Campy fun

Rating: 6/10 (5 November 2011)

The famous Avenger Capt. America finally gets a movie and it isn't bad at all. After a long time of waiting, the character's fans finally get to see the patriotic hero on the big screen given justice and more.
The story itself is really simple; some do gooder super-soldier fights Nazis or a Nazi Party look alike by name of HYDRA, YAY. But is that a bad thing? Nope. Instead of being a bland story it acts more as a homage to the pulpy action stories of the Golden Age of comic book heroes where they were clean cut good guys fighting bad guys with world domination on their minds. The better part is that the film actually adds more to the simple story by having well written characters; I honestly do not like Capt. America the character that much since he's way too patriotic for my tastes but this incarnation of the Capt. is well done as he is more of a good intentioned "kid from Brooklyn" who was given the chance to serve his country. The cast isn't as flat as one would expect from a story this simple and they do their part in helping move the story along.
The action though wasn't as good as I expected. I can forgive the fact that the some of the action (soldiers just running at their opponents guns blazing without any sense of strategy) and even the enemy soldiers looked too cartoonish to properly fit a World War II setting (hey it's abased on a comic book) but the action, which was used sparingly in the film, wasn't impressive at all. I wish I could've seen the Captain fling his mighty shield more often like he does in the comics or even more gun based action on part of the regular soldiers on both sides; maybe that would've been better. Also, more screen time for the badass Howling Commandos would've been appreciated since I highly doubt that they would return in any CAPT. America sequels as the sequels will most probably be set in modern times.
So yes, while it's not the best of the AVENGERS movie "prequels" (THE INCREDIBLE HULK is still the worst for me and the first IRON MAN is the best) CAPT. America does its job of entertaining the audience and setting up the future Avenger's story. The film doesn't have much to set it apart from other superhero movies but it's a decent one nonetheless (though I have to admit that superhero movies are getting kind of tedious for me). If this is the start of a franchise for the character, then this serves as a good start for any future Capt. America adventures.