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Captain America – The First Avenger – Movie Review

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With every single month over the summer bringing with it a new superhero movie, none could argue that despite the good, the bad and the downright ugly; this year has almost been a vintage as far as comic book heroes are concerned. Only 2012 with its sequels and reboots could possibly offer more.

This month’s new release brings none other than the incredible Captain America to the big screen and this latest offering whilst perhaps not as well-known as that as Spiderman, Iron Man or even Thor is still well-loved and has its fans. I think that few, if any, would admit to seeing the trailers for this and failed to be excited. After all, Captain America is still the all American hero and with a line up featuring none other than Chris Evans (Fantastic 4, The Losers), Tommy Lee Jones (Men In Black, Fugitive) and Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta, The Matrix) on paper at least Captain America has all the foundations in place for a huge blockbuster and a hero reinvented.

For those not up to date with the comic book material Captain America is really Steve Rogers and, much like Spiderman his is a story about true heroism, true bravery and the whole underdog overcoming insurmountable odds to emerge victorious.

After a short beginning set in present day where a crashed vehicle is discovered in the arctic a flashback reveals our protagonist as one hell of a skinny man, a diminutive asthmatic who has lost both his parents in the war and who dreams of enlisting in the Army and serving his country in World War II, but his physical ailments and pocket-sized frame keep him from being accepted. He is repeatedly beaten up for standing up for himself. His best friend Bucky Barnes (played excellently by Sebastian Stan) is all he has left, but Bucky has landed his place in the army and through their comradery you can tell he sees himself as Roger’s big brother.

A chance meeting leads Steve to meet Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci); a scientist who has developed an incredible serum that physically enhances the subject and what’s more believes that the best solider is one with the humblest heart and determined mind. He is captivated by Roger’s dogged, raw persistence to join the army and he gives him a chance.

Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) is the only obstacle standing in his way as he is in charge of the Doctor’s secret government programme their aim is to manufacture super-soldiers for the war, and he thinks Rogers does not have what it takes. However Steve shows his worth and in no time at all he is bulked-up, super-powerful and not to mention one hell of a buff prototype. I mean that in a man-to-man way of course, and may it go on record that I am not in any way jealous.

Of course, now he is no longer invisible to women and every hero needs a love interest. Here we have the surprisingly tough let lingering military agent Peggy Carter (played really nicely by Hayley Atwell) at his side to help him believe in himself. Of course to every hero there are villains, and here we have a secret faction of the Nazi’s called HYDRA led by the tyrannical Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving putting his seriously evil Mr Anderson looks to the test as Red Skull).

Schmidt has located an energy source powerful enough to change the war and the world, and his plans are a whole lot worse than whatever Hitler had in mind. Of course, Captain America is the only one who has the strength and heart to take him on and so the story begins.

Captain America is one of those films which stand out as being excellent yet deep down you just know they could have done so much more with it. I think of Iron man 2, I think of Green Lantern, I think of Spiderman 3, I think of great opportunities; little glimmers in movie history where if the directors and screenplay writers were honest with themselves would say “Damn, if only we had done this better.” This is not to say this movie is bad; far from it. In my opinion Captain America stands as probably the second best film this summer – right next to X-Men – First Class, it’s just you get the feeling that they rushed it. Maybe they were trying to get it out before the Avengers, maybe they were just looking for a way to tie it all up, maybe they were just so caught up in it all that they didn’t give it as much heart as they could have done.

There are many excellent touches. Staged in the 40’s era there are resounding set pieces; the gorgeous black and white, yet in colour approach. The fact that lessons were learnt from Green Lantern in the way that CGI has improved so much that unlike Hal Jordan Chris Evans head is attached firmly this time to his skinny ‘body double’ frame and it looks good, so much so that it is almost a shock when he bulks up. Talking of which, Chris Evans should be applauded as he does carry the role well and his acting quickly dismissed any doubts in my mind along with any memories of the Green Lantern. There are some huge explosions and incredible sequences to make you go wow. I loved the sequence on the train and there is another fantastic one where he is on a motorbike. There are even some sad moments too and look out for Tony Starks dad making an appearance, all I can say is ‘like father like son’. There is no denying that the Marvel mythology all ties together.

However, in contrast the film is heavily sanitised, and along with it any real ‘bad boy’ moments. Hugo Weaving struggles with a lack of material or direction to work with and it shows; I don’t think towards the end even the Red Skull knows what he is doing. There is a lot of time just after the mid-way point which is just stretched out and feels like padding. Finally, whilst the movie is a marvel of CGI and action the 3D effects are disappointing I could only count around ten 3D effects used in the entire two and a half hour film. So the question is what was the point? You might as well see it in 2D and save yourself some money for more popcorn – at 2.5 hours you will need it.

 

My Verdict:

Taken all of the good and bad into account Captain America is still a fantastic movie to go and see. It might not go down in history as the best superhero movie ever, and stand as no more than a prequel to The Avengers but it is still worth watching and is still a great treat for kids and grown up kids alike.

8 / 10

A word to the wise – stay till the end of the credits – you won’t regret it!

Captain America – Super Soldier – Videogame Review

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When Captain America throws his mighty shield…erm…lets put a cap on that…

Another month, another super-hero movie tie-in; with a staple diet like this as a games reviewer I am starting to feel undernourished You get good games, you get great games you get crap games and then you get these. However I always try to be optimistic, Captain America is the big, big film of the summer; the one I most want to see and although trying to find a decent movie tie-in is almost as hard as trying to find a particular drop of water in the whole of the Irish Sea it does happen….occasionally. I live in faith.

 

From the start it is clear that Games Developer – Next Level – wanted to immediately set Captain America – Super Solider apart from the mediocrity of its counterparts; how I hear you ask? Well they…erm…‘borrowed’ some ideas from a small selection of winning franchises such as Arkham Asylum and Prince of Persia. Well, I say ‘borrowed’ but ‘stolen like sweets from a baby’ could equally be a fitting metaphor.  There is the solid and capable fighting engine, a similar mode to the Detective mode used in the Batman games and there is a fair bit of leaping and jumping around too. Chris Evans (no, not that one) provides both his voice and likeness to ‘Cap’, the game even plays in decent stereoscopic 3D but despite these credible assets Captain America is still left with just a few good things going for it.

 

The first disappointment for me was that although the game is based on the film world there is very little of the film in terms of content. Developers Next Level should be hitting themselves over the head with Captain America’s shield for this penalty kick as this is a huge missed opportunity; who wouldn’t want to be the young Steve Rogers? Heck, they could have even given you a training level based on his training as Captain America, but oddly they decided to leave this out and worse still, leave out Red Skull too –his sworn enemy – who only ever appears briefly in the whole of the game.

 

Equally disappointing is the fact that the whole game unfolds within the confines of a castle in the Bavarian mountains. Whilst on its own this is not totally a bad thing as it is a maze type complex with different routes and levels very much like Arkham Asylum, it is quite pithy and delivered with so much less finesse than its Batman counterpart. For example the game does not allow you to explore you surroundings; heck you cannot even jump over a table unless the game says so. So finding yourself stuck to predefined routes can and does get repetitive and boring.

 

Combat though is satisfying and solid.  It is not out of this world but a nice variation on the Arkham’s fight controls; as such it is easy to take on multiple enemies all at once and is all about timing of button presses to parry and deliver devastating blows. Each fight ends with smooth and sweet slow-motion finishers and you can even grab an enemy and use their weapon against more oncoming assailants. Captain America’s shield plays a big part of his fighting style too; deflecting bullets and of course you can throw it in a way similar to the way Batman throws his Batarang.

 

However, graphically the game suffers, although characters are detailed nothing really stood out at all to me at all, I think the programmers just stopped when they reached the point were it was all functional. Equally enemies and environments are blander than a Grey pot of Dulux emulsion and critically they are uninspiring. By the third boss I quickly stopped caring who was going to win as there was no sense of danger, no sense of urgency, instead, I felt like I was just going through the motions, which somewhat ironically I feel perhaps the programmers of this game were doing. Shame.

 

My Final Verdict –

Captain America has got some great ideas but far too many reasons mean it fall flat on its face. There is potential here and there are a few good button presses to be had, but there are just so many games out there which do the job better it is just not good enough.

 

It is becoming irritating to think that with so many crap movie tie-ins out there you would think that by now games developers wouldn’t even try to go down this route unless they had something solid or refreshing to bring to the table. It really is a shame because it’s doubtful there would even be a Captain America game unless there was a movie being released to cash in on. Yet the sad thing is I get the feeling that if the programmers were allowed to be a bit freer with their ideas and not rushed to meet the deadlines then this game could have been so much better.

 

Lets hope the movie is better than this.

5.6/ 10

 

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

There are a whole host of genres which Captain America could compete but unfortunately he wouldn’t stand a chance

Equal to: Marvel Super Hero Squad: Infinity Gauntlet, Green Lantern

Better than: Iron Man, Thor,

Worse than: Arkham Asylum, God of War, Castlevania – Lords of shadow, Bayonetta,

 

Chris Evans – 'Brutal' Pecs Appeal For ‘Captain America’

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The actor had to bulk up to take on the role of the titular superhero in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ and although Chris usually loves exercise, the punishing regime was tough on his body and especially his pectoral muscles.

He said: “I don’t think my body is supposed to be as big as it got for Captain America. There was a strain on some joints. After a month and a half of training I found my right shoulder would click and my left pec would hurt. It was an ever-evolving workout, in which we always found ways to work around the parts of me that were sore. There are certain things that hurt more than others. But that seems to be pretty universal. Every guy I know has some sort of freak injury in their body.

“I’m a big fan of working out on my own. I put my headphones on and I’m pretty good at self- motivating. At the end of the day, I enjoy it. Once I’m there and once I get going, I tend to love it, and I feel good. If I don’t work out for a couple of days I feel lousy.”

Although he was happy with the results, Chris won’t be rushing to bulk up quite so much again, admitting the daily workouts were “brutal”.

He explained to Men’s Health magazine: ““It was gruelling, it was brutal and I’d find any excuse possible not to go. But I had to do it. I wasn’t trying to lose or tone – I was just looking to gain. The rule of thumb was: if you’re not eating, go get something.”

The full interview appears in the August issue of Men’s Health magazine, on sale Monday July 4.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World by Owun Birkett {Film review}

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Scott Pilgrim has a mix bag of genres. It’s a comic book movie, it’s an action movie, it’s a martial arts movie, it’s a comedy, it’s a romance, it’s a teen flick etc. But it surprisingly all blends well together! Being Edgar Wright’s first American film, he delivers all the goods and exceeds them.

The movie is based on a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, about a Canadian slacker (Scott Pilgrim) who’s unemployed and plays in a band called Sex Bo-omb (Super Mario Bros. reference) but then falls in love with an American mystery girl (Ramona Flowers) who works for Amazon.ca. He later on finds out, unexpectedly, that Ramona has 7 evil ex’s and he must defeat them in order to go out with her. The idea sounds incredibly silly, but it works for the comic book material. As part of Wright’s trademark, this movie contains cultural references (in this case, 8-bit video games and video games in general). Though you don’t have to be a fan of video games to appreciate this film, it has enough to please anyone. It has a fluid pacing, giving us time to breathe after each fight with some intimate drama between Scott and Ramona. The fact that Wright compact 6 volumes into a 2 hour movie is incredible, never once where you got lost with the plot or the characters. That’s what I call an achievement, and therefore consider this as one of the best graphic novel adaptations ever made.

The casting is top-notch, not one thing do I have a complaint. Michael Cera kind of goes against his type-cast roles, he’s sentimental but he’s also an asshole at times. Though it’s a story of evolving and taking responsibility. Slowly bringing a resolution to the climax and thus brings a revelation to not only for Scott but everyone else. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is sweet and sympathetic, and makes the character interesting and have some back history (especially with her previous relationships). The seven evil ex’s, including Chris Evans and Brandon Routh, pretty much steal the show. You want to know more about them, but we’re given enough to what is already shown. They deliver comic timing perfectly, all credit to the acting/writing/direction. The rest of the cast all do really good jobs, newcomer Ellen Wong as Knives Chau really shines and did remarkably well.

The visual effects and action sequences are astounding, and extremely well done. This has so much vibe and energy, the fight choreography is very exciting to watch. Without becoming a repetition, every fight is different to each ex Scott goes against. As examples; Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) does in a style of a Bollywood dance-off at one point, and Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) duels Scott in the style of Guitar Hero (through my eyes, at least). It’s a mix with real-life drama and fantasy action you’d expect in a video game.

I cannot help but compare to this film to Juno. It’s a teen movie, but it has more depth and intelligence than your average teen flick nowadays. Edgar Wright delivers drama that is touching, sweet but also funny. This is his most ambitious movie he’s made yet, and looking forward to what he’ll do next. Easily one of the best movies of 2010.

Side-note: The fact this is a box-office dud in the USA is shocking. What more do they want?