Captain America

REVIEW: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

It’s 1941 and the world is at war. After being rejected multiple times for the US Army due to his size, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is chosen for a top-secret experiment where he is turned into a Super Soldier. With the allied forces by his side Steve leads the fight against Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and the Nazi-backed organisation, HYDRA.

Having Captain America: The First Avenger set in the 1940’s leads to an almost old-fashioned vibe which is a nice change of pace for the superhero genre. Captain America as a character is all about “truth, justice and the American Way”, something in today’s time could be seen as both jingoistic and corny, but the filmmakers do a great job of having Steve Rogers being an inherently good person, while not hiding from Captain America’s potential cheesiness. The montage of Steve attempting to be a showman selling bonds to the song Star Spangled Man With A Plan perfectly shows this.

Much like how Robert Downey Jr. is born to play Tony Stark, it’s clear that Chris Evans is perfect as Steve Rogers. He is charming and sincere, and is every bit a leader while still feeling like the everyman who doesn’t like bullies.

Not only is Captain America: The First Avenger a good war film, the action is slick, and it blends the tragedy of war with heroics incredibly well, it’s also got a romance you fully invest in. Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is a caring yet capable woman who fights side by side with the Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and the US army. The chemistry between Atwell and Evans is tangible every time they’re on screen together. Another important relationship in Steve Rogers life is that he has with best friend James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes (Sebastian Stan), it’s a friendship that wil transcend the times and is a significant part of Steve’s character and motivation.

A key part of Captain America: The First Avenger is the characters. They all feel like real people, who talk and argue and care about one another. Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), father of Tony Stark, makes and appearance and it’s clear where Tony gets a lot of his brains and showmanship from. Howard’s a fun character though it’s interesting to see a younger version of the man we’ve heard about in Iron Man 2, a man that was incredibly distant and didn’t care for his son.

One group of characters who do feel a bit short-changed are the Howling Commandos. ‘Dum Dum’ Dugan (Neal McDonough), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Falsworth (JJ Feild) and Dernier (Bruno Ricci) all deserve more than their given. The Howling Commandos along with Bucky Barnes and Captain America are a tight group of friends but you only get the barest hints of that in the film, with their missions being reduced to a montage.

Captain America: The First Avenger is full of charm, great characters and performances. It’s a solid, old-fashioned blockbuster that successfully combines action with heart. 4/5.

REVIEW: Captain America: Civil War (2016)

captain america civil war posterAfter a string of dangerous and deadly missions that put the public at risk, the Avengers are told they must be regulated by the U.N. While Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) agrees with these measures, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) doesn’t trust them. This causes a divide between the team that’s only exasperated when Steve’s best friend and former assassin Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) resurfaces.

Anthony and Joe Russo return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the way they put together this film is great. The action sequences are well-shot, there’s only a few instances of shaky-cam and most of the time fight scenes are framed in a wide shot so you can see exactly what’s going on. Also the way they manage to film multiple characters fighting but you never lose focus of where each character is and what they are doing is truly commendable.

A big part of the film is obviously this conflict between Steve and Tony and the sides various characters choose. The great thing about Captain America: Civil War is that you understand why these characters disagree and as the viewer you can see it’s not black and white and there’s pros and cons to both sides of the argument. At the beginning of the film there’s a sit down discussion between a lot of the characters and you get why the stakes are so high and what these regulations mean to them all.

The tension builds between all the characters as the film progresses and in many ways it’s similar to a Bourne thriller as characters go on the run and try to figure out the truth. While I won’t go into any depth of the different characters motivations, I can’t not mention Prince T’Challa aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). He is a guy who has the weight of a country on his shoulders but he is still fallible. He isn’t particularly on anyone’s side, he is on his own side and it makes him an interesting third party to this conflict. Civil War gives Black Panther a brilliant introduction and there’s going to be many people excited about his solo film.

There are a lot of characters in this movie but thanks to a great script, they all get their moment in the spotlight though some may have that moment longer than others. Really while Civil War is in a way both a sequel to Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, at the heart of it, it is a Captain America movie. It’s the relationship between Steve and Bucky that drives a lot of their character motivations, and the motivations of a lot of the characters around them. the two of them are the heart of the film and it’s a good job Evans and Stan have such a good understanding of their characters and give such great performances because if they didn’t, Captain America: Civil War really wouldn’t be as good as it is.

Captain America: Civil War is a phenomenal film. While there’s all this conflict and amazing action sequences, at the heart of the film is the characters and their relationships. It’s what drives the plot and makes the film so great. 5/5.

P is for Peggy Carter

peggy carterPeggy Carter is a badass. There’s no two ways about it, she’s smart, resourceful and can throw a punch.

Peggy may have been a love interest for Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger but she was always capable of looking after herself and she saved Steve just as many times as he saved her. Through having her own TV Show and having cameos in Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, Ant-Man and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, you get to see how Peggy is a well-rounded character with flaws and how she can be feminine and kick ass at the same time – something that “strong female characters” aren’t always allowed to be.

While Peggy has been in the army and is now a spy so she’s had working relationships with men, some which are great and full of respect and some which aren’t respectful at all, it’s the way she can work in this man’s world but still have great relationships with women that I really love. There’s that thing that girls do (I admit, I’ve done it myself) where they say “I’m not like other girls and I prefer spending my time with boys because girls can be so bitchy” and Peggy Carter shows that doesn’t have to be the case. Yes she can fight which is a bit different to most female characters we see in her world but she still has great friendships with Angie, a civilian waitress, and Rose, a fellow agent who people underestimate because of how she looks.

Peggy Carter is awesome because she works hard and loves to prove people wrong but she can be stubborn and act rashly. She is a good person and a good spy but she still makes mistakes.

I love the fact that Peggy Carter has gotten her own TV show and I have my fingers crossed we will be getting a season three because how on earth can they leave it after that cliff-hanger in the season two finale?!

SPOILER REVIEW: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

This review is full of spoilers. It’s all my thoughts about the characters and the plot, and all the things I loved and the stuff I wasn’t over keen on. You can read my spoiler-free review here. I wasn’t sure of the best way to go about this – it turned into a weird episodic structure where I talked about each character in turn and the things I liked/disliked about what they did. It also ended up being rather long, seriously it’s over 1,800 words! Last warning for SPOILERS! (more…)