I used to always laugh when I heard the name, "Captain America", for two reasons. The first is the fact that I saw that cheesy 1990 film version of the story, that was way too clunky to cheesy to care about, in any sense (everyone remembers the "psych Heil Hitler" from the movie). The second is that, despite being a renowned tactician and strategist, Captain America does not have the backing behind his name superheroes like Iron Man, Batman, Superman, or Thor have behind theirs. Apparently, I wasn't alone, because Captain America: The First Avenger was absolutely thrashed at the Box Office, only making about $150 million more than it's budget worldwide. I'll admit I didn't see this movie in theaters in 2011. I chose the last Harry Potter movie before I chose this, even though this is the direct intro to The Avengers. As it happens, I think I made a mistake. Upon first glances, this film isn't that special and is pretty much just telling us who Steve Rogers is before the first major crossover of the MCU. But I think there is something to this movie that people don't yet see. And if The Winter Soldier didn't convince them, nothing will. Plot: Fueled with a desire to fight for his country in World War II, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is crushed when he is rejected by the military for various health and physical problems, just as the mysterious Tesseract is stolen in Germany by Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving). But as Rogers hopes to find a way to get into the military, he is recruited by Dr. Abraham Erskine for a special program called the "super soldier" program, which involves subjecting Rogers to a series of serum injections and "vita-rays" (whatever those are), but Erskine is assassinated by Schmidt's assassin, Heinz Kruger.
After learning of his friend Bucky's denotation as MIA, Rogers has British Agent Peggy Carter and engineer Howard Stark fly him on a rescue mission into the heart of enemy lines. Rogers manages to rescue his friends, but not before Schmidt reveals the horrific side effects of his own "super soldier" experiment, which had turned his skull into an inhuman red, hence the name Red Skull.
Rogers recruits Bucky and several others on a mission to raid various Hydra (Red Skulls Nazi group) bases throughout Europe, having been equipped with a circular shield with an extremely rare element called Vibranium, which is virtually indestructible. With Hydra planning to drop an assortment of WMD's on America, Rogers fights and manages to defeat Schmidt, but is unable to keep the rocket ship from crashing into the surface. Rogers sends the ship into the Arctic Ocean and freezes along with the Tesseract. Howard Stark fishes out the Tesseract from the ocean and brings it under the control of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Seventy years later, Rogers awakens in a 1940's style hospital room. But deducing that he wasn't where he thought he was, he runs out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. building and finds himself in modern day Times Square. He is ultimately approached by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who tells him thathe was frozen for some time.
What's Bad?: Like I said in the intro, this film really doesn't feel like it's own film. It feels like a film that is preparing us for The Avengers more than it is trying to give us the backstory of Captain America. I would have liked this film more if it did set itself up more as a franchise like Iron Man and Thor did, but that is pretty much a nitpick.
What's Good?: This film did a much better job at representing Captain America than the 1990 film did. We get to see firsthand exactly what the "super soldier" experiment did to Rogers, who begins this movie as a weak and feeble man and ultimately becomes a legitimate body builder. Evans himself isn't too annoyingly patriotic in this film, but I figured they'd be saving his most cheesy moments for The Avengers.
In terms of franchising, I really wish they'd have kept Red Skull alive in the same way I'd have hoped Obadiah Stane could have been kept alive in Iron Man. This would have left a somewhat significant threat for Captain America and something he could do when he is recruited to hunt after Loki. Hugo Weaving was good as Red Skull, but he didn't seem too interested in returning if Red Skull was back, so I guess it cancels itself out.
Overall: Just because this film is pretty much the third coming attraction for The Avengers, it doesn't make the film bad. I thought, like Man of Steel did it for me earlier, that this film introduced Captain America to me well enough for me to know about the character. But it lacked the humor of Iron Man and the mysticism of Thor, and that was enough for me to not give this film a phenomenal grade. It certainly has it's moments, but this superhero seemed to me the Derek Jeter of The Avengers, an incredibly skilled superhero, but severely lacking in the personality department enough to fall into the shadows of other more interesting superheros.
Final Grade: 85, or B
Next: The Avengers
Then: Iron Man 3
Later: Thor: The Dark World
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