Friday, May 18, 2012

Captain America: the First Avenger

the Poster:


the Trailer:



the Plot:
In the present day, scientists in the Arctic uncover a circular object with a red, white and blue motif.

In March 1942, Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his men invade Tønsberg, Norway, to steal a mysterious Tesseract possessing untold powers. Meanwhile, in New York City, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is rejected for World War II military duty because of various health and physical issues. While attending an exhibition of future technologies with his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Rogers again attempts to enlist. Overhearing Rogers' conversation with Barnes about wanting to help in the war, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) allows Rogers to enlist. He is recruited as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under Erskine, Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), and British agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Phillips is unconvinced by Erskine's claims that Rogers is the right person for the procedure, but relents after seeing Rogers commit an act of self-sacrificing bravery. The night before the treatment, Erskine reveals to Rogers that Schmidt underwent an imperfect version of the procedure and suffered side-effects.

Back in Europe, Schmidt and Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) successfully harness the energies of the Tesseract, intending to use the power to fuel Zola's inventions. Schmidt, having discovered Erskine's location, dispatches an assassin to kill him. In America, Erskine subjects Rogers to the super-soldier treatment, injecting him with a special serum and dosing him with "vita-rays". After Rogers emerges from the experiment taller and more muscular, one of the attendees kills Erskine, revealing himself to be Schmidt's assassin, Heinz Kruger (Richard Armitage). Rogers pursues and captures Kruger, but the assassin commits suicide by cyanide capsule before he can be interrogated.

With Erskine dead and the super-soldier formula lost, U.S. Senator Brandt (Michael Brandon) has Rogers tour the nation in a colorful costume as "Captain America" to promote war bonds, rather than allow scientists to study him and attempt to rediscover Erskine's formula. In 1943, while on tour in Italy performing for active servicemen, Rogers learns that Barnes' unit was lost in a battle against Schmidt's forces. Refusing to believe that Barnes is dead, Rogers has Carter and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) fly him behind enemy lines to mount a solo rescue attempt. Rogers infiltrates the fortress of Schmidt's HYDRA organization, freeing Barnes and the other captured soldiers. Rogers confronts Schmidt, who reveals his face to be a mask, removing it to display the red, skull-like face that earned him the sobriquet "the Red Skull." Schmidt escapes and Rogers returns to base with the freed soldiers.

Rogers recruits Barnes, Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), James Montgomery Falsworth (J. J. Feild), and Jacques Dernier (Bruno Ricci) to attack the other known HYDRA bases. Stark outfits Rogers with advanced equipment, in particular a circular shield made of vibranium, a rare, near-indestructible metal. Rogers and his team successfully sabotage various HYDRA operations. The team later assaults a train carrying Zola. Zola is captured, but Barnes falls from the train to his apparent death.

Using information extracted from Zola, the final HYDRA stronghold is located and Rogers leads an attack to stop Schmidt from using weapons of mass destruction on American cities. Rogers clambers aboard Schmidt's aircraft as it takes off. During the subsequent fight, the Tesseract's container is damaged. Schmidt physically handles the Tesseract, causing him to dissolve in a bright light. The Tesseract falls to the floor, burning through the plane and falling to Earth. Seeing no way to land the plane without the risk of detonating its weapons, Rogers crashes it in the Arctic. Stark later recovers the Tesseract from the ocean floor, but is unable to locate Rogers or the aircraft.

Rogers awakens in a 1940s-style hospital room. Deducing from an anachronistic radio broadcast that something is wrong, he flees outside into what is revealed to be present-day Times Square, where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tells him he has been "asleep" for nearly 70 years.


the Riviu:
this is so not my cup of tea! and thank goodness that i'm not that much of a tea people.

i know that some people is raving about this film but to me, so many weak points. how can a man's bones be elongated by a scientifically made serum? i mean, if it's giving muscles and brawns, that i can accept. this one, nope.



and what is this Tasseract thingy? not much is told of it, and how it interact with any surface. how can it be contained by a simple box and then transfered into lamp-like container before burning holes of the so-called state of art aircraft? and then easily handled by the hands of Schmidt and later on by Howard Stark's under-the-sea equipment? arghhh..

and the chemistry between Peggy and the Captain America, too stunted. i'm wondering about her position in all of this setup. she was seen recruiting, training and then visiting Captain America near the enemy lines.


and then during the assault at Hydra's last base, she stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only woman in the frontlines. to think her as the sole woman accepted in the army is not a commendation but rather a degrading point. one, just one. it's a very, very man's world. though the scene where she emotionlessly opening fire on Cap's shield, that's pure gumption :) yay to Women's Power !

this movie has Howard Stark playing some important roles alongside Peggy. he was shown to be a flamboyant ladies man. but his presence is not that, how to say it, attention-commanding? the last time the world saw Mr Stark senior is in the Iron Man 2 where he was portrayed to be a very harsh father. serious. driven. Mr Cooper's presentation of him that somehow tries to mimic Robert Downey Jr's mannerism as Tony Stark, well, fell flat, and trodden. sorry Mr Cooper, it just felt wrong.

as for the bad guys, the only thing i find myself respecting is the Heinz Kruger's suicide, some sort of an art, you know. the teeth gnashing, the frothing mouth :giggles:

i mean, the Red Skull keeps repeating the power the gods and all that mulch but why did he keep running away when confronted? hello! you've got a blasting-on-the-spot gun right? why don't you and your faceless army just move forward and blast everything away? tak paham aku. the American soldiers and the selected few who made into Caps' squad were just using conventional guns and snipers. so why are you so chicken-ish? no use of having that Tasseract thingy la gitu. and no power of the gods :tongue struck out:

and it's kinda funny when the prisoners of war (PoW) came out from the cages so healthy and brawnish, ready to rumble in the HYDRA's tanks. baiknya la HYDRA organisation ni bagi diorang makan dan tak dera-dera semua. even the ones who were at the Allies camp earlier look much beaten and sorrier than that lot. and these PoW were left unsupervised somewhat at the HYDRA camp and managed to escape, all 400 of them. which is kinda stupid.


and what is stupider, you may ask, is the location of the weaponry base and factories are displayed for everyone to see. hello, it's not a secret ek? sape2 je bleh tahu.


and when the locations are revealed with Cap's waging war on each base one by one, don't they heighten the security nor relocate their bases to somewhere else? no. they have to wait for Captain America to come barging in and destroy their place.

haiyoh.

true enough, i'm not that impressed. only the fact that Cap's shield with its dents and whatnots is impressive to me. i like that fact. a simple fact to show that Cap is vulnerable and simply a human being.


of course, woman may salivate of the yummy display of Cap's skin, and i really appreciate that once revealed to us the effect of the serum on Steve, he wore a white shirt over the bare skin and pursued the assassin in high speed motion. so no excessive drool is produced.

ya, i can attest to the fact that Cap is really a decent man and deserves my respect apart from his lean and fit physicality. yup he sure does :grins:


the Pix:









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