Captain America is a comics hero that needs to be handled
more deftly than others. He’s a true
hero – not so much representing the country that is his name, but the
underdog. In an era where the United
States is no longer looked at through rose-colored glasses, a superhero wearing
the flag colors is more likely to get burned with mockery than embraced. Fortunately, an early scene in the rather
excellent new film nails it when Steve Rodgers explains his desire to fight:
Rather than agree with the question of if he wants to kill Nazis, he shakes his
head and responds, “I just don’t like bullies.”
Rodgers is a 98-pound weakling whose desire to stand up
against tyranny is done from such a pure place that, by being in the right
place at the right time, he is chosen to become the first super-soldier through
a mysterious process that is destined to die with its creator. (The effects of displacing Chris Evan’s body
with another actor’s are unnervingly seamless.)
Set up against a dark alter-ego of sort, the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving,
threatening and sometimes quite funny), Steve overcomes a lot of odds to become
the embodiment of a hero, whilst suffering real, painful loss. The film is not sugar-coated, and rather
moving at times.
Ultimately, this is a prequel for the new Avengers film set
for next summer, and it handles it’s task with pitch-perfect tone.
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