best thing is probably Weaving as the villain, doing his usual steely eyed, uncompassionate thing to the best effect he can. Tommy Lee Jones in a supporting role is as reliable as ever, but hardly has the best material to work with and doesn't get the best screen time. Samuel L. Jackson makes a cameo appearance at the end, by which time his appearance feels as desperate as the movies become.
It seems an inevitability that a sequel will emerge in a couple of years or so, bigger, better and maybe with a different director. And maybe I'll think it's better. I hope it couldn't be worse than this. **