The genre conventions present in this film include:
Ordinary person gaining their powers - Steve Rogers starts out as an ordinary person, however after being denied the opportunity to fight in war he volunteers to be a part of a project to become a super soldier. He is injected with serum, causing him to develop super powers such as; super strength and an indestructible shield.
Secret Identity - Steve Rogers' superhero name is Captain America, which is his secret identity. America doesn't know exactly who he is, however a small amount of people do.
Moral - From the very start we can see that Steve Rogers is someone who stands up for what he believes in. Being rejected doesn't stop him and even though he goes through some tough times he always gets back up and becomes a stronger person and never gives up.
Back story - The back story gives us an indication into why Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. As he is always being rejected the chance to join the army as he is too weak and small, this drives him into volunteering for the project and becoming this super soldier.
Costume - Captain America wears a blue outfit and has a silver star positioned on his chest as well as a silver A on his head. The top half of his face is covered to protect his identity. He also carried a blue and red shield which also sports a star on it.Rogues Gallery - The organisation HYDRA have the tesseract which has caused the leader of their organisation to change appearance, causing him to be called the Red Devil. Captain America has to break into their headquarters in order to stop them.
The rating for the film is a 12A, indicating that the target audience is mainly teenagers. However, another general target audience is said to be males aged around 25, because they would have grown up reading the comic books, and would likely want to go to see the film version. The female audience have been drawn to the film by the actor who plays Captain America, due to his toned body and good looks.
Many binary oppositions are present within Captain America. As it is set during World War 2, and the Germans are fighting against America, this brings a sense of Good V's Bad within the war itself. Within this idea of good v's bad comes along the idea of Captain America fighting against the Germans as well as the Red Devil. Another binary opposition is the weak and the strong, at the start of the film, Steve Rogers is a weak, small man preventing him from taking part in war, whereas when he becomes Captain America, even though he is the same man, he is much stronger. With his new strength he can be prosperous and successful whereas before, when he was weak he couldn't be.
As the film is set during World War 2, which was a time where men and women were unequal, the film does reinforce gender stereotypes. The men were seen as more dominant and the women were seen as much weaker. The men fought in war whilst the women stood back and did more domestic jobs. The only powerful woman in the film is Peggy, she has an important role within film, she doesn't necessarily wait around for the superhero to save her, however she does stand back and isn't involved in the actual fighting.
Captain America has to live up to what the comic book readers have been waiting for, therefore has to be able to entertain a large amount of people; those who have grown up with the comic book who would be around he age of 25 as well as teenagers who may be interested. From the very beginning we see Steve Rogers to be a determined, brave character who doesn't give up and stands up for what he believes in and due to this, this keeps people interested as well as for the audience to look up to and admire. Tension is a big part to entertaining the audience and tension is successfully created throughout, especially when Steve Rogers is being transformed into Captain America, and we don't know how it's going to turn out.
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