Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Genre Character of the Week: Steve Rogers

On Monday I went with my mother, brother, oldest niece, nephew, and youngest daughter to see Captain America: The First Avenger.

I really liked this movie.

It’s kind of funny, as the Superhero genre has had a pretty big summer this year, that the two films I was least interested in to start, this one and Thor, actually came out well ahead of the others.

The movie is great and honestly this comes down to just a few things:

1) Chris Evans, seriously, he really had me invested in the character quite early, and after finding out that he didn’t use a body double for the “before” part of his character (instead it was some pretty amazing CG), I was even more impressed. As cocky as he was as Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four movies, he is earnest, kind, and decent in this role.

2) The story focuses on character development – yes there is a lot of connections to the modern Marvel universe (Thor-related items, Howard Stark, etc.), but the focus in the film is very strongly placed on the characters.

3) I loved the relationships Steve had in the film, from his best friend Bucky, to the love interest and especially to the doctor who decides to take a risk on this kid.
Seriously, the film felt like a wonderful throwback to the great pulp classics, but as it had a nice storyline on its own it didn’t look like a series of set pieces waiting for action sequences (and yes, I’m looking at you Green Lantern).

Honestly, this movie was great, and as I said before, a huge part of that goes to the character of Captain America himself, Steve Rogers.

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