I had heard some good things about this film so I was interested in seeing it, superhero movie and all. I'd never seen a superhero flick before nor have I ever had much interest in them. I can't say that Captain America necessarily made me eager to see more. My reaction when it was over was, "Well, that was alright...but I wouldn't bother watching it again." The story follows Steve Rogers, a humble, brave, but weak and sickly young man who wants nothing more than to be able to serve his country in the Army during WW2. He finally gets in under some rather odd circumstances and after being proven weak, yet smart during training, he willing under goes a medical/scientific procedure/experiement that transfroms him from this: To this: Meanwhile, Scmitt (the antgonist), the man in charge of Hitler's "Hydra" project, has discovered and put to use some stone which has some sort of electrical (and/or magical) powers that allowed him to create an atom busting firearm. (People get disintergrated with this thing.) With his acquisition of this power and his super-strength (he got the same treatment as Steve before the muscle-pumping serum was perfected), he turns himself to conquor the world. He is evil straight through. Steve, after hauling in a Nazi spy, becomes the hero of the hour and lands a job selling war bonds as Captain America (where he gets that fanciful suit of his). After a particular incident he realizes this is not what he wants and that he could be doing something "better" and "more important" for his country. Thusly, he basically goes AWOL and storms the Hydra headquarters alone. From there things are one fast paced ride to what I considered something of a unsatisfying ending. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly First the good: Steve is a humble guy for the most part, even when he goes from little shrimp who can't get a punch in during a fist fight, to a guy who can do practically anything. He is very loyal to his friends and quite patriotic (a touch I personally found appealing). He is a moral character, though apparently with no foundation for his morality. There is no "God" in this movie, not in the sense of the One Triune God. Which leads me to the bad. Remember that rock I mentioned? It has something in it--some sort of power. Whether it was supposed to be some sort of radioactive or electrical force within it or some "magic" stone that the "gods" (these would be the Germanic gods) left behind on earth (like Scmitt thinks), I'm not exactly sure. However it appears to me that, like the stuff that turned Steve from a shrimp to a blowed-out of proportion muscle man, when used for evil it is really evil and when used for good, it makes things better. (I was watching this movie and thinking: "Boy, some of this stuff is reminiscent to Star Wars!") This particular aspect of the film I certainly didn't like--this power source is just downright weird and other-worldly in a non-biblical fashion. The filmmakers could have had the same outcome with a simply "scientific" something or other, but they decided to mix in the Norse mysticism for some reason. The ugly...well, I'll throw the historical inaccuracies here. I understand that this is a superhero movie so it's most definitely not "real", but some of the stuff (Hydra developments) looked way too modern for the setting. (For instance, Scmitt's getaway plane looks like a Stealth fighter!) The Hydra soldiers look oddly enough something like more streamlined (and black) Star Wars stormtroopers. However, the worst is Scmitt after he literally (spoiler!) removes his own face. He looks like a devil (purposely I'm sure, but all the same, I don't enjoy looking at such evil-looking heads). There is a certain amount of langauge in this film (mostly in the form of the H- and D- words; which as I have recently discovered where not as uncommon for the WW2 generation as I once thought--not that that excuses the use). There is some amount of shirtlessness amongst the men (if that is bothersome), but it is all in-context of military inspection and medical procedure. The chorus girls in the war bond shows have enough leg sticking out--but once again, that is in-context of the setting (and yes, the dresses would have been that kind of short!) Very minimal kissing. There is just one more thing I'd like to touch on...the romance between Steve and Peggy Carter. Peggy plays a big role in prepping Steve for becoming Captain America. She is a British agent of some sort (I never quite caught who exactly she worked for) joined with the American's in their super-man project. They have a rather subtle and even awkward romance. They share but one kiss throughout the film (slightly surprising since it's clear pretty early on that these two are attracted to each other) and that is very close to the end. All in all, I find their romance rather nice because it isn't one that is, well, "Hollywood". It's not fast and free, but slow and guarded.
I think that Peggy has (historically speaking, as well as biblically) too much of an out-front role. I cannot argue against any and all female agents (particularly in a time of war), because they most certainly can (and do!) play a supporting role to men, but Peggy occasionally passes that (like when she goes into combat with the men). I would not necessarily recommend the film but I wouldn't scream "NO!!! Don't watch that!!!" either (there are films that I would do that with) Like I said earlier, it was "alright", but it does have some problems (honestly, most films do).
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RachealA Reformed Presbyterian girl who enjoys a good movie or a good book any ol' time. Archives
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