Captain America: The First Avenger

So here it is, the most anticipated comic book flick of the year, after X-Men: First Class, of course. I'm kinda feeling a bit sad for DC at the moment, there's something lacking in their adaptations from book to screen. Though I must say I'm really looking forward to Green Lantern coming out here next month... mainly because I'm sick to death of seeing that trailer at every single film I see. I'm sure they'll feel better after the new Batman comes out next year and they make billions of bat-dollars from that.

Joe Johnston, director of Jurassic Park III and Wolfman was responsible for bringing Captain America to the big screen. The screenplay was adapted by Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely (cool name) scribes of two of The Chronicles of Narnia flicks, Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, from Marvel dudes Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

It's 1942. Bras are pointy and red is the only colour lipstick available. The USA is about to join the rest of the world in WWII. Muscularly-challenged Steve Rogers (Chris Evans - Scott Pilgrim vs The World) really, really wants to join the army but has a list of medical conditions as long as a long list of medical conditions. But, the kid has heart and an inner strength that is rare in most soldiers twice his height. Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones) notices this and signs Steve up for an experimental procedure conducted by scientist/inventor/genius Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper - The Duchess). A few jabs later and Steve Rogers is, well, the size of Chris Evans. World, meet Captain America - all round buff dude and propaganda machine.

Red Skull (no explanation necessary) (Hugo Weaving - Wolfman) aka Johann Schmidt has very shiny boots and loves Wagner. He must be a bad guy. He's one of Hitler's top dudes but has broken off from the Fuhrer and is instead planning his own version of world domination. He stole something shiny and blue from Harry Potter's Argus Filch (David Bradley) and has created a weapon that vapourises people.
Lead by Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones - The Company Men) and Major Hottie Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell - The Duchess) Captain A and a few other army dudes take on Red Skull's army 'Hydra' in an effort to save the world....

I saw this one 3D - not by choice but because of the session times. The conversion was done post production, which is usually a curse but no so bad, the studios must have learnt a valuable lesson from Titans...

The special effects were amazing, I kept trying to find some seam, some tiny bit of blurriness around Evan's face when they had his head stuck on the less-buff dude's body. I couldn't. The action sequences were really well done, and there were heaps of good lines, as is the usual case with Marvel films.

I thought, from reading reviews, that the film would be bigger, some massive awe-inspiring film that would make me want to join the US military and kick some mutant Nazi arse but... it didn't quite make it there.
I don't know if Weaving was channeling Arnold Schwarzenegger but dang did he sound like him in parts!
 I noticed there was a really big Star Wars presence in this film. Four separate times in this flick I leaned over to my friend and said 'That's from Star Wars!' Homage? Weird.
 Stan Lee was there in all his Generalissimo glory. I love that man.

Most importantly.. STAY TILL AFTER THE CREDITS!! There's a stinger at the end AND a quick trailer for The Avengers flick coming out next year. I. Can't. Frikken. Wait. But I'm not a Timelord so I'm gonna hafta anyway....

Thing I learnt: Tommy Lee Jones will not kiss you goodbye; if Howard Stark had anything to do with it we would have had hover cars decades ago; I am Iron Man.
USA AOK
Eight out of ten.