Truly remarkable

Rating: 8/10 (22 July 2011)

To be very honest, when I saw the trailers of this movie, I felt it wouldn't do the job right. I love seeing comic books being made into movies, and I will add that I haven't read many Captain America comics. But Captain America is one of Marvel's biggest characters, if not the biggest. Every comic book fan knows his amazing shield and that virtually nothing can stop the hero when he has it with him. And this is why I was afraid. Once someone would take the idea and make it into a movie, that was it. There would be no "revised versions" or anything of the sort. There could be new versions but that would have to be years from now. You wouldn't want a movie like this to go wrong. I saw the trailers and I felt that that was exactly what was going to happen. The great name of Captain America would be ruined by a bad movie. I researched a little bit more to find who the director was and my fears grew stronger. Joe Johnston, the man who directed films like Jumanji, The Wolfman, and Jurassic Park 3? October Sky was good but that's a drama film. How could someone like that ever make Captain America into a successful movie? I went into the theater with low expectations. Forgive me if I bored you with this intro, but I felt if I wrote a review for this it had to be necessary.
You already know I liked this movie, presuming of course that you read the title of this review. It starts out with something I didn't expect at all (I'm not going to say what, and I promise I will not give any vital plot points away, just things you probably already know). After that begins the tale of Steve Rogers, a young man (boy if you wish to call him that) who wishes to enlist in the army during World War II, but finds it hard to do so because of physical problems (among others). But Steve has a good heart, and that makes all the difference. After that, well, you'll see what happens, but I'm sure you already know our little protagonist becomes a lot stronger (and yes ladies, a lot more handsome too). After having watched Chris Evans in Fantastic Four as the Human Torch, I had doubts about him too. I've barely seen any of his other movies but I obviously thought he was just a young pretty boy with not much real acting skills. But once again, I was wrong. Chris Evans is not Johnny (The Human) Torch. Chris Evans is Captain America. If you've seen Fantastic Four and its sequel, forget they ever even happened. Don't make the same mistake I did and think Evans is going to be the same as he was in his role in the two movies I just mentioned. He may not be the best actor out there, but I think he fit the Captain perfectly. Mature and serious for the matter, determined, courageous, good-hearted. Chris Evans pulled off a magnificent job. Evans became his truer self (I've seen some of his interviews and he's a pretty serious dude, but before that, I thought he was kind of a jerk based on his previous film roles). That's probably why he did this role better than he's ever done before. This is definitely his performance which will lead to him being called "Captain America" by little kids who see him on the streets.
The movie itself was a bit serious, a bit darker than I imagined, and not very cheesy at all (thank God, that was one of my other fears). It has its funny moments, and its depressing moments. But you will enjoy it, at least I hope you will, just as I did. Most of the film's cast performed very good. Hayley Atwell was great as Peggy Carter, the rather badass British, and I enjoyed Dominic Cooper's performance as the smooth and intelligent Howard Stark (yes, Tony's dad). Tommy Lee Jones, as was expected, was great in his role as Colonel Chester Phillips, and Hugo Weaving was sinister as the nefarious Red Skull. Another excellent performer was Stanley Tucci as the almost fatherly Dr. Abraham Erskine. But I think Chris Evans did the best, maybe because I didn't expect that from him.
The film has great effects, none extremely extraordinary, but they do their job perfectly. Based during the time of World War II, the movie adopted a sort of old-fashioned, 20th century style. And it works greatly. And the plot goes along just well with all of this. Somewhere in the middle, I did seem to think the movie was rushing a little too fast, but that's understandable due to length; it's longer than I thought it would be, 2 hours and 5 minutes. The film has its fair share of badass moments, moments where everything happens exactly the way you could possibly hope for them to happen. And moments where the film grabs you and makes you feel emotional, attached to the characters, especially Steve Rogers, who you stick out with from the start till the end. The hero marks the spirit of America, and has the power to inspire everyone throughout the world to be a hero, because as this movie teaches, anyone physically weak or strong can be one as long as they have a good heart.
And if you've read this entire review, I sincerely thank you greatly. But don't just take my word for it. Go watch it for yourself. Gather your opinions. And don't expect this to be the absolute best of the best because it isn't. But I'm sure if you give it a chance, you'll enjoy the experience as I did.