CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, A Mostly Spoiler-Free Review!

 This was starting to look like the summer that the superhero movies needed a superhero to save them. Thor was decent but hardly godlike, X-Men: First Class buried its promise beneath scores of uninteresting secondary characters, and Green Lantern was a forgettable, by-the-numbers affair at best. When it looked like all hope was lost, though, Captain America: The First Avenger roared in on a souped-up Harley and saved the day with an appealing lead, a winning supporting cast, and an affectionately retro sensibility.

 

Captain America begins with a present-day prelude that manages to evoke Aliens, The Thing, and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind all at once, with a research team finding a mysterious airship buried in the arctic ice. Within it is the perfectly-preserved body of a visitor from another era. From there, we flash back to the darkest days of World War II, where Hitler’s chief weapons designer, Johann Schimdt (Hugo Weaving) lays claim to a mysterious otherworldly cube, hoping to harness its powerful energy for his own evil schemes. Meanwhile, in the U S of A, a scrawny Brooklyn kid named Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is once again trying unsuccessfully to enlist in the army; the 98-pound weakling’s history of illness has him declared 4-F, but all he wants is to serve his country (seen in the film’s trailers, the effect of placing Evans’ face on a much smaller actor’s body is a startling but ultimately convincing effect). Catching the attention of Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), Rogers is eventually accepted and fast-tracked into a secret military project to create a series of super-soldiers who can defeat the Nazi menace. Injected with experimental formulas and bombarded with “vita-rays”, Rogers is transformed from a scrawny wimp into, well, Chris Evans. An assassin’s bullet ensures the project can never be duplicated, making Rogers a one-of-a-kind hero. Seen by the army as being too valuable to possibly lose in combat, Rogers is sent overseas in a star-spangled outfit and paraded around with showgirls in a series of USO performances. Still, Steve volunteered for the experiment so he would have the chance to save lives, so when he finds out that the platoon of his childhood pal Bucky Barnes has been captured by Schmidt’s nefarious Nazi sub-division, HYDRA, our hero rushes off to save the day, and the career of Captain America begins. Before long, he’s wearing a more practical version of his familiar outfit, and toting around an indestructible shield designed by Howard Stark (father of Tony, AKA Iron Man).

 

Directed with the same affection for the period he brought to The Rocketeer 20 years ago, Joe Johnston’s Captain America is full of earnest, gee-whiz spirit. It’s a colourful, humourous, action-packed blast, helped along by a robust score from Alan Silvestri (Back To The Future, Predator). Early detractors wondered whether or not Chris Evans would be right for the role, having already played a Marvel hero as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films. They needn’t have worried—he is an actor, after all, and the cocky Johnny Storm is nowhere to be seen (although longtime Marvel fans should keep their eyes peeled during the World’s Fair sequence for a reference to another Human Torch). His Steve Rogers is a likeable do-gooder, eager to save as many lives as he possibly can. It’s a refreshingly un-ironic performance; when asked by Dr. Erskine if he wants to kill Nazis, he responds, “I don’t want to kill anyone. I just don’t like bullies”. Hayley Atwell provides the love interest as British agent Peggy Carter, thankfully never reduced to the role of screaming damsel-in-distress, and Tommy Lee Jones enjoyably chews the scenery as Cap’s military overseer General Chester Phillips. Hugo Weaving is nice and dastardly as Johann Schmidt and his crimson-faced alter ego, the Red Skull, and Toby Jones snivels admirably as his sidekick, Dr. Arnim Zola.

 

It’s become a common complaint lately that the recent spate of Marvel movies (The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor) have all merely been trailers for 2012’s Avengers film, which will see the heroes team up for the first time. Captain America: The First Avenger had me leaving the theater much more excited at that prospect than any of the above-mentioned films did, but it also stood perfectly well on its own, even with its wraparound present-day sequence that brings the hero into the present day. I personally can’t wait to see how Evans’ Cap fits into the 21^st century, both in The Avengers and, hopefully, a solo Captain America sequel. Easily the best Marvel movie since the first Iron Man, and probably my personal favourite since the original 2002 Spider-Man, Captain America: The First Avenger makes the old-fashioned seem new again. Now let's just hope that Toby Jones' Arnim Zola shows up in a sequel looking like his comic-book counterpart: 

Clap For The Wolfman? A Spoiler-Free Review!

 

I tried really, really hard to like Universal’s update of The Wolfman, I really did. I’m a sucker for lycanthropy flicks, having seen The Howling, Wolfen, and An American Werewolf In London more times than I care to remember. I followed the movie’s tortured path to the multiplex (more on that later) to the screen with much interest, and made sure I was there to support it on opening night. I even proudly wore my Monster Squad “Wolfman’s Got Nards” t-shirt! Unfortunately, despite having a good cast and the most dependable go-to guy for monster effects in its corner, The Wolfman feels less like a movie and more like product—a once-valuable corporate property being dusted off and trotted out once more to make a few bucks.

 Acclaimed thespian Lawrence Talbot returns to his family’s ancestral estate on the moors when his brother is killed by a mysterious beast, and when he joins the hunt to find the creature, he is attacked and bitten by the feral creature. As Talbot recovers from his injuries, he is protected by his eccentric father (Anthony Hopkins, now apparently the go-to guy to play the Crazy Old Man in classic monster remakes—see his performance as Professor Van Helsing in Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula remake for more details) and nursed back to health by his brother’s grieving fiancée (Emily Blunt). However, once the full moon rises again, Talbot sprouts hair and fangs and goes on a killing spree. No amount of Victorian-era crackpot psychiatry--like a good old fashioned strait-jacketed dunking into a pool of ice cubes, for instance--will cure him; it seems only a silver bullet will do the job.

 The cast of The Wolfman acquits themselves admirably, particularly Del Toro. With his haunted eyes and hangdog intensity, he’s the perfect actor to play a civilized man struggling with his inner beast. Hugo Weaving has a nice turn as the inspector hot on the werewolf’s trail, and Hopkins throws himself into his part with loony gusto. The creature effects were designed by the legendary Rick Baker, who won an Academy Award for his work in An American Werewolf In London. His upright-walking, partially clothed Wolf Man has a nice classic look, and the transformation sequences recall AAWIL’s bone-wrenching grossness. It’s too bad that the majority of the transformations are achieved using CGI, as their video-game smoothness can’t measure up to the how-the-heck-did-they-do-that magic of Baker’s earlier practical effects work. The transformations themselves also whiz by too fast—any fan of the genre will happily tell you that that’s usually the best part of a werewolf movie! This rushed pace represents an overall problem with the film, which at times feels like one big montage. We’re introduced to the characters in a hurry, their relationships develop too quickly…even the story’s Big Twist seems to arrive about one act too early. Aside from some hinted-at Freudian ickiness in the Talbot family, there’s not much in the way of subtext or relevance either, just monster madness for its own sake. Which is fine, but not always enough to make a movie stay with you after the credits roll.

 The Wolfman was a famously troubled production—original director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) left the project over creative differences right before shooting, and Joe Johnston (director of The Rocketeer, and soon-to-be Captain America helmer) stepped in at the last possible second. The film was pulled from its original 2008 release for reshoots and retooling, and then yanked from Universal’s schedule again right before its proposed Halloween 2009 release. With all the behind-the-scenes drama, it’s a wonder The Wolfman is watchable at all, but it is—I’d certainly rather sit through it again a dozen more times than have to watch another Saw sequel. Sadly, though, I don’t see this new interpretation of the werewolf legend capturing the zeitgeist any time soon. Maybe we should hold out hope for the long-gestating remake of The Creature From The Black Lagoon?