Catholic-ometer: 4.5 of 5
This movie is not specifically-Catholic, and doesn't mention any Catholic theology or major Catholic themes. Regardless, I feel I should review it here, out of respect to certain elements of it, which impressed me from a religious and moral perspective.
I rarely watch movies in theaters anymore, because I just don't enjoy most of the ones coming out nowadays. Still, I heard from a reliable source that this movie was good, so I checked it out. I figured it might tingle my Catholic sense the way Spider-man 2 did, or it might not, the way Iron Man did. Still, I knew there was a chance that it might really be good. I love the true-blue hero types like Captain America, and I love the older comic books on which this kind of adventure is based, so I checked it out.
First, let me start off by saying that the movie gets a lot right. A period piece set in the times of the 1940s near the end of the second world war, a wimpy little guy called Steve Rodgers wants to be a soldier more than anything, but no matter what he tries, he just can't seem to pass the army's tough recruitment guidelines. Enter a military scientist; originally from germany, who promises to give him a chance to be in the army, by means of an experimental formula, which amplifies all the natural powers of his body to the absolute peak of human potential and, perhaps, beyond. Rodgers undergoes the procedure and becomes Captain America; fighting in the war to protect his friend Bucky, and the other brave soldiers on the front lines. Much action and adventure ensue. This ultimately leads him into conflict with the Red Skull; a supervillain in charge of Hydra; a nazi splinter-group that uses advanced technology derived from a strange, recently-discovered power source.
The list of differences between this movie and the comics it was based on would go on for days, and don't really matter anyway. In the comics, Bucky wore a costume too, but his role was otherwise the same, and frankly, I agree with this change. Bucky didn't undergo the procedure, so it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense for him to be CA's sidekick in a movie like this one.
The content of this movie pleased me greatly in some ways. There was relatively little cursing, the violence and death didn't get gorey (though in a story about war, there will never be a lack of death,) and the closest thing to sexual content was a woman yanking CA's necktie and kissing him. The action is a little goofy at times, and overall, is has about the same vibe as a cartoon with more military types in it, which will appeal to some, and not to others. I know some who were hoping this would be a legitimate war movie, but I don't see how it could have been.
The dialogue is rather standard fare, and the characters aren't terribly deep. There's not much soul-searching, and the villain is rather two-dimensional. In short, it wasn't Spider-man 2. That said, I loved it, because this kind of storytelling really was popular a couple generations ago, when characters didn't have to be deep or excessively-complicated to be interesting. Archetypes are strong and rarely deviated from in this movie, and I consider that a good thing, since when you get down to it, that's really what Captain America is about. He's an archetype for the virtuous soldier. Seeing him in that light, a whole slew of other things about the movie become clear.
On one level, the main character demonstrates tremendous courage, strength of will, dedication, humility and care for his fellow man, yet he knows what kinds of tough choices have to be made in a time of war. He's moral to a tremendous degree, which is enough by itself to impress me, but the film has other things hidden in it as well.
In one scene, the doctor explains his reasons for choosing Rodgers as his subject; because he believed that strong men become used to their strength, and always want more, but weak men know the value of strength, and how to be good and true. I don't care whether this was intended or not; this line sets up the rest of the movie as an allegory for Heaven; where only the most virtuous, couragious, humble people will go to be glorified, and receive new bodies, which can be used to help others. That put a smile on my face when I thought of it in that light.
Still, the movie isn't without its downsides. The hydra group takes center stage as the villains very early on, and seems to be just about the only group of nazis that Cap fights. Maybe I misread that, but I felt like this was an attempt to sort of pidgeonhole our hero into his own little world, so he doesn't bother the rest of the war going on. I would have preferred to see real nazis with real villain motivations, or even a thorough characterization of Hitler, but that might have been too much to ask for, considering the direction that modern world events are taking.
There's one thing I'm sure of; this is a good movie, because it's a movie about good people doing good things. It's no masterpiece, doesn't go too far into its characters, and the war action is, I feel, disrupted a bit by the odd technology being thrown around, but it's still a good film, and that's so uncommon nowadays, that I don't feel it would be right of me to give it less than four stars in any category. It may not be very thought-provoking, but it's got its soul in the right place, and I couldn't be happier about it.
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