1942. The height of World War II. Hitler has men scouring the world looking for rare artifacts of the occult, not unlike the Ark of the Covenant that Indiana Jones found.....so casually referred to by the villain in this movies as a "trinket in the desert". Ironically, it is with these rare artifacts that the Red Skull is able to build an army and weapons that can destroy not only the United Sates, but Hitler and his Third Reich as well - a plan that he attempted to achieve toward the end of this movie.
Captain America, the character has been one of my favorite heroes for a long time. Maybe it was the campy 70s television movies that did it for me. Maybe I just thought that a super hero that wasn't much more than a normal guy was pretty cool.
In the movie version, Steve Rogers is just a young man that wants to be more. He wants to join the army but he's too weak, too small and too simple and yet full of empathy and compassion for people he doesn't even know. That's exactly what a doctor sees and encourages when the doctor brings Steve Rogers to a secret military base for an experiment. An experiment that would turn him from skinny little Steve Rogers into a superhuman fighting machine - the first of many that would help the United States win World War II.
But not all is pleasant in Mudville as the Red Skull has other plans. His minions destroy the lab, take the serum and kill Dr. Erskine, making it impossible to replicate without more long years of research. The superhuman project is put on hold and Steve Rogers goes from thinking he's heading to the front lines to standing on a stage as a novelty act trying to get people to do their part to help the war effort.
"Captain America" as he is dubbed by the PR people, tries to entertain the masses at home while the boys on the front are doing their part. He's ashamed to have to do it, but he knows that he is doing his own little part to keep people's minds occupied. When Steve heads to the front lines to entertain his troops, he's surprised to find the same people as were in charge of his "experiment". He also discovers that his best friend happens to have been captured by Hydra and that the Colonel will not risk more men to rescue him. Steve Rogers, being selfless and a good friend, takes matters into his own hands and heads to the location where is friend is.
It's pretty obvious that he would succeed in the mission and that he would even be able to bring back some of Hydra's technology, but not without getting himself into some trouble with the Colonel. However, Steve Rogers also brings back information on Hydra's other facilities and weapons. The Colonel then allows Steve to join the fight and help bring down Hydra.
In the end, Steve Rogers stays the same. He's a good man that happens to be a superhuman soldier. He strives to stop the Red Skull because ultimately, he killed his friend, Dr. Erskine. There are other deaths that get blamed on the Red Skull, but being the bad guy, I suppose it's necessary to blame him for them all, right?
I'm obviously not going to give away the ending, but for those who know, Captain America actually is joining other super heroes in a movie next year, The Avengers. Each of the Marvel movies that have come out in the past several years have been building up to that movie and I have a feeling it's going to be very good. Captain America is about war and good versus evil, but it's also about being a good person and standing up for what you believe in. As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, let's try to be better people and see if that can change the world.
Until next time.
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