Happy Fourth of July/Independence Day to my American friends. The fourth comes earlier here in Japan (it's actually the 5th here now) so last night I celebrated by watching 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. It was only the second time I'd seen the movie and the first time I saw it was in the theatre back in 2011. I still think it's a flawed film but I like it a lot more now.
I suppose it's mainly because Chris Evans has grown on me. The first time I saw it, he was still the lousy Johnny Storm from the lousy Fantastic Four movies (how weird is it they made two of those?). Now I can dig his portrayal as the good-hearted lad who becomes a good-hearted beefcake.
The movie still has way too much cgi and compares poorly to Winter Soldier. But I think director Joe Johnston was aiming for something deliberately artificial. Johnston was part of the circle of creatives that included Spielberg and Lucas (Johnston came up with the design for the Millennium Falcon). Looking at the output of those three directors from the past twenty years, I'm compelled to think there's something they really like about how artificial cgi looks. Like they want movies to look like animated picture books or something. I wish I could get a peek into their thought processes. To think Spielberg was hesitant to use cgi in Jurassic Park because he worried it wouldn't look convincing.
I'd forgotten Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci were in Captain America. They both bring a lot to the production, particularly Jones whose performance always feels authentic in the middle of the cgi soup. Hayley Atwell is a nice love interest--gorgeous with facial expressions that faintly suggest she's having some very sexy thoughts.
Captain America: The First Avenger is available on Disney+.
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