Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Apparently, His Enhanced Muscles Are Composed of His Brain Cells Captain America: The First Avenger (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS I don’t really have anything against Director Joe Johnston; I just don’t have anything for him either. His previous movies are mixed bag of basically enjoyable family entertainment, and Captain America: The First Avenger (124 minutes) is more of the same. Although, I would really love to know what parts of the script Joss Whedon worked on. There are some rather inconsistent elements, which beg the question: did Whedon “refine” the parts of the script that worked, thus making the rest of the movie seem shabby? Or is it Whedon who turned a basically enjoyable film into a slightly less enjoyable film? Since his re-writes were intended to bring what was a stand-alone movie into the Marvel Universe Avengers Prequel Series, maybe it doesn’t matter that much. The fan girls and boys are out in force for the afternoon show, which is a change from some of the near empty theaters I have been sitting in lately. The film opens on the present-day Arctic, and I feel sadly misled by Al Gore’s claims that everything is melting, since there is lots of snow. Take that non-political, non-partisan, body of scientists whose research consistently shows support for a trend of global warming! Speaking of scientists, they are apparently receiving credit for finding the awfully nifty object with the red, white and blue motif hidden inside a metal container in the ice. So that deleted scene from the second Incredible Hulk movie was slightly inaccurate. After the scientists have a “we’re gonna need a bigger boat” conversation, the scene shifts to Norway in 1942. Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving, with some stellar make-up effects) invades a castle, kills some people and takes the so-called “jewel of Odin’s treasure room.” Spoiler alert! It seems really similar to something that appeared in one of the other movies’ after-credit scenes! Meanwhile in New York, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, rocking the best CGI shrinking I’ve ever seen) receives a 4F rating, rendering him ineligible for the military service he so desperately craves. His buddy Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) cheers him up with a visit to an exhibition on Modern Marvels to see Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) make a car fly. Flying cars apparently bore Rogers, so he slips into another military recruitment center to lie on his application some more. No Rogers! The U.S government will figure out your trick! It is impossible to fool them! Actually, he’s probably pretty safe. Or is he? Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci, having lots of fun with his German accent) pulls a few strings and signs off on Rogers’ recruitment. Fast-forward to training, where Rogers shows some impressive problem-solving skills. Don’t get too used to that because once the super-soldier serum kicks in, he becomes dumb as a box of hammers. I mean, evidently once he is covered in muscles, things that other people have to worry about, like thinking through problems, is replaced with running and shooting things. He’s lucky he’s pretty. At least he gets an awesome love interest! Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter perfectly captures the difficulties of being a woman in a masculine field, and I would love to see more of her. Make that happen in The Avengers or the Captain America sequel, and I promise not to complain about the way you do it! Overall, the film is a good comic book origins movie. There is a balance between plot and action, even if at times it seems like there are a few too many characters in the mix. Stick around for the after-credit scene, which is followed by an Avengers teaser. Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Market Fair 15. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upand- comingweekly.com Coming September 14, 2011 Dont’s miss our biggest issue of the year! Call 484-6200 to reserve your ad space. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM AUGUST 10-16, 2011 UCW 21