Media: DVD.
When I first heard the news that Captain America: The First Avenger was going to appear on the big screen, I threw punches of joy into the air. Never had I ever been so excited to see a comic book hero come to life on the Hollywood scene... If anything, it would certainly rival the brain-sucking attempt of a superhero feature that its 1990 counterpart of Captain America that went out, and was quickly distributed as a "straight to video" release...
What surprised me more, is that Marvel Studios had decided to cast Chris Evans, the actor who had previously been cast as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. As to whether this would mean that he may be cast in the third Fantastic Four movie, is still currently a mystery. I'd love to find the answer to that!
We follow the adventures of a young Steven Rogers, American patriot and soldier wannabe, who has the heart of a soldier, but apparently not the body... He's plucked up by the likes of a German-talking Stanley Tucci, and with the marvels of technology back then, converted into the ultimate weapon against evil! With the thanks of some brilliant CGI pre-Captain America to give Steve that wimpy look, and an amazingly built Chris Evans after the transformation, the film starts building up on realization that evil forces are upon the globe with the advent of HYDRA, led by the charismatic and yet villainous Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull, whose German accent isn't all that bad if I do say so myself, albeit a little overstated... rather much like his "Mr Anderson" quip from the Matrix films!
Marvel Studios has taken the storyline and tied it up in so many ways with other adjoining films in the Marvel universe that it defies belief, but in a very satisfying way. There's references of a "super-soldier" formula which links it to the Hulk movies, which also connects with The Avengers movie which I will be reviewing shortly, there's the use of Howard Stark, linking us to Iron Man, and we have the ever inspiring Nick Fury who appears in a number of these Marvel films of late, played by the only person who could pull it off, Samuel L. Jackson.
The wardrobe design is perfectly set for the time period that it's all set in, with a funny little homage to the original Captain America costume earlier in the movie, looking very much like the original costume from the Marvel comics that I grew up on when I was a kid, including the old 1960's Marvel Comic Group cartoons that used to play on TV back in the 80's, featuring either Sandy Becker or Arthur Pierce as Steve Rogers aka Captain America... You weren't a comic fan back then if you didn't sit in front of the TV on a Monday morning and didn't sing along to the Captain America cartoon theme song. But I digress... The new uniform for Captain America is post-war modern and yet present-day modern too, invoking the military vibe it was meant to then, as well as it does today... I have got to give the costume designers credit for this outstanding piece of work, I love it!
Throw in the ever-expected cameo of Stan Lee and you have a wonderful movie. Having seen this on DVD has made it just that special as I also got to see some in depth documentaries about the costume design and the re-make of the character that is Captain America. I have given this movie the highest rating of five stars.
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