CAPTAIN America: THE FIRST AVENGER (Joe Johnston, 2011) ***

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2011)

Although the character of comic strip hero Captain America has been adapted cinematically as early as 1944 (in a serial that also featured horror stalwart Lionel Atwill) and has been rebooted relatively recently (in two TV movies in the late 1970s – including one in which appeared another genre icon, Christopher Lee! – and a fairly maligned theatrical movie from 1990), this is the first wholly successful transposition of Marvel's original heroic character (as the title itself points out) to the silver screen. Needless to say, as would be the fashion with his later counterparts, the patriotic avenger had also been the protagonist of his own (relatively short) 13-part animated TV series that I fondly recall watching as a kid.
Thankfully, the film-makers here wisely decided to adhere to the WWII origins of the character and did not tinker unnecessarily with it by making him hipper so as to be more palatable to the short attention-span audiences of the 21st Century; indeed, when we first see Chris Evans here he is the complete antithesis (short, alarmingly skinny and prone to being beat up every 10 minutes!) of the accepted/expected superhero image. He plays Steve Rogers who, for all his eagerness to do his bit for Uncle Sam, finds himself – just like Buster Keaton in THE GENERAL (1927) – continually rejected and is only thanks to his chance encounter with German scientist (and refugee from the Nazi regime!) Stanley Tucci that he gets to perform his civic duty in ways far more effectively than he could ever have imagined. Incidentally, Evans had earlier made inauspicious superhero appearances as one the "Fantastic Four" in two middling and decidedly juvenile adventures.
The supporting cast is headed by Tommy Lee Jones (initially a stereotype but one eventually warms to him), Hugo Weaving (he had himself played an avenger in V FOR VENDETTA {2006}, and also appeared in THE WOLFMAN {2010} with the same director – his "Red Skull" make-up elicits uncomfortable comparisons with the awful GHOST RIDER {2007} but the character is well enough written to dispel these immediately), Hayley Atwell (her opinionated character provides a surprisingly fresh take on the typical heroine model in this type of fare) and Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark (father of Tony "Iron Man" Stark!).
The fact that WWII is being fought here by way of enhanced muscles on one side and black magic on the other is liable to displease purists, but the triumph of the little guy over all sorts of adversity is what really counts (with Weaving clearly a substitute for any dictator/terrorist you may wish to cite, and God knows history has provided enough of those!). Still, one would have expected the Fuehrer to put in an appearance and how he planned to deal with "Red Skull" who was usurping his power and, by way of his disintegrating ray-gun, stealing his thunder!
Director Johnston proved an ideal choice, having helmed the similar and equally delightful ROCKETEER (1991). Action scenes are reasonable but, thankfully, not overly cluttered that one cannot figure out what is going on. Interestingly, the CGI effects are employed to shrink Evans' physique rather than to excessively build it up! As for the interlude with Captain America as morale-boosting poster-boy, it may have been a narrative necessity but it is also a dent in the film's pace (despite the evocative use of montage). The finale, then, leaps into the future, making for yet another Samuel L. Jackson cameo as Nick Fury, with the typical (and, by-now, expected) Marvel Studios post-credits sequence actually being the teaser trailer to their blockbuster for next Summer i.e. the superhero and star-studded THE AVENGERS!