WeirdSpace Digital Library - Culture without borders

Captain America (2011)






Captain America The basic story
1943, WWII is raging in Europe, and in America the army is looking for men to enlist. Young Steve Rogers has the will and the attitude, but, being a scrawny asthmatic, not the physical requirements. As he keeps trying to get enlisted, he is selected for an experiment which makes him super-human. He is given the name Captain America, and at first he is dressed up in a set of goofy tights and only used for propaganda. After a while however, with the help of Howard Stark, he joins the fight in Europe, wearing a modified combat suit and high-tech shield.

In Europe, the nazi known as the Red Skull is looking for magical artifacts, specifically a Cosmic Cube, which will give him god-like powers. He does find the cube and start using it, but then he meets Captain America. In the following fight between the two, the Red Skull ends up being sent out into another dimension, most likely Asgaard, and Captain America ends up in suspended animation in a block of ice until 2011, where he is found and defrosted.


How was it?
Not bad... Not excellent like it could have been, but not bad at all. The ending made it feels like the movie is a prequel to the movie The Avengers. Up until the point where Captain America wakes up in 2011, it works really well, but the ending didn't work for me. The movie didn't really end. There was no sense of closure, it just stopped somewhere towards the ending, with a "To be continued in The Avengers".

Anyway... the story makes sense. The adjustments they did for the transfer from comics to movie makes sense, for the most part, and it feels like a Captain America story (the Ed Brubaker type of Captain America stories, that is). The actors actually look and behave like the comic book originals. The Red Skull was exceptionally well done, but in general, great work on this part. They had Captain America using his shield like he does in the comics, and it looked great.

Except for the ending it was a very good movie, in my opinion.

A note on the spandex: Captain America's suit is one of those designs that really don't work in real life. The suit looks great in comics and animations, but in "real life" it just looks silly. The goofy suit Steve Rogers is wearing in the beginning, is his actual suit from the comics. Awful design! I was rather pleased with the way they changed the suit for his combat missions. By deviating from the comics, they actually made it feel more like the comic book version, and made him look cool.

On the Blu-ray version, there is an extra short movie with agent Colson, which I would like to highlight (don't know if it is on all the versions of Captain America). On his way to the site where they found Thor's hammer, Colson stops in for gas and a snack, and the gas station gets robbed. Highly entertaining short action movie.


Rating
★★★★


124 min.
Color


- Michael Pilgaard