Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Director: Joe Johnston
Movie review
From Time Out London
It feels fair to say that when ‘Captain America’ was first announced, no one outside of the 50 states was expecting anything special. As the film’s subtitle alleges, the Captain may be ‘The First Avenger’ but he’s still a patriotic prat in tights whose main powers, much like the real-world superpower that spawned him, seem to be excessive arrogance and blunt force. So respect is due to Joe Johnston and his screenwriters for not only fashioning a nifty, highly entertaining slice of pulpy comic-book action, but for making this most divisive of costumed crusaders universally relatable.The film’s period setting helps: by taking the character back to his mid-’40s roots and pitting him against history’s most hissable villains, the Nazis, the filmmakers have neatly sidestepped questions of American imperialism. They even take a few witty potshots at patriotic fervour in a terrific mid-film musical sequence, as our genetically buffed-up, weed-turned-warrior hero, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), traverses the country selling war bonds and bopping a comedy Adolf on the nose to the delight of baying crowds.
But, with this sticking point out of the way, the film has other problems to contend with: the action scenes are inventive and well constructed but can feel somewhat slight; the characters are well sketched but far too plentiful; and the 3D effects are blurry and confusing – if you can catch this in 2D, you probably should. Most damagingly of all, ‘Captain America’, like ‘Iron Man 2’ and ‘Thor’ before it, is hamstrung by its commitment to the upcoming Marvel superhero ensemble movie, ‘The Avengers’, leading to a deeply unsatisfying non-sequitur ending. The result is pacy and punchy, but not quite a knockout.
Author: Tom Huddleston
Time Out London Issue 2136: July 28 - Aug 3, 2011
Cast & crew
Director: Joe Johnston
Cast: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, JJ Feild
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Fantasy
Duration: 124 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now