I haven't seen any comic book movies this summer. Not even X-Men, which was well-reviewed, and I loved the first X-Men movie, so I've been upset at myself for missing it. Since all the critics seemed to enjoy CA, I thought it would be a last ditch effort to see a good summer popcorn movie.
Okay, it's been a long summer season, and I think the critics' brains have been fried. My expectations were raised due to all the good buzz, and boy was this disappointing. I don't think I've ever seen Chris Evans in a movie, and I know all the young hot guys in Hollywood competed for this part, so I expected his charisma to just leap off the screen at me. Nope. Not that he was bad, but I didn't feel like this guy was a star. (Oh, I just remembered, he was in Scott Pilgrim, not that it matters.) And Hugo Weaving doing his best Werner Herzog! All I could think of was Werner Herzog reading Go the Fuck to Sleep (the best celebrity reading so far). It was so hard not to get the giggles every time he was onscreen.
The movie starts out slowly, ahem, boring. Just as it gets interesting, it becomes a montage. Captain America is never, not even for half a second, ever in danger. There is no tension at all. No big obstacles for him to work around and outsmart. No suspense. Isn't that what action movies are all about? Halfway through the movie I turned to Hubs and said, "I set my expectations way too high." He thought the movie was even worse than I did.
I will keep Captain America in mind when writing action in the future. Your protagonist needs to be in peril. Preferably more than once. The audience shouldn't be able to figure out how he/she is going to escape. There must be tension. The opening scene should be awesome in some way that's unexpected. The last scene should be solid and feel like a real ending. The best part of the movie shouldn't be a trailer for another movie.
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