Double Duty

So Entertainment Weekly gives us our first look* at Chris Evans in costume as Captain America.

Eh.

Part of that "eh" is that Captain America, to me, is madd lame**. The other part is that I think Chris Evans is miscast***.

So much of Evans' greatness to date lies in that snarky playfulness that made him a great Johnny Storm and the best part of the Fantastic Four films. In a way, he's like a young Tom Cruise, only with a more natural approach to the craft and a healthier dose of self-awareness.  But that quality is why it is unclear to me if he can bring the right mixture of self-righteousness and bland whiteness (yea, I said it, bland whiteness) to Steve Rogers.

More importantly, I'm not convinced it makes any sense to use the same actor in two different, prominent, superhero roles. Audiences make all kinds of assumptions and associations with actors all the time; in terms of the craft, it's the hardest thing actors have to overcome. That problem is compounded when you also have to deal with all of the baggage and history that comes with playing a comic book character. This is not just a guy, this is Captain America. And to a lot of people Chris Evans is Johnny Storm. Evans has it worse than Ryan Reynolds because Johnny Storm and Steve Rogers are in the same universe.

So I think this'll be a greater test of an actor's ability to make a comic book character work than any other to date. I am not sure if that is fair to Evans or his work in the film, or to the film itself, which deserves to have as clean a slate as possible to draw the audience in.

*That look says "constipated," not "patriotic hero" to me.  Not a good sign.

**Admittedly, I didn't read as much Captain America as I should have to really know. This is just my gut reaction to the character.

***I should say that in the "peak of human perfection" part of the role, Evans is a great choice. I'm betting it's the main reason he was cast.  He is without question one of the most gorgeous human beings working in Hollywood.  I'm just sayin. Really.  It's the eyes and everything else.