America's Underdog: Retrofied and Wow-Factor-Free

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2011)

This is the first "Avengers'" film from Marvel's contemporary franchise that puts aside imprudent jokes and replaces them with retrofied art direction and an old-fashioned superhero scheme powered by superbly written characters. However, while "Captain America: The First Avenger" avoids being classically campy, it falls short of being great with its lack of a wow-factor. Therefore, the film wields a double-edged sword tapping into new comic adaptation ground, but still suffering from clichés and an underwhelming predictable end of the world plot. Consequently, the real triumph in the film comes from Chris Evans's ("Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World") portrayal of Steve Rogers. He becomes a star straying away from his arrogant roots; instead embodying a meek, courageous, man aspiring to serve in the U.S. army in World War II. After Rogers was rejected from the service numerous times because of his small stature and health issues, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci, "Easy A") sees his valor. Erskine then offers Rogers a chance of a lifetime allowing him to join the army under the command of Colonel Chester Phillips's (Tommy Lee Jones, "No Country for Old Men"). The Colonel begins to doubt Erskine's decision, but Rogers's courage allows him to transform into America's hero with the help of Howard Stark's (Dominic Cooper, "An Education") technology. Now Captain "Rogers" America must lead a group of soldiers on a quest to kill a Nazi named Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving, "Lord of the Rings") who delves into a mystic power changing himself into the infamous Red Skull.
"Captain America" is the classiest and most serious "Avengers'" film because of its authentic acting and art direction. Director Joe Johnson ("The Wolfman") utilizes the color spectrum to perfection creating passé visuals. He pairs this with a screenplay focused on furthering character and story development instead of over-the-top action oriented entertainment allowing Chris Evans to become a star. Evans makes a 360-degree transformation from his accustomed cocky characters, to becoming the face of underdog America. The story is further helped by its supporting casting casting choices including Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones, and its worthy villain portrayed by Hugo Weaving.
While trying to redefine the modern superhero film with classic cinematic roots, the film transgresses and loses its momentum. The film is awkwardly stuck in the middle of uniqueness and hopelessly cliché making what could have been a great movie into only being a good flick. Johnson was very aware of the generic environment his film was in and wanted to be different by cutting out the melodramatic action; however, this is still a superhero movie. Therefore, an hour of boring exposition building up to an anticlimactic ending is a disappointment.
"Captain America: The First Avenger" proves that a superhero movie can be well-scripted, well art directed and superbly acted especially by its star. However, where is the wow-factor that makes you want to be a superhero? It must not have existed until the "X-Men" came on the scene in the 60s.