Film Review: Captain America

9/10

And that wraps up 2011 for me.  All the films I had been waiting for this year have been released and now I have to wait until 2012.  My wallet is grateful, if nothing else...

But what about Captain America?  It's the third and final Marvel film of the year and with the first two being both critically and financially successful, it probably had much more 'pressure' to do well.  Well so far, the signs are good.

And I have to say that I agree, largely, with all the positive reviews.

The film is exactly how I wanted a Captain America film to be.  Cap is the moral compass of the Marvel Universe and Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers absolutely perfectly.  Actually, I can't think of a single bad performance from anyone in the film.  Tommy Lee Jones is solid as General Chester Phillips (with the best one-liners too); Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter is tough, yet vulnerable and sexy; Toby Jones and Sebastian Stan are great in their small-ish roles.  The biggest props go to Hugo Weaving who plays the Red Skull and I look forward to seeing him again in the next Cap film.

There are some flaws, of course.  The way Bucky 'dies' is too soon after he's been found and, to me, the Cap/Bucky relationship is not as meaningful as it is in the comic.  (And if the Winter Soldier doesn't appear in Cap 3, I'll eat my own arse.)   The Howling Commandos are nothing more than spare parts; they deserve better.  Also the final fight between Cap and Skull just seems to stop out of nowhere, but the rest of the film more than makes up for it.

The fight sequences are brilliant, the special effects are spectacular, with Chris Evan's face being put on a little guy's body being the biggest highlight and, of course, THAT scene after the credits...

So out of the three Marvel films this year, I have to put Cap just behind Thor, but ahead of X-Men: First Class.

Just roll on May 2012 for THE AVENGERS.

(ps. Ironic that 'The First Avenger' is actually the last Avenger film to be made, before the big one. Heh.)