Wow. Captain America! Let me preface this whole thing, by stating outright that I am not a comic book reader. I appreciate a good adventure movie though, as much as anyone, so I figured that we would go see this as a family over the weekend, and see what we thought. I was really pleasantly surprised! Captain America, is a well-made, engaging movie that had all of us engaged and rooting for Captain America, and the rest of his team, through the whole movie. By the way, I will discuss this movie in-depth, including key plot points, so if you don’t want to know what happens, be warned. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!
One of the real strengths of this movie, (and here is where I sound hopelessly old-fashioned) is how positive the messages are in this movie. Captain America becomes a superhero, not because of a chance encounter with a radioactive substance, or by being born a godlike creature, or being an alien from another planet; he becomes a superhero because he is essentially a good guy.
Steve Rogers (a.k.a. Captain America) starts off the movie as the quintessential 98-pound weakling. Bullied by bigger men, ignored by women, and turned down by the U.S. Armed Forces time and again for service overseas, he still wants to do his part to help in the war effort. He is given the opportunity to do it, when he attracts the attention of Dr. Abraham Erskine, (Stanley Tucci) a brilliant German scientist in charge of a secret U.S military science group, trying to design a “super-soldier” that will help U.S. troops defeat the AXIS powers of World War II. He joins the military, and though he struggles to keep up with the rest of his unit in boot camp, he is selected to participate in the highly secret experiment. Other candidates that look better on paper (stronger, faster, etc.) are passed over in favor of Steve because of other qualities that he has in abundance: persistence, courage, ingenuity, and kindness.The point is made to Steve by Dr. Erskine very early on, that whatever physical transformation may occur, it is imperative that he remain true to himself, and keep the qualities that made him stand out originally.
One particularly clever bit that I enjoyed, was that once Steve has become imbued with strength, speed, and more physical power, the army has no idea what to do with him. They eventually put him to work on publicity tours with USO girls, selling war bonds. He finds this deeply unsatisfying, and eventually takes matters into his own hands when his boyhood friend and protector, Bucky Barnes disappears behind enemy lines. Captain America rescues him, along with 400 other prisoners, from the hands of Hydra, a secret Nazi science organization that makes Hitler look like a fluffy bunny. Colonel Schmidt (a.k.a. the terrifying Red Skull) has plans to take over the world, with the help of power from a mysterious glowing artifact, that he uses to manufacture doomsday weapons.
Once Captain America has proven himself in battle, he takes a team of elite fighters and starts taking out Hydra installations all over Europe. Along the way, he falls in love with beautiful British Captain Peggy Carter, and earns the respect of Colonel Chester Phillips (played by the always great Tommy Lee Jones.) When he finally takes out the last group of Hydra scientists, including Colonel Schmidt, he pays the ultimate price. He must crash the enemy plane, filled with bombs meant for the Eastern Seaboard, that he is piloting, into the Arctic ice shelf, to save the United States from certain destruction.
Now, here is where reactions to the movie got interesting. Steve Rogers final conversation with Captain Carter, as he goes down in the plane is very moving, (they clearly love each other,) and they make plans to meet up in New York in one week. The crash cuts off their final words, until you see Steve waking up in a hospital room, with a Yankees game playing on the radio, and the 1940′s New York skyline visible through the window. Steve quickly figures out that something is wonky (he recognizes the ball game is several years out of date) and bursts out of his room, into an anonymous-looking military building, with an elaborately set up hospital room and New York City backdrop screen. He races out of the building, knocking over personnel along the way and finds himself…. in 2011 Times Square, complete with huge crowds, racy modern advertisements, and Nick Fury, waiting to tell him that he has been asleep for 70 years.
I thought the ending was fantastic, and set up 2012′s movie The Avengers in a great way. I walked out of the theater feeling super-excited for the movie that is yet to come. My kids, on the other hand? Were furious. OUTRAGED! They thought that him not getting to be reunited with his war buddies, and his lady love was a supreme ripoff. They complained loud, and long, the whole way home. They said that up until the very end, they thought it was one of the best movies ever. But poor Captain America, “deserved a happy ending!” I pointed out that this just meant his story wasn’t finished and they would find out more in the next movie, which follows a number of the Marvel Superheroes (the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Nick Fury, among others.) This cheered them up, and by the next day they were going over their favorite parts from the movie, apparently having come to terms with the ending.
So, to sum up: this movie is awesome. It tells an exciting story, and the characters and plot are much more important than special effects, battles, and CGI, which can get out of hand with superhero movies. Our whole family thought it was great, and I loved that we had a main character to cheer for that was as much of a hero for who he was, as what he could do! Highly recommend that you see it.
Tracy Maher is a party planning guru and director of marketing for DiscountPartySupplies.com. She has a husband, three children, and a cat that should be registered as a lethal weapon. She throws many parties, mainly as an excuse to cook (and eat) a lot of food!
