Captain America: The First Avenger
Dir: Joe Johnston
2011
***
I'll be honest with you, I've always been more of a DC nerd but I have to say, I, like the rest of the world, really enjoyed the build up to the first Avengers film and the continuing exploits of the franchise. The Incredible Hulk was pretty good, Iron Man was something else and really did launch the franchise. Thor was always going to be a tricky one to bring into the world but they managed quite brilliantly and now we have Captain America and it is....fine. Not great, but still pretty good. They have kept pretty faithful to the origins, as they should, but that can often be a curse to the modern Superhero movie and is something film makers often get wrong. This isn't the case here, i'm not sure they could have done a better job, it's just that we know the story already. The cast were impressive, Chris Evans is perfect for the role (and makes sure that his Fantastic 4 franchise is over as a bonus), Hayley Atwell is a fantastic Peggy Carter, Sebastian Stan a surprising Bucky and Hugo Weaving show why he has become the go-to guy when you want a colourful villain (although he apparently hated ever minute of it). Tommy Lee Jones adds a certain something in his role as Colonel Chester Phillips, Dominic Cooper makes a fine young Howard Stark, Stanley Tucci and Toby Jones play a couple of brilliant supporting character and the appearance of  Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury ties the film up quite nicely. It's an all round does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-tin action/adventure/superhero film; innocent fun and entertaining enough but a little bit 'colour by numbers'. It will never match the Bale/Nolan Batman films or the old Christopher Reeve Superman films but then nothing ever will in my mind. It goes without saying that it knocks the socks of the 70's version and the one from 1990 that we just don't talk about.