Captain America

I've been a fan of Captain America for as long as I can remember. Steve Rogers is far and away my favorite Marvel hero, probably my second-favorite comic hero overall, behind only Green Arrow. So this summer--already featuring a big-screen adaptation of perhaps my third favorite comic character, Green Lantern (a decent but by no means great film)--has me rolling in clover. That is, if Captain America: The First Avenger turned out to be a decent flick. As enjoyable as Green Lantern was, even the most die-hard fans came away with a feeling of disappointment about the sloppy narrative and missed opportunities in that one. Suffering the same indignities with Captain America would be too much to bear.

Thankfully, Captain America is pretty much everything it should be. It is a very different movie than what Hollywood normally puts out in this era. Not necessarily a throwback to 1940s feel-good propaganda flicks, but one that evokes that era. There's no post-modern cynicism here--this is probably the most earnest film I've seen in years, but it never devolves into schmaltz. The whole "Captain America's USO tour" is note perfect, and I--yes, uber-cynic that I am--teared up a little at the gosh-wow of an era when all American were united and we were never so unambiguously on the side of the angels. Director Joe Johnston, whose career output has featured films of erratic quality, turns out to have the perfect touch for this sort of film. He helmed the excellent period adventure Rocketeer, after all (wouldn't a comic team-up featuring Cliff Secord and Steve Rogers be the bee's knees?) and the woefully underrated October Sky. His work for George Lucas on the first three Star Wars films (Lucas, let him direct that Boba Fett feature now!) and Raiders of the Lost Ark serves him well here. There are multiple visual and verbal references to Raiders in Captain America, enough to make a case for this film to exist in the same universe as the good Dr. Jones. There's even a blink-and-you-miss-it moment when Rogers uses the famous shield as a windscreen for his motorcycle, a hilarious, and very deliberate reference to the wretched 1970s Captain America TV movies.

The plot unfolds at a deliberate pace, taking its time to tell the story, but is thankfully never boring. The camera lingers. The action sequences are well-orchestrated and very easy to follow. Let me repeat that: There's no hyper-active quick-cutting in this film, so the audience can always tell what's going on. I can only hope other directors out there are taking notes. The attention to detail is extremely impressive, epitomized to me by the extensive use of the triangular shield originally designed by Jack Kirby in the comics, which quickly morphed into the more-familiar round shield when a competing comic threatened to sue. In the film, Cap's triangular shield is damaged during his first encounter with the Red Skull, necessitating the adoption of the prototype vibranium disc. Very nice.

What's not to like? A few things. This isn't a perfect movie, and the flaws are concentrated at the end. First of all, the decision to make Cap's entire World War II career the focus of the movie ties the filmmakers' hands. The finale of Cap's ongoing battles with the Red Skull--preventing the destruction of New York by sacrificing himself over the Arctic--is something of an anti-climax. Let me explain: In movies, preventing massive destruction is much less dramatic in a visual medium than causing massive destruction. Think Star Wars. The Death Star going BOOM is much more euphoric than the reverse. Add to it the fact that Steve Rogers intentionally crashes the Red Skull's long-range bomber for no really good reason (he had control of the plane, the Red Skull had turned on Autopilot earlier but there was no indication the thing was going to automatically bomb the U.S., and besides, the "Buzz Bombs" needed pilots to direct them and Cap had already dispatched them. Finally, Rogers was offered assistance by the U.S. forces on the ground but dismissed this because "There's no time." No time for what?) and you get the feeling events happened only because the scriptwriter needed to get Cap frozen in the Arctic, not because made any sense. Which is a pity, because most of the rest of the plot had clear and logical underpinnings (even if some of them were of the rubbery "comic book logic" type). The other big letdown I had came when Steve Rogers woke up in 2011, broke out of his recovery room and met Nick Fury in downtown Manhattan. After all the style and finesse of the previous two hours, this sequence felt rushed and tacked on. Monkey Girl, who had no familiarity with the character prior to seeing the film, didn't know what was going on--Nick Fury's comment that Cap had been "sleeping for 70 years" baffled her until I clarified that he'd been frozen in the Arctic, at which point she connected the dots between the super-soldier serum and suspended animation. But Rogers, who'd suddenly become Rip Van Winkle, came off as nonplussed about being displaced in time. I didn't want him to break down crying, or scream "NOOOOOO!" or somesuch silliness, but the whole present-day setting had an air of indifference about it that I found jarring. Far better to save that for the opening of The Avengers in my opinion, than to shoe-horn it into a movie where it doesn't really fit.

When we saw Green Lantern, there was a little boy behind us that bought into the movie completely, which increased my enjoyment of the film significantly. For Captain America there were two little boys in attendance with their fathers that made me smile. One wore a plastic Captain America mask and shield, while the other wore a full-body Captain America costume, complete with wings on the mask. There were a couple of bloody scenes that I think might have been too much for a child that age, but overall I couldn't help think that Captain America is a great movie for a father to share with a child. There's not a better role model anywhere than Steve Rogers, who does what's right because it's right--even when it's difficult--who stands up to bullies and is loyal to his friends. America is greatest when we live up to our ideals and do what's right, as opposed to the idea that anything we do is automatically justified merely by the fact that we are America. There's a big difference there, and Captain America symbolized everything that's good and pure about this country. I expect I'll watch this many, many more times in the future. Cynic that I am.

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