I’m a good girlfriend. I acknowledge and accept the importance of the XBOX and all it’s purposes I attend midnight releases and midnight showings. I can speak Star Wars and know the difference between an AT-AT and an AT-ST. I participate in Light Saber battles and will attend Comicon and PAX conventions simply because I like the atmosphere. These are things that a good girlfriend does. Among the list of things, there aren’t many that are unpleasant. And one of the best things about being a good girlfriend is getting to go to see the comic book movies.
This weekend we went to see Captain America. I don’t know the story of Captain America and I always enjoy a good movie, so I was willing. I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t know much about superheroes other than what I’ve learned from the blockbuster movies that have been released. And I have to also admit that I was confused as to how the same guy could be Johnny Storm and also be Captain America, partly because of fairness and also because I imagine all the superheroes to exist in the same universe. One guy can’t be two guys. Of course this was all cleared up by my boyfriend before we arrived, and the actor really has grown up quite a bit.
Anyway, Captain America was wonderful. After a cliffhanger opening, the story moves to the small, sickly Steven Rogers trying to enlist in the Army during WWII. He feels that it’s his duty to serve. His best friend is recently enlisted and scheduled to be deployed. Steven has asthma and is denied entrance. It isn’t the first time he’d been denied, nor would it be the last. The young man is determined to give his all for his country because other men will. He says that it shouldn’t matter that he’s small. He shouldn’t be special because of his size. This young man’s got more virtue in the twinkle of his eye than I will ever have. You just wanna give the little guy a high five.
Eventually, he is allowed to enlist. A doctor sees Steven as the perfect candidate for so many reasons (which make the young man even more wonderful) to become an enhanced super soldier. And Steven agrees, because he’s in the army now. So Howard Stark (yep) helps to turn Steven into Captain America.
One of the neat things about Captain America as a superhero is that he’s not a secret identity like Spiderman and Batman. Everyone knows who Steven Rogers is. He could be a real guy in our world, even more so than Batman or Spiderman could be. This always makes a character more lovable to me.
Another amazing attribute of Captain America is his fearlessness. He is unafraid of pain or his own well-being. Even when he was small, he stood up for the little guy. He says to the doctor “I don’t like bullies, I don’t care where they’re from.” And then a little tear wells up in your eye. Yeah, he’s that good.
I recommend seeing Captain America before it leaves the theater. We’ll also add it to our home collection, hopefully in 3-D when it’s released. This was a great movie.
