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Okay, I'll put my cards on the table straight away: hand on heart, since the age of sixteen, I've had a soft spot for Captain America. I find this a little embarrassing, but the irony is that I really shouldn't. We (or maybe just me - the people I hang around with keep getting younger) came of age in a time when the United States committed itself to a series of poorly-conceived foreign policy misadventures and collectively put two fingers up to the rest of humanity. And so, in the midst of a culture where America-bashing was standard, it seemed faintly ridiculous to enjoy tales of a superhero who dressed, without irony, like the American flag. But like the US at its best, Captain America wasn't the least bit provincial or arrogant, and embodied an idealism that was miserably lacking in the real world. I'm pleased to report, then, that the long-awaited film version, Captain America: The First Avenger does justice to ethos of the character.
Opening with an Arctic search mission, a team of government rescue types unearth a bizarre-looking aeroplane in the tundra. Once inside, they discover an equally odd looking piece of Americana. How, they scratch their mystified heads, did it end up here? Cue a two-hour flashback to the 1940s: Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a painfully skinny young man with a litany of health problems so long it's a miracle he isn't dead. But, despite his anaemic physique, he's brave bordering on stupid, frequently challenging bullies to put up or shut up and trying to join the US army to help fight the Nazis. On one such attempt, Steve is scouted by Dr Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German émigré and slightly mad scientist employed by the US government to create super-soldiers. Impressed by the depth of Steve's humanity, Erskine offers him the chance to become a candidate for his new super-hero serum. Having made it through the training, despite the doubts of a leather-faced old general (Tommy Lee Jones), Steve is duly transformed into beefcake, much to the joy of stiff-upper-lipped MI6 attaché Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).
On the other side of the Atlantic, unusual evil is brewing in the form of HYDRA, the Nazi's premier mad science division (with - no joke - a skull and octopus logo), headed by the big bad Dr Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), the host for Erskine's first serum, which has given him a serious rash. Schmidt has harnessed the power of a mystical energy cube (a tie in with Marvel's Thor) to create fearsome weapons, which he means to unleash on the advancing Allied forces. Meanwhile, Steve is being paraded around the US to sell war bonds with a jingoistic song and dance, a task he finds increasingly distasteful, especially when he is booed off stage in Italy by combat-weary soldiers. Like an angel of mercy, Peggy arrives to send him on an impromptu mission behind enemy lines to rescue captured soldiers, leading to a brief confrontation with the dermatologically vexed Dr Schmidt. Duly energised and now aware that Schmidt has several munitions factories around Europe, Steve - now fully transmogrified into Captain America - leads his team in a montage of explosive raids, culminating in an assault on HYDRA HQ and the crash-landing of Schmidt's bomber jet into the Arctic.
Though the film adroitly steers clear of excessive pomposity, it succumbs to a different set of clichés. The Nazis are goose-stepping cartoon villains, and Steve's team is basically an ensemble of stereotypes - the British soldier sports a union jack badge to let us know he's British (though it was refreshing to see a three-dimensional female in Atwell's character - a typical failing of comic book films). And where the Batman franchise could lend itself to gritty realism, and Thor could be serious without taking itself seriously, Captain America: The First Avenger was always going to be an odd duck. How do you approach something which is a bit daft but also inherently principled? The filmmakers clearly opted for the middle route, adding just enough humour and self-consciousness to dial down the self-evident idealism. This strategy works for the most part, but may have failed altogether if Evans didn't make Captain America believable (along with Tommy Lee Jones, who steals every scene he's in). In the film's semi-twist ending, you can't help but feel for the big guy.
In sum, don't be put off by the label - Captain America: The First Avenger may not be the greatest of superhero films, but it manages to be eminently watchable whilst staying true to its origins, which is something of a feat in itself.
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