Captain America: The First Avenger is a completely decent film. People who are loving this recent wave of good superhero movies (and no, I'm not talking about you, Green Lantern) will embrace this film because it has all the necessary parts required. Likable main character? Yes. Sizable goal for our likable main character to conquer? Yes. Hot girl, scary villain, plucky best friend(s), special effects, etc. etc. etc.? Yes. But at times--and maybe because we're all starting to get used to Marvel's formula--Captain America seems to be heartlessly following a checklist.
For clarity's sake, let's look back at two of Marvel's biggest hits--Iron Man and Thor. Both films begin with flawed characters. Tony Stark (gloriously brought to life by Robert Downey Jr.) is an egotistical brat with big toy guns. Thor thrives on both his pride and physical strength. Steve Rogers, our hero in Captain America, may not have a defining character flaw, but physically, he's useless. He's been rejected by the US Army countless times on account of his bad medical history and extreme CGI'd puniness.
All of our heroes overcome their flaws in various ways. Tony, after seeing what harm Stark Industries has caused across the globe, vows to dedicate himself to something better and to stamp out those using his weapons for evil. Thor, after being banished to Earth and stripped of his powers, becomes humbled by his normal-ness (and that really strained romance with Natalie Portman too, I guess). Steve is given multiple injections of this awesome-looking blue serum stuff, and he emerges as a total superhuman beefcake--and with confidence!
Each of our heroes has an alloted babe who, witnessing the positive changes our hero has undergone, falls head over heels. Each of our heroes also has a close friend (or friends) who encourages these changes and helps them in their quest against the alloted villain. Each of our heroes has someone close to them die*, and it is this death that inspires our hero to fight harder. To do better.
*in the case of Thor, this death is only believed to be true because of a lie, but eh, formula still applies
And, of course, our hero saves the day. They blow up their proverbial Mickey Rourke or save a town full of innocent people. Yaaaaay.
Now, is there anything wrong with this formula? Absolutely not. As we can see by both the box office and critical successes of these films, the formula works. But my question isn't whether or not it works, my question is whether or not the formula is getting tired. Perhaps if these films were spaced out further in their release time, it wouldn't seem so noticeable. Perhaps if these films all weren't connected by the Marvel logo, we'd be able to look at them more independently. But three heroes, all existing under the same universe, all going through such similar transformations? It's hard to look past that. It's hard to enjoy Captain America: The First Avenger as much I enjoyed Iron Man because...I know what's going to happen. I've seen the formula at work several times now.
Maybe the only film that will suffer from this predictability is Captain America, because as far as I know, Marvel isn't planning on introducing any more future Avengers heroes. All that's left are sequels and the big, sexy showdown that will be 2012's 'The Avengers'. But even if Captain American is the only one that suffers, he still suffers. This film emerges, at least to me, as the weakest--not necessarily because it's the worst but because it's the latest.
Thoughts?
[3/5 stars]
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