Standard but strong comic-book origin story

Rating: 7/10 (27 July 2011)

Since the release of Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Studios has been slowly moving towards assembling it's various superheroes in the upcoming super group film, The Avengers, to be released Summer 2012. The last piece of the puzzle in introducing the key members comes with the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, the oldest Marvel superhero, first introduced in comics in the 1940s. The film enjoyably keeps that original setting as part of Captain America's origin story in this film, and proves to be a solid, if not very inventive, introductory tale to Captain America.
As previously stated, the film is set in the early 1940s, where Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans), a 99 pound asthmatic, has tried 5 times to enlist in the U.S. Army, failing each time due to his health. During his last attempt, he catches the eye of Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German scientist that escaped Hitler's Nazi Germany to bring his super-soldier serum to help the U.S., designed to genetically enhance an army recruit to give him impressive strength and agility. Rodgers is successfully transformed by the formula, but a German spy kills Erskine and destroys the formula, leaving Rodgers as the only super-soldier to be produced.
When the commanding officer of the super-soldier program, Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), wants to send him to be studied for replicating the formula, a U.S. Senator gives Rodgers an opportunity to support his country, but as the central attraction of a rolling U.S. War Bond tour, where the moniker Captain America is coined, as well as several staples of the Captain's outfit (the mask, a shield). When the tour takes Captain overseas, and a chance opportunity comes about to save his best buddy, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), from a POW work camp, Captain America takes on the challenge single-handedly, rescuing soldiers who end up forming the core of his team, the Howling Commandos, and also coming face to face with a villain far worse than Hitler: Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), also known as the Red Skull, who had used Erskine's serum before it was perfected, and while it gave him strength also, it has led to facial deformity that looks like, well, a Red Skull. Schmidt has hatched a scheme that will see him conquer the world with the power harnessed from an ancient artifact, and the military chooses to loose Captain America and his team to take Schmidt down.
Captain America proves to be somewhat unique visually in context with recent comic book adaptations, set in the 1940s America and Europe, with a gorgeous looking style to it that differentiates it from the crowd. Director Joe Johnston, who directed The Rocketeer in the early 1990s, captures much of the same feel as that earlier film, brimming with a sense of timelessness of that era that proves charming. Captain America also capitalizes on the patriotic energy from World War II and embodies it in the character of Steve Rodgers, which almost seems impossible to imagine coming from any political climate since then.
Overall, however, Captain America is generally a by the book comic origin story film, moving through the standard paces of this tale: introduction of the character in advance of his transformation of a super hero, set up the changes of him/her to their eventual alter ego, revelation of the villain with a connection to the hero, then a series of set pieces that lead to a showdown against the villain. Captain America doesn't really deviate from the path too much, but while it won't win any awards for originality within the comic book standard, Johnston and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, still deliver a solid entry in this sub-genre.
Captain America does suffer a bit with its secondary characters, especially Rodgers friend Bucky Barnes and his other Howling Commandos, portrayed by reliable character actors such as Neal McDonough and Derek Luke, but they are all given the most minute amount of development, providing very little impact to the narrative at large, merely filling in parts of the screenplay that needed to be present, but living on the periphery of the story. Also, while Red Skull is one of the cornerstones of Marvel's pantheon of villainy, as presented here, he has a nice degree of James Bond-esque world domination to him, but doesn't come across as a villain that you can really develop a strong desire to see put down. Again, as with other parts of the film, he is presented as throwback to an earlier era of storytelling, but isn't quite as strong as expected.
Captain America is helped along by some good performances from its main cast. Chris Evans gives Rodgers a strong sense of patriotism and a belief that he must step up to help his country, mixed with naiveté around women that gives him a nice streak of innocence. Unlike Tony Stark from Iron Man, Rodgers is very much a straight arrow with good intentions, and that feels right for the time the film is set in. Tommy Lee Jones practically steals the show with his delivery of the dialogue written for Colonel Phillips, using his personality best made famous from The Fugitive to give Phillips a degree of cynicism, but with good intentions beneath the curmudgeonly exterior. Haley Atwell gives her best interpretation of a Katherine Hepburn-like heroine from that era, although admittedly perhaps a bit too modern to be completely realistic. And Hugo Weaving provides the reliable over-the-top, but not too ridiculous, turn as Schmidt, making the Red Skull an appropriately megalomaniacal vibe.
Captain America works for the most part, albeit falling a bit short of the top tier of Marvel movie, such as Iron Man. It is a good film overall, perhaps not groundbreaking, but still a nice introduction to a character that should live in The Avengers film and several sequels for years to come.