Let's get dangerous!

It could have been much, much worse.

Since I've posted like three 'I just saw a movie and here's what's wrong with it' rants in the last couple of months, I'll try to keep this one short. I saw Captain America: The First Avenger last week and I liked it. It wasn't the best ever, but it was ok. Unlike Green Lantern, Cap was likable and unlike Thor the story kind of made some sense. As the Marvel movies go it ranks well above Fantastic Four and Dare Devil but nowhere near X-Men First Class or Iron Man.


My main problem with the film is that it totally lacks any dramatic tension. At no point was Cap in any danger. No matter how many Hydra troops Red Skull tossed at him, he just sort of beat them up and moved on.

By the time Cap's punching out Hydra goon #8,342, the movie starts to drag a little.

These guys don't blend in.

CA: TFA (acronym!) reminded me a little of Star Wars in this respect and yeah, I'm about to call out the original trilogy, so settle down. The Galactic Empire has like billions of Storm Troopers, all of whom wear body armor, carry blasters and fly around in starships capable of laying waste to entire planets. But for some reason not one of them can manage to hit Luke despite the fact that he's running around the stark, mono-chromatic interior of the Death Star with a stiff-jointed shiny golden droid and a seven-foot yeti.

It is a legitimate medical condition affecting nine out of every ten Stormtroopers.

I mean, what's not menacing
about these guys?

But while the Stormtroopers were never really a threat, we had the garbage smasher, Darth Vader and TIE Fighters (also, the possibility of incest) to put the characters in jeopardy. This movie has none of these things. It's just wave after wave of Hydra psuedo-Nazis getting their asses handed to them by the Captain. Sure, they have tanks and flame throwers and Odin-powered (just go with it) laser guns but Captain America has an everything-proof shield and his name in the title of the film. So where's the danger?

I got yer danger right here. Speaking of which, where's this movie?