First Half Is Good, Second Half Is Awful.

Rating: 5/10 (18 May 2015)

Captain America: The First Avenger starts out pretty good. Steve Rodgers is a very likable character. He is a small guy who wants to make a big difference. He wants to serve his country by joining the army, however he is too small and physically weak to pass the boot camp training. Lucky for him the good guys have just cooked up a Super Solider Serum. Since Steve is such a noble patriot he is chosen to be part of the super soldier experiment. The experiment is successful and he becomes Captain America. Unfortunately, everything after Steve becomes Captain America is just plain awful. The first half of the movie was pretty good. There was nice sets, the boot camp scenes were enjoyable, and CGI they used to put the head of Chris Evans on that small body was seamless. However the entire second half is terrible. We went from a well done period piece with nice sets and characters to a dumb action movie where a superhero wrapped in an American flag fights Nazis with laser guns. All of the world war 2 centric action is glossed over in a 30 second montage. Instead most of the action is between Captain America and an evil Nazi group led by the Red Skull. Red Skull is an awful villain. Whereas Captain America is pure good, Red Skull is pure evil. He is a very cliché bad guy, his motives make no sense, and his evil plan is laughable. For the most part the second half of the movie is just a bunch of dumb action. Despite it being world war 2 there is no realism or grit to any of the action sequences. There is a funny looking superhero fighting against a funny looking Nazi with a red head, all the while there is a bunch of lasers firing everywhere. The CGI in the second half is so fake looking and is a big part of why the action looks as bad as it does. Overall the second half of the story is nonsensical, the action is forgettable, the villain is a joke, and Captain America just isn't that interesting. He doesn't exhibit any distinct character development because he was already the perfect patriotic boy scout before he was even Captain America. Overall this is a pretty mediocre movie.