Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Not a bad effort at all from director Joe Johnston here. He has in the past directed earlier favourites of mine including Honey I shrunk the kids, Jumanji, The Rocketeer, October Sky and Jurassic Park III if I really stretch it. I have to say I really quite enjoy the retrofuturistic angle he employs, a very similar angle to the one he employed in the Rocketeer. He also really knows how to cast a leading lady for these types of films, in the case of the Rocketeer Jennifer Connelly who realistically couldn’t have been cast any better. In this film Hayley Atwell and even though I haven’t the faintest idea who she is, she was perfectly cast. These World War II noir type films he directs also seem to carry a heavy sense of nostalgia for the imagined America that was which even has me missing the old days. Chris Evans nails his role as Steve Rogers and doesn’t come across as the cocky arrogant character of his previous films such the Fantastic Four and Sunshine but rather as the archetypal American that the world wishes was really true. Hugo Weaving was good as Red Skull even if he did sound too much like Victor Meldrew at times, enough that I was expecting him to shout ‘I don’t believe it.’ any road. Still it’s almost as if every bad guy role in movies was specifically written for him as he does essentially come across as a walking amalgam of every Bond villain since Dr No. And finally Tommy Lee Jones fared well as the comically uptight General in charge of the project. Even though he’s essentially the same character in every film he’s ever been in, he’s always a welcome addition I suppose. The CGI was pretty good, maybe a little too Star Wars and I’m never overly keen on it in movies but still it was well done. But overall the general feel of the film was good. Go see.