REVIEW: Captain America: The First Avenger (Road to Infinity War)
Alright, let us continue The Papi Chulo RADIO Road to Infinity War (RTIW for short) review event with the fifth movie in the lineup, Captain America: The First Avenger.
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The first movie to feature the new Captain America and also the movie right before the biggest comic book movie of all time, Avengers. Is cap’s solo movie worth watching or should you just skip to Avengers?
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Before we get into it, it should be said that there will be spoilers if you haven’t seen it yet (Although since it’s 7 years old, you should have seen it already).
The story is, of course, an origin story for Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who before becoming the super soldier we all know and love was a short and weak adult just wanting to join the army back in the 40s. Steve wanted nothing more than to join the army but his size and many illnesses stopped him from doing so. This all changes when Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), gives Steve a chance because he feels that there is more to Steve then meets the eye. Steve is then drafted into the army and begins his training. Along the way, he meets Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). They help Steve discover his full potential when he is injected with the Super Soldier serum. Along the way, we meet Hydra, the scientific division of the Nazi’s that study science and magic. Hydra is led by Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), also known as the Red Skull. He discovers the Tesseract and uses it to create new weapons and power sources. Steve gathers a squad after a rescue mission to help save his best friend James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes (Sebastian Stan), to stop Hydra from spreading and helping the Nazis win the war. During the final mission, Steve and his squad stop Red Skull and derail his plans to nuke NYC. Although this mission causes Steve to sacrifice himself so that the war can be won but he doesn’t die, he just gets frozen in time. Fast forward to present day where Steve wakes up in a hospital room with the radio playing. Turns out this is all a rouse and Steve escapes to find himself in modern day NYC with Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), showing up to stop Steve and tell him what is happening.
Captain America: The First Avenger builds on the formula that previous MCU movies have now adapted and makes it shine. The story, although a flashback origin story, works really well and sets up the MCU and Avengers. The Tesseract and Captain America serve as a nice transition to the Avengers and also flesh out the MCU a lot to help it grow even more.
The acting in this movie is amazing. The whole cast is all around likeable and they all have great chemistry together. Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell and Tommy Lee Jones are some of the big names in this movie and they bring their A game to this movie.
The CGI is also very well done in this movie. You can tell that the effects and make-up evolve with each passing MCU movie, and it really shows how much work goes into every single film. Red Skull is a highlight of this movie because when you see what he actually looks like for the first time, it doesn’t look cheap or fake at all. Red Skull looks realistic and it helps bring a sense of realism to the movie.
The best CGI in this film has to be the short and sickly looking Steve Rogers. You can just tell by looking at him that its just someone with Chris Evans face over top and it can be distracting at times. However, that doesn’t mean its a bad thing. It shows just how much they wanted to get everything right about Captain America. You can tell by at this point that the MCU was gonna be a mainstay and that it was no longer a gamble with each passing movie.
The Verdict:
Move over Thor because Captain America: The First Avenger has become my new favourite MCU movie. The story is great, the acting is awesome and the CGI is amazing. This movie has aged very well (Just like Steve Rogers am I right?) and is a great movie from start to finish. If you haven’t seen this one or haven’t watched it in a while, you won’t be disappointed.
9/10
Next up is the big one people, the highest grossing comic book and MCU movie of all time. Of course, I am talking about The Avengers.