The First Avenger

The last of the pre-Avengers Marvel movies has arrived, and it's a fitting entry to the current marvel universe. It doesn't reach the surprise that Iron Man had back in 2008, but it does establish it's own niche by showing us the older era of the world we know.

The film starts off in the modern day, as the Valkyrie is found, and on further exploration, Captain America's shield is discovered. We quickly cut to Norway during WWII, where Johann Schmidt finds the tesseract, also known as the cosmic cube. Observant fans would've noted the presence of said object at the end of Thor, both a nod to Captain America and a clue to The Avengers. While Schmidt works on the cube with Nazi scientist Dr. Arnim Zola (played by Doctor Who's Toby Jones), we see a physically weak/mentally strong Steve Rogers, played so believably by Chris Evans. The film moves at a fast pace; there's a lot of story to tell, and the pace is sometimes detrimental to the overall film, because we feel like we're always on the move. However, it was likely necessary, as we needed to have Cap ready in the modern day by the end, and he needed a well-established backstory.

On the last of his many attempts to recruit for the army, Rogers meets Dr. Erskine, possibly the best character in this film, played by Stanley Tucci. The first time Rogers signed up was well done, as it established that he was an orphan, his father was in the army, and he had a true desire to serve despite his physical ailments, all within a few minutes. That's what this film does well; it does a lot of explaining very efficiently and naturally, which is a credit to its director and screenwriter, as well as it's actors for making it believable. The story spans many years, and we see snippets of multiple missions with Cap and the Howling Commandos, but it just feels so fast. Perhaps because it's quite a bit of engaging fun.

Erskine eventually chooses Rogers to be the candidate for his super soldier serum. In a pre-procedure chat, Erskine describes his first accidental test subject, Schmidt, whose haste in obtaining the serum for himself led to his apt new name, Red Skull. Fortunately, things went well for Rogers's transformation; Erskine was not so lucky, as his own countrymen killed him.

Rogers then hold his breath for an impressive amount of time to drag a hydra operative from the water. After a nice montage of Cap serving the US by selling bonds, we see him eventually decide to save his buddy, Bucky Barnes, from a hydra base. The first look at Captain America in action was well done, because it was not a sponsored mission, but one Rogers did on his own, on the fly, with a prop shield and costume in place. After a successful rescue, Rogers officially becomes a US soldier, and we get a battle montage, which I suspect spans many years.

Finally, after Bucky's "death" (he's probably frozen awaiting a return as the Winter Soldier), we see Cap board the Valkyrie. We get a good, but brief battle with the Red Skull, and then he disappears into the cosmos. Hopefully he makes a return in The Avengers, or in a Captain America sequel. Rogers can't find a way to land the plane safely, so down he goes. The scene that follows, with him waking up on modern-day NYC and encountering Nick Fury, felt somewhat tacked on. It needed to be done, I suppose, to help move Avengers along that much faster, but it just didn't seem to fit quite right. Sort of like Thor's ending, which wasn't quite as tacked on, but also left something desired. These films should be seen in the context of the larger story, because as standalones, they're very good but not ideally concluded.

The casting here was excellent; everyone from Tommy Lee Jones's Colonel Phillips to Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter were truly believable. Jones and Tucci had the funniest lines. Evans was really good as Cap, but his character just naturally is not as entertaining as Tony Stark. It'll be interesting to see them all interact next year. Speaking of which, after a relatively lame post-credits sequence with Nick Fury, we got a sneak peek at next year's team-up.

The trailer moves very fast, with a rapid succession of shots. We do get a look at everyone though: Maria Hill, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor (in a new outfit), Iron Man/Tony Stark, Bruce Banner (but no Hulk), Nick Fury and Steve Rogers. There's even a shot of Loki, which makes one wonder how he's back in physical form. Other than him, no other real clue to the world-endangering threat was blatantly evident. There's a lot to cover at the start of this film. How does Cap adjust to the real world? How did Thor come back? Where's Bruce Banner been all this time, and how was he brought on board? Only Tony Stark needs little explanation, given the Avengers prequel that was Iron Man 2. I hope they pull this movie off well.... we'll see come next May.