Chix Chat on Film review: Stephen Rogers becomes Captain America

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2011)

I was getting a bit weary of the Marvel super hero stories, but I understand that it is a necessity to introduce this younger movie going generation to them, in anticipation of the upcoming Avengers. To my surprise the film Captain America: The First Avenger was actually quite good. I love the Where's Waldo Stan Lee game we play with each of these Marvel movies. I believe that Mr. Lee has had a cameo in all the films, which is a really nice touch to honor the creator of all these rich comic book characters. I thought from the trailer that this would be another World War II movie, with a twist to the Nazi story, delving into a more colorful fantasy than what was the horrific reality of that war. In fact this film, in telling the Stephen Rogers (Chris Evans) back story gives us a really cool look at the fifties attire, automobiles and how the general public was entertained. We see that the senior Stark, Howard (Dominic Cooper) is a bit of a showoff, like father like son and a technological genius, again like father like son, so some of the weaponry as seen in the Iron Man films when Stark junior has taken over is way more advanced than at all possible. But all the weapons and visuals had a very authentic historical look about them. The one thing that I noticed that was a complete deviation from true history, was that no one in the entire film was shown smoking. We see smoking guns, smoking trains, smoking buildings, but not a single solitary smoking person. In the Fifties EVERYBODY, not just everything smoked. It was amusing to me whenever Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) addressed anyone, I kept thinking Agent K, has used an alien time travel machine and came to WWII to command. And speaking of agents, I am always in favor of a strong female role. Agent Carter (Hayley Atwell) was truly a bright spot in this film, I wanted to see more of a progression of her relationship with Captain America, but there's just never enough time. The special effects were palpable, the pace of the story kept my interest and the warring elements were not so graphic that I was flinching at gore. All in all it was a good action adventure and gets us one step closer to the Avengers. I give it a green light. - Emma Dinkins