Today, my fiancee sent me en email containing a movie review written by the cousin of one of her coworkers. Apparently, the guys is a film buff, who writes reviews all the time and sends them as emails to people. However, unfortunately, it appears he is not much of a history buff. In any case, here is his review of the Captain America movie. My favorite part is in the third paragraph.

Captain America is not a superhero who I like that much, but he’s also got a lot of flare. He was a super soldier from Marvel comics who helped battle the Nazis. He was not just an icon for many comic book fans alike, but a symbol in the story for heroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man and the Hulk. My problem is, however, I don’t think it’s fair to use Hitler and Nazis as comic book villains. By all means, Hitler was the stupidest idiot on earth, but he was nonetheless a real human being with morals and ideas. To use him and his flock of blind sheep in a comic book is a bad idea because younger children are reading about it. To have them know about something so serious at a young age can be quite troublesome. Comic book villians do indeed have goals to kill people, make life bad for them, all that, but they do it in the sense that it’s exciting and clean.

Remembering that this is a Marvel movie, I decided to give it a shot. This film is connected to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, the Incredible Hulk and Thor.  Every event in each of these films has lead to an event in another. Next year, they will all finally come together in a film called the Avengers to stop evil. Despite my hatred for the first character, I am truly excited.

Honestly, I think history is boring. I have no interest in learning about war, and guns and airplanes, or figures like Stalin. Fortunately, Captain America did not go too into depth regarding the details. So in the early 40s, they try and get new recruits. One guy named Steve Rodgers would like to join the army, but he’s way too scrawny. Desperate, he volunteers for an experiment conducted by Tony Stark’s father, Howard. It’s a success and Rodgers now has stronger abilities. His mission is to take down a sub-Nazi organization called HYDRA, led by the diabolical villain called the Red Skull.

Positively, the acting is superb. The actors do well to get a comic book feel for the film and bear in mind that it’s a PG-13 flick. The action sequences work, and the special effects are great if unimpressive.

However, there’s something important that’s missing. Some scenes just do not fit in the movie at all. For example, there’s this LONG musical number that introduces Capt. America to the world. Additionally, Captain America does not appear in full costume until the last hour. When he does, you never quite get a good look at him. His suit is only average at best.

I guess the problem is that the film is so centered around one character that the supporting cast doesn’t really hold value. The villain the Red Skull is nasty, but all he really does is talk, march, talk some more and shoot guns. You need to explain to the audience why he’s this way and where he intends to go. But when the film finally does, it’s too late.

As the final film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America is worthy  as the final piece of the puzzle. Perhaps he, Iron Man and Thor don’t entirely work well as stand alones, but seeing them all together would really be awesome. This one’s for dedicated Marvel Comic fans only.