Chris DeLine

Captain America has long since been a landmark in pop culture, and surely Captain America: The First Avenger offers a wonderful cinematic exploration of the character’s history to fans who’ve been waiting to see the story told among the past decade’s roll-out of comic book movies. But for someone who isn’t well-versed in the comic’s plot, or even worse: someone unfamiliar with the Avengers, which Captain America unfolds into, the movie fails to make a compelling stand as a true original. The development of the Captain America character is a rocky one, especially so considering the movie’s inability to compel the audience to suspend disbelief (even for a superhero movie) in order to let the plot blossom, and the process of the character almost immediately graduating from a scrawny runt with a golden heart to a courageous, fully operational killing machine trapped in a pro-wrestler’s body is a big leap to make with or without extensive plot development. The storyline buildup showcasing Cap’s use as a propaganda tool does lend his role character, but the jump from wannabe to a (somehow) skilled fighter pilot with nerves, instinct and capabilities of a seasoned combat veteran is neither smooth nor interesting. Sure, further developing Captain America (as a character we’re actually supposed to care about) would have extended the movie far beyond its already-lengthy run time, but without doing so Captain America is just another explosion-happy action flick.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]