![CAPTAIN AMERICA (Johnston, 2011) - I tend to overrate superhero movies, liking them more directly after than in retrospect a few months later, so take the following with a grain of salt, but as a fun evening out, I really enjoyed CAPTAIN AMERICA (I’m leaving out the franchisey subtitle on purpose). Mild spoilers ahead, though I’ll keep away from big ones.
Let’s start with the coolest aspect: Peggy Carter. How nice is it to have a love interest who not only formally outranks the hero, but who also appears to continue living when he’s not around? I mean, there a part of the movie when Cap’n is off doing [spoilerish things], and when he runs into Carter later on, it’s clear she’s just been off fighting the war in the meantime, not pining over the hero, waiting for him to come around. It’s sad that this simply fact striked me as so positive, but it IS unfortunately fairly extraordinary.
Another thing I liked is the film’s willingness to play with cliches (without quite subverting them). In one scene, it seems that the Cap’n will have to make the well-known choice between chasing the villain or saving an innocent kid, but they resolve it in a fresh way. There’s also a sort-of iconic, sort-of ironic take on war propaganda, and the dialogue is better than usual. And I liked Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark - no idea how he’s going to age into Roger Sterling, but he does look like he could spawn Robert Downey Jr.
On the not-so-good side, we have the numerous plot holes, big and small (BF leaned over to me during the movie to whisper: “sure, it makes total sense for kamikaze nukes to have ejection seats”), and the fact that the story feels pre-determined to a certain extent, seeing how this is all preparation for the AVENGERS-a-thon next year. One could also mention the fact that the whole Cap’n America mythos can be read as a defense of steroid use, but frankly, the movie engendered a lot of good will, and I don’t much feel like whining.](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp367axv4G1qdxx1co1_400.jpg)
CAPTAIN AMERICA (Johnston, 2011) - I tend to overrate superhero movies, liking them more directly after than in retrospect a few months later, so take the following with a grain of salt, but as a fun evening out, I really enjoyed CAPTAIN AMERICA (I’m leaving out the franchisey subtitle on purpose). Mild spoilers ahead, though I’ll keep away from big ones.
Let’s start with the coolest aspect: Peggy Carter. How nice is it to have a love interest who not only formally outranks the hero, but who also appears to continue living when he’s not around? I mean, there a part of the movie when Cap’n is off doing [spoilerish things], and when he runs into Carter later on, it’s clear she’s just been off fighting the war in the meantime, not pining over the hero, waiting for him to come around. It’s sad that this simply fact striked me as so positive, but it IS unfortunately fairly extraordinary.
Another thing I liked is the film’s willingness to play with cliches (without quite subverting them). In one scene, it seems that the Cap’n will have to make the well-known choice between chasing the villain or saving an innocent kid, but they resolve it in a fresh way. There’s also a sort-of iconic, sort-of ironic take on war propaganda, and the dialogue is better than usual. And I liked Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark - no idea how he’s going to age into Roger Sterling, but he does look like he could spawn Robert Downey Jr.
On the not-so-good side, we have the numerous plot holes, big and small (BF leaned over to me during the movie to whisper: “sure, it makes total sense for kamikaze nukes to have ejection seats”), and the fact that the story feels pre-determined to a certain extent, seeing how this is all preparation for the AVENGERS-a-thon next year. One could also mention the fact that the whole Cap’n America mythos can be read as a defense of steroid use, but frankly, the movie engendered a lot of good will, and I don’t much feel like whining.
