It’s no small feat to make a movie about a patriotic weakling transformed into a chiselled slab of prime soldier meat—outfitted in a stars-and-stripes uniform, no less—without succumbing to jingoistic excess. Yet the makers of Captain America somehow do just that, softening the corny edges of the comic book story with several well-placed winks at the audience. Chris Evans plays scrawny Steve Rogers, who has the courage to fight in World War II but not the body. Enter a scientist (a gently hammy Stanley Tucci), an army colonel (Tommy Lee Jones, not so gentle about it) and inventor Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper). Their secret serum turns Rogers into an uber-soldier who’s soon battling a breakaway Nazi sect. It’s preamble for next year’s Avengers, but its performances and plucky spirit let it stand on its own. And the digitally-thinned Evans is a CGI triumph.
This article appears in Jul 21-27, 2011.
Agreed. I went to this with low expectations, but I left very happy. The movie tells a good story (though in the middle it gets a little muddled and rushed after the big escape/rescue) and doesn’t linger on nationalistic crap. Really amazed me because of how this is usually done with the waving flag and stars and stripes… if anything, the storytellers show how Captain America’s use as a propaganda tool is helpful to the cause at home, but really superficial when it comes down to reality. Even the usual kind anti-German feel of a Nazi enemy are toned down (I don’t think I heard one word of German) and instead Hydra as a big badass and separate enemy come out.
I was happily surprised with how this was done, and now look forward to the Avengers.