A breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale superhero genre...

Rating: 6/10 (15 October 2011)

Alright, well first of all I have to say that I am not really a fan of superhero movies. And with that being said, then let me just say WOW! This movie was without a doubt one of the better superhero movies that I have seen in a long time.
I am not keen on super powers bestowed upon people and such, hence I am more prone to watch something like "Batman" or "Captain America", where it is all in the gear and the actual person themselves; not some dim-witted superhero power! And it worked well in this movie, despite the lead role of Captain America being played by Chris Evans who we also saw in the "Fantastic Four" movies. What? No! No! NO! Please do not re-cast an actor already used in a previous superhero movie. It is just so wrong! Don't get me wrong here, Chris Evans is not a bad actor, far from it. He was really well cast for Captain America, and he far out-shined his performance here than what was seen in "Fantastic Four". But the damage have been done, he played Human Torch in "Fantastic Four", so he shouldn't had been cast for this movie. Or better yet, never been cast for "Fantastic Four", so he would have had this role to shine through in.
Anyway, "Captain America", this movie is action from start to end, and it works quite well. There was lots of good action scenes, nice fight scenes, and lots of really cool stuff to look at. Lots of nice small details everywhere.
However, one thing that really bugs me in movies with Germans or Nazi, please do not have them speak English with a weird German-inspired accent. It just discredits the entire movie. They had the Norwegian people speak Norwegian, so why not have a German cast to fill out the roles of the Hydra folk? That was an epic fail, and it really brought down the movie a notch for me.
Another thing that had me puzzled was the level of technology available to the Hydra people. Come on, this was during the 1940s, during World War II, and I am sure if that technology was available, Germany would have won the war - not that I am in any way rooting for Nazis or anything. I am just saying that the level of high-tech gear and stuff that was in the movie was misplaced and seemed too stupid for that era.
The cast in "Captain America" was quite good. I especially liked Chris Evans (playing Captain America/Steve Rogers), he was cut out for that role. Hugo Weaving (playing Johann Schmidt/Red Skull) also did a good job, though he should not be speaking English - there were times where his pronunciations had images of Schwarzenegger flashing through my mind! Tommy Lee Jones (playing Col. Chester Philips) did it good, as always.
I am not one bit familiar with Captain America, though I did read some comics when I was a young boy, but got no recollection of them. So I found this movie to be quite entertaining, as I had no prerequisite hopes or expectations for the movie holding true to the comic book universe.
So if you like a good action movie, where you of course get the American patriotism tossed at you in endless streams, then "Captain America" is a good choice for an evening's entertainment. I, despite not being American, was thoroughly entertained with the movie, and the small annoying flaws of the movie were quickly drowned out by a captivating story and the cool action.