When I watched Captain America: The First Avenger I thought the guy they got to play Steve Rogers was perfect. I thought he was a bland, one-dimensional, pretty boy (which basically sums up how I feel about Captain America as a character.) I couldn't imagine him in any other roles though, and I thought he would end up just being a character actor kind of like Christopher Reeve as Superman. Then I saw The Avengers in theaters (multiple times) and then bought the movie on Blu-Ray and watched it several more times. My opinion still didn't change. I felt like there was some development of the character in The Avengers, but I didn't attribute that to Chris Evans as an actor. Then, the other day I half-remembered something that I had previously known and subsequently forgot. Chris Evans role as Captain America was not the first time he had played a Marvel superhero, he also played Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm in the Fantastic Four movies (which is just ridiculous by the way. It's one thing to have an actor play a superhero from two different universes like Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Green Lantern. But it's an entirely different thing to have the actor play two different superheroes from the same universe! Are you kidding me!? If either character has a cameo in the other character's movie, are they just going to do the Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy thing and hope no one notices? Luckily the F4 and The Avengers don't team up too often and the rights to each franchise is owned by different companies, but that's beside the point.) After having remembered this particular factoid, I went back and watched the first Fantastic Four movie again...and my mind was then blown. For all the things the movie did wrong, it's portrayal of Johnny Storm was spot on. It couldn't have encapsulated his personality any better than it did. I then remember thinking the exact same thing of Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, as I did of Chris Evans as Captain America. This guy was perfect for the role, but I couldn't see him in anything beyond it. Now that I've seen him in two different roles, I know that isn't true. His portrayal of Johnny Storm was so vastly different than his portrayal of Captain America, that I wouldn't have even realized it was the same actor if I hadn't read his name on the front of the Fantastic Four box (which is extremely impressive considering that his appearance hadn't changed beyond a haircut.)
That was when I gained massive respect for Chris Evans, and officially liked him as an actor.
What do you guys think of Chris Evans?
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