talking about Evans as Cap, from
Esquire
Just as sickly Steve Rogers was given a chance to become the best version of himself in Captain America: The First Avenger, so too was Chris Evans. When Evans put on the red, white, and blue outfit, he realized what we had been waiting to see. It's not just that it's a role that deviates from his past ones. It brings out the best in him. Now he, and the Captain America movies, have become the consistent high points of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Avengers: Age of Ultron is no exception. When you look in Evans' eyes now, you see him being Captain America, not trying to be. There's genuine emotion there when required (say, when he's bedside with the dementia-suffering love of his life), as is intelligence (in action mode he has the constantly roaming eyes of a military tactician).
He also embodies Cap in a more literal sense: his physical bulk. But the more impressive accomplishment is that instead of using his physique as a shortcut to onscreen presence, he fills that formidable figure with an almost physical weight of authority. An authority that tends to evoke a kind of patriarchal, Father Knows Best quality, and a compatible tone that Evans continually manages to summon from his car hood-sized chestdespite the actor only being 33 years old. (He brought a similar ahead-of-his-years gravitas to his lead turn in last year's beloved international action movie Snowpiercer.) It's always there, whether Cap is chastising his teammates for language, improvising and assigning orders, or offering ideological lectures like "This isn't freedom. This is fear" in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, or "Every time someone tries to end a war before it starts, innocent lives die" in The Avengers: Age of Ultron.
It is, however, not just Captain America's fatherly sternness that Evans performs so well. It can be difficult to get the tone of Cap right, because he's both military bravado and Boy Scout innocence; gruff tactical efficiency and Atticus Finch empathy. But Evans nails the warmth of Cap with the same timbre of sincerity and conviction. (I swear he drops his voice an octave for this role to achieve that.) That element of the role offers a natural fit for Evans' abilities. His knack for boyish humor and charm are perfect for Captain America's old-fashioned good-naturedness and the lingering insecurity of a former 98-lb weakling. He's as believable nervously asking his neighbor out as he is gently ribbing his brothers-in-arms, or doling out mid-battle gallows humor. Chris Evans' Captain America is, in other words, a role that may fluctuate in tone, but never wavers in its performance. Like Rogers, Evans brings his innate gifts to his newly acquired ones.
There's a great scene in The Winter Soldier where Captain America knows he's about to be attacked by 20 men in a moving elevator, and says, "Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?" Evans performs it convincingly with equal amounts of mild boyish glee, amused lightness, matter-of-fact resignation, chutzpah, and confident menace. It's a wonderful moment, in no small part because you realize just how much fun it's become to watch Chris Evans excel at playing (and growing with) this character. It's one of many moments in a Marvel movie that makes you realize there really was greatness in Chris Evans. Just like Steve Rogers, all it took was Captain America to draw it out.
i still find it so amazing that he played The Human Torch and Captain America so exceedingly well yet you'd never mistake one for the other.
t:
finally someone writes well of Evans. not that im complaining but RDJ gets all the good press and it looks like he's carrying all the heavy lifting (which is hardly the case, half the time its not even him in the armour, its his stuntman or a CG creation). Evans anchors the movies and bears the heart of the Avengers team. you take that away. take himj away and we're left with drama queens.
thanks weldon for keeping cap badass
