Captain America : First Avenger

Trop américain, une intrigue peu intéressante et éculée, mais comme introduction à la problématique des Avengers, c’est tolérable. Les numéros deux et trois devraient être plus intéressants et je compte d’ailleurs aller voir ça prochainement. (01/06/2019)

Drôle, plein d'ironie et avec un excellent Tommy Lee Jones, mais aussi direct et avec un doublage tchèque détestable en prime. Cela fonctionne surtout comme une simple introduction au Captain, indispensable aux Avengers, donc la première moitié du film est assez longue et l'ensemble a un air de prologue. La suréquipement allemand des armes est extrême. Cependant, cela valait la peine d'attendre pour la bande-annonce des Avengers. (23/07/2011)

I wanted to believe in it after the good trailers and mostly positive feedback. But Joe Johnston and I once again don’t see eye to eye. I don't mind the poetics of Captain America as such, I understand the time period and why the comic was created, and how it got moving according to Hollywood rules is appropriate to all of that. Yet the whole thing is so perfectly staged, it has a lot of visual frills, and it overflows with insight that is delivered by precisely cast actors, until in the last third I stopped enjoying it just because of how perfectly it copies the classic template. It's not the failure that Green Lantern was, and the king of the naive comic book films this year was Thor (and the film made do with half the bombast!). (26/11/2011)

This stupid bullshit has better reviews than the brilliant Green Hornet? Poor taste rules the world :D… Captain America felt bland already from the trailers, so I didn’t bother going to the cinema – thanks God for that! It’s been long since an expensive Hollywood blockbuster made me suffer so much. I didn’t like the story, the visuals were very ugly; I really can’t find anything to praise. After the trailer for Avengers (that looks every bit as derivative as the Captain and the other origin stories), I’m now feeling almost certain that the Marvel Universe will not produce anything great. (24/10/2011)

It's exactly as stupid as the trailers seem to indicate, BUT the film knows it and is able to make fun of itself with good timing and not take itself deadly seriously (especially the propaganda passage in which the Captain sells bonds is yummy). The problem is, alongside the self-irony, Johnston's film doesn't offer much. Indeed, it is a hearty return to the 1990s, when the comic book hero was 100% form and no content. And unfortunately, there's a piece missing of the directing heart that Brannagh used to save his colleague Thor. Johnston is able to do a solid trick show, he artfully evokes a retro atmosphere (the semi-forgotten World of Tomorrow came to mind), the actors are apt, and Tommy Lee Jones has great catchphrases. It’s no wonder that time passes, the smile rarely grows into a scowl, and the Captain fulfills his mission to tap it into the timeline of the other Avengers. My impressions are stuck somewhere in the neutral zone - no disappointment, no bang, just a solidly treated product that just confirms my impression that The Avengers won’t be good, certainly not with such a crazy scattering of style and mood. P.S. the dubbing was terrible. I suspect that three high teenagers dubbed the whole thing. (22/07/2011)