DVD Reviews

Captain America: The First Avenger (Blu-Ray/DVD Combo)

The road to 2012’s The Avengers hits its final stop with Captain America: The First Avenger, a Word War II origin tale about the star-spangled, human-enhanced solider who goes on to be part of one of the greatest superhero teams of all-time.  Steve Rogers (played by Fantastic Four’s Chris Evans) has been trying to get into the WWII fight on several occasions, but his wimpy frame and health issues have constantly stood in his way.  Pretty soon he is recruited thanks to his compassion, and selflessness, as a test subject for a “super solider serum”; a formula that will make him more than simply a normal man.

After the test proves successful, but is sabotaged by the Nazi’s scientific division (known as Hyrda) led by the Red Skull (The Matrix’s Hugo Weaving), Rogers is sidelined into a promotional recruitment tool until he takes initiative and rescues a squad of captured soldiers on his own.  His deed plants him firmly on the front lines in taking out Hydra, and stopping Skull from using a powerful Norse God treasure (which ties into Thor) called the Cosmic Cube to change the world as he sees fit.

The thing I enjoyed the most about Captain America: The First Avenger is how well the character’s backstory and early adventures were translated to film.  Director Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) delivers an entertaining piece that captures much of Captain America’s appeal found on the original pages.  Chris Evans also embodies a young Rogers perfectly by supplying the right tone and internal character traits that make the man such a hard-nosed boy scout by the time he hits the Avengers roster.  Hugo Weaving (always a treat in these kinds of films) is also a solid arch-villain as the Red Skull (further backed up by a stellar make-up job).

Cap also moves at an excellent pace (never lulling long enough to lose interest), and the special effects in the finished product are impressive.  The techniques to deliver a scrawny Chris Evans before his true muscular appearance appears seamless, and the film also captures the 1940’s era – with a touch of hyper-realism - extremely well.  Ultimately the film turns out to be better than one might expect.

The Blu-ray/DVD Combo disc supplies the exact same technical and supplemental feature structure found before on Thor’s release.  The 1080p high-definition visual digital image is crisp, clean, colourful, and flawless.  The DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio Track provides an excellent sound experience, from Cap swinging his shield, to Hydra energy blasts and multiple explosions, your sound system will love you for it.  As stated, the disc’s bonus features are almost identical to Thor’s but in this case they’re not quite as strong.  The audio commentary by Johnston and others is relaxed and often informative, but also disjointed.  There are several breaks of silence where you can tell they’re simply just watching the movie instead of commenting on it.

The Marvel One-Shot gives us another Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) short story, this time he stops a robbery at a gas station and it’s a little funnier than the one found on Thor.  The Deleted Scenes along with the commentary are a waste mostly, except for *SPOILER ALERT* an extended one where Cap talks to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) longer at the end of the film.  The featurettes are a nice collection, going into certain aspects of the movie fans would want to know like Cap’s costumes & shields, his group of Howling Commandoes (and the actors behind them), his page origins (with creator Joe Simon), the special effect transformation regarding Evans, the Red Skull make-up, and an on-set teaser for The Avengers.  The disc is rounded out with two theatrical trailers for the film, a video game one, and an upcoming animated Avengers project.

Captain America: The First Avenger is just what it should be, a fairly entertaining and well-executed comic book movie that respects the character and his mythology.  It’s not as fantastic as others, but certainly good enough to give it respect.  It’s well cast, crafted, and packaged in a decent Blu-ray/DVD Combo set (the second disc houses a standard DVD/Digital Download copy for portable purposes). 

Review By Ryan Young