{"id":15541,"date":"2011-08-01T13:21:14","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T21:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15541"},"modified":"2011-08-01T13:46:10","modified_gmt":"2011-08-01T21:46:10","slug":"captain-america-the-first-avenger-joe-johnston-2011-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15541","title":{"rendered":"Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at Fiesta Five, Santa Barbara, CA.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 Captain America:\u00a0 The First Avenger<\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>opened successfully in\u00a0its first week by passing the halfway mark of the $140 million budget within the first few days.\u00a0 Unlike many a summer blockbuster, this Captain deserves every penny of\u00a0his earnings, since this superhero flick, set in the backdrop of WWII, is one of the best produced in a super long time.<\/p>\n

Brilliant directing and superb writing\u00a0are the factors that solidify this gem.\u00a0 Captain America:\u00a0 The First Avenger <\/em>not only embodies the spirit of the comic book character, but embraces the ideal, ordinary American joe, so well depicted in classic WWII propaganda films, favorably received during and after that war.<\/p>\n

With the loss of both parents, sickly asthmatic\u00a0Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is adamant about serving his country, and though declared 4F, makes several attempts to enlist, before receiving\u00a0the required 1A rating from\u00a0allied scientist, Dr. Abraham\u00a0Erskine (Stanley Tucci).<\/p>\n

Erskine heads up a secret program, and assisting him\u00a0is\u00a0an innovative engineer, and Howard Hughes type,\u00a0named Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper).\u00a0 They transform the anemic\u00a0Rogers into an astronomical, beefcake super-soldier, with the intention of kicking some Nazi ass.<\/p>\n

Typical\u00a0in a great WWII epic\u00a0is\u00a0the presence of a mean and\u00a0ugly Nazi officer\u00a0that’s easy to hate, frightening sieg heils, covert operations and cyanide capsules.\u00a0 In this case, Captain America’s evil nemesis is\u00a0Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), a.k.a. Redskull,\u00a0who’s the\u00a0leader of a rogue faction of Nazis, known as HYDRA,\u00a0and his\u00a0plan is to conquer the world!\u00a0 Schmidt’s yes-man is the twerpy Dr. Zola (Toby Jones),\u00a0a scientist\u00a0involved in a\u00a0secret project concerning a high-powered tesseract.<\/p>\n

Circumstances arise which shut down Erskine’s experiment and leave Rogers abandoned from the program, until a Washington senator offers him a job in promoting morale and selling war bonds, by touring the country in USO fashion – dubbing him Captain America.<\/p>\n

Needless to say,\u00a0Rogers tangles with Zola and Schmidt, becomes their nemesis,\u00a0and declares “I’m just a kid from Brooklyn.”\u00a0 To their dismay,\u00a0despite HYDRA’s advanced technology, they\u00a0find the Allies quickly encroaching upon them.<\/p>\n

There is no secret identity with this superhero, which makes the plot readily acceptable, fun, and engaging.\u00a0 Great camera work and CGI, with\u00a0nostalgic earth, sepia, and B & W tones; but the real charm of this film lies in the fact that Captain America is kid-friendly, with no obvious innuendo or continual potty language that we sometimes are\u00a0subjected to in other PG-13 films, whose franchising is targeted specifically at kids.<\/p>\n

Great casting all around, especially the love interest in the role of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).\u00a0 She’s a military attache\u00a0to\u00a0the crusty U.S. Colonel, Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), and both are\u00a0in charge of training Rogers.\u00a0 The role of Carter is written brilliantly, as she is neither stupid, helpless, nor\u00a0the cry-baby type, yet remains feminine, and is\u00a0portrayed\u00a0superbly by Atwell.<\/p>\n

This is a repeat film, where you don’t mind paying twice for a ticket – as I did.\u00a0 Other terrific Joe Johnston films include Jumanji<\/em> (1995), Hidalgo<\/em> (2004), and must-see The Rocketeer<\/em> (1991).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at Fiesta Five, Santa Barbara, CA. \u00a0 Captain America:\u00a0 The First Avenger\u00a0 opened successfully in\u00a0its first week by passing the halfway mark of the $140 million budget within the first few days.\u00a0 Unlike many a summer blockbuster, this Captain deserves every penny of\u00a0his earnings, since this superhero flick, set in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}