Captain America (2011)

Paramount Pictures

As much as I love superhero movies, I was skeptical about this for some reason. The commercials and trailers didn’t sell me on it, though I should know by now that they can be misleading. I will admit when I’m wrong about these things, and boy, was I wrong! Captain America is a home-run of a movie. It’s an action-adventure movie that packs in heart and humor, and even has a convincing romance too!

Chris Evans was excellent as Steve Rogers, who becomes Captain America, as he has to play a wimpy guy who gets transformed into a hero. The special effects used to turn him into a shrimpy and wimpy guy was very well done. Hugo Weaving, who plays his arch-nemesis named Johann Schmidt, is simply amazing. It looks like he had so much fun as a hammy villain with a German accent. In fact, everyone in this movie played their part to perfection; from Tommy Lee Jones’ grumpy drill sergeant to Toby Jones as the henchman to the main villain. If I had to pick one performance to single out, I'd say it's Toby Jones. It looks like he is constantly in fear of his power crazy boss, yet he is incredibly loyal. It's fun to watch all of his reactions to Johann Schmidt.

Besides the excellent performances, I also loved the setting for this movie. It takes place during World War II, with this evil organization called HYDRA, which is an even deadly splinter group from the Nazi’s. Their leader is trying to collect certain artifacts that have mystical powers, so it reminded me a lot of the Indiana Jones movies. I also felt like there were elements of the James Bond series too, since both the good and bad guys have a surplus of interesting gadgets. Even the villain organization called HYDRA is just like SPECTRE from the Bond movies of the 1960’s, where a crazy madman guy has his own army of troops who are willing to die for their leader.

Along with all of this action, like I said, there’s a romantic element too. Captain America begins falling for another person within the Army, and she also falls for him. It’s a nice subplot that is very convincing, even for an action movie! Captain America has something for everyone to like, whether you just like comic books in general, you’re a fan of adventure movies, spy movies, and maybe even fans of WWII movies would like this too.