Captain America : The First Avenger

I went to see this with a friend of mine on Friday night.  We're both current, or former comic readers although not avid Captain America/Avengers.  We had both been keeping up with the press views of the film and knowing that it generally got good comments, we were expecting a really good evening.  We have both seen all of the preceeding Marvel films leading up to this - Iron Man 1 and 2, plus Thor (no that they have any significant bearing on this film (except that Tony Stark's dad, Howard Stark, is in it).

The film opens with a weedy Steve Rogers attempting (and failing) to enlist in the army to go an fight the "Nazi's".  Steve has a strong moral standing on doing right and standing up to bullies - something that continually gets him beaten up.  Then Dr Erskine sees him attempting to join again and allows him to enlist in Project Rebirth.  He goes through some kind of basic training with a load of other soldiers, who pretty much bully him right through the training, but show resourcefulness and initiative throughout together with a selfless attitude.  He is helped by Agent Carter and who seems to take a shine to him (liking him as a person despite his physical limitations) and gets picked as the first to be put through the "transformation" and reborn.

Immediately after his rebirth, Hydra (who Erskine used to work for) sabotage the facility, killing Erskine and destroying the equipment.  Rogers captures the saborager who takes a cyanide pill before he can be questioned.  Rogers is then set up as a propaganda mascot and used in shows to sell war bonds to raise money for the millitary.  This is probably the weakest part of the film, but is kept short enough, that it gets it's message across without being too frustrating.  He ends up in Europe and performing to the 107 (which his father served in and in which his best friend Bucky Barnes is serving).  Having been heckled and booed off stage, he finds out that hundreds of the unit were captured by Hydra and Dr Schmitt (Red Skull) at a facility deep in Nazi controlled territory.  Captain America (with the help of Agent Carter and Howard Stark) gets dropped near the base and single handed saves most of the soldiers.

The story escalates from here and I'm not going to go into it all (I'll be here for days).


All in all, it's very well put together, well acted and well scripted.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and it sets up things well for next year with the first Avengers film.

Overall - 4/5 - jolly good fun.