Captain America: The First Avenger

I wanted to believe in it after the good trailers and mostly positive feedback. But Joe Johnston and I once again don’t see eye to eye. I don't mind the poetics of Captain America as such, I understand the time period and why the comic was created, and how it got moving according to Hollywood rules is appropriate to all of that. Yet the whole thing is so perfectly staged, it has a lot of visual frills, and it overflows with insight that is delivered by precisely cast actors, until in the last third I stopped enjoying it just because of how perfectly it copies the classic template. It's not the failure that Green Lantern was, and the king of the naive comic book films this year was Thor (and the film made do with half the bombast!). (26/11/2011)

Fun, full of exaggeration and featuring the excellent Tommy Lee Jones, but also straightforward and with disgusting Czech dubbing to boot. It also works mainly as a mere performance of the Captain, necessary for the Avengers, so the start in the first half is quite lengthy. The film feels a bit like a prologue. The excess of German weapons and equipment is immense. But it was worth waiting for The Avengers teaser. (22/07/2011)

It's exactly as stupid as the trailers seem to indicate, BUT the film knows it and is able to make fun of itself with good timing and not take itself deadly seriously (especially the propaganda passage in which the Captain sells bonds is yummy). The problem is, alongside the self-irony, Johnston's film doesn't offer much. Indeed, it is a hearty return to the 1990s, when the comic book hero was 100% form and no content. And unfortunately, there's a piece missing of the directing heart that Brannagh used to save his colleague Thor. Johnston is able to do a solid trick show, he artfully evokes a retro atmosphere (the semi-forgotten World of Tomorrow came to mind), the actors are apt, and Tommy Lee Jones has great catchphrases. It’s no wonder that time passes, the smile rarely grows into a scowl, and the Captain fulfills his mission to tap it into the timeline of the other Avengers. My impressions are stuck somewhere in the neutral zone - no disappointment, no bang, just a solidly treated product that just confirms my impression that The Avengers won’t be good, certainly not with such a crazy scattering of style and mood. P.S. the dubbing was terrible. I suspect that three high teenagers dubbed the whole thing. (22/07/2011)

I think I'm going to hide in Asian cinema for a while after this crap. I don't know why America is trying to mix the impossible lately. Suddenly the cinemas are full of sci-fi westerns and war fantasy action flicks. I'm turned off by the red monster that disrupted the rather excellent retro atmosphere (kudos to Hayley Atwell's make up). The tiny and determined kid becomes a super-powered idol rolling out one badass line after another. But was the invincible and mostly cheesy shield really necessary? 2.5 stars. (16/08/2011)

He was the last one to the table, but when things get worse, you can be sure he'll be standing in the front lines. Steve Rogers stayed somewhat on the sidelines throughout the Avengers journey, but in the end, to my great surprise, he ends up being the one who got under my skin the most. His loyalty, bravery, and naivety in the most positive sense, combined with his style of fighting, are simply unrivaled. When the dark Red Skull or the self-sufficient Agent Carter join the party, there is nothing left to do but applaud. Marvel won this war, and I gained a hero I had thus far only seen on T-shirts for almost a decade since his origin story. (13/08/2011)