Movie Review - "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011) **

     I think because of my unnatural love for the Star Wars franchise, including the fact that I still buy toys to show that love, I have a tendency to get lumped into that "loves all things nerdy" camp. The truth is, I'm really not. One perfect example is the comic book universe, it's just never been something that I was interested in. I have never been a reader of comics and for the most part, I have found their movie counterparts to be a bore. Only the Batman series seems to be immune from this somewhat as I did like the two Michael Keaton films a lot and The Dark Knight made my top 100 films of all-time list. Other than that, these films really have not worked for me. Which brings us to Captain America: The First Avenger, one of the latest entries into the Marvel franchise and one of the few superhero films that I was sort of looking forward to seeing. I'm not sure why, but the previews I saw for this just appealed to me for some reason. I missed seeing in the theater but was able to catch it on dvd this weekend. I was hoping for a surprise...instead, I got more of the same.

     Captain America takes place during World War II and we meet young Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a meek but determined young man who wants nothing more than to serve his country against the oppressive Nazi regime. Rogers is always given a failing grade due to his numerous health conditions but that doesn't stop him from constantly defending his country, even if it means getting himself beat up in alleyways. One day, Rogers catches the eye of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who decides to use Steve in an experimental government program called Project Rebirth. Rogers body is put into a machine and what comes out is not a weak, sick man, but a man of incredible size, strenght and speed giving him maximum human potential. After the procedure, Dr. Erskine is assassinated by a member of the secret Hydra organization, a part of the Nazi party and is led by the evil Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), also known as Red Skull. Rogers with his new powers want to use them for good but he is initially misused as the propaganda spokesman, Captain America, whose job is to raise funds for the war effort. He is mocked by fellow soldiers until he leads a daring raid to capture a group of imprisoned American soldiers. Captain America shows his true value to the American armed forces and decides to wage war on the Hydra organization.

     Captain America: The First Avenger is not the worst superhero film I have seen. In fact, I enjoyed the first half of the movie for the most part. I found it amusing that the government would create this human with super abilities and then use him as a propaganda tool. There's something fitting to that that just made me chuckle. I even enjoyed the scenes with the raid, mentioned in the recap above. It's after this, when Captain America becomes the Captain America we imagine where the story falls apart for me and I found everything a bit dull. When the movie should take off and go to that extra level, it completely falls apart for me. And that is the problem I tend to have with so many films like this, there are things about the setup I tend to enjoy but the final product just seems lacking. That being said, I'm not a comic fan and if you are, you will probably get a lot more out of this than I will. The ratings tend to be pretty positive for Captain America, so I may not be the best source to listen to on this. It wouldn't be the first time.