It's OK but still, this is the best Captain America film we're ever going to get

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2011)

I was an avid reader of the Captain America comic up until the mid-nineties, about the time it seemed to be coming off the rails (about the time he got caught in the meth lab explosion). I think it was revitalized later and gained popularity as a result (he was saved by a Red Skull blood transfusion? Bucky Barnes resurfaces as a villain, the Winter Soldier! The discovery of a black Captain America from WWII! a Super Hero civil war--culminating in Cap beating up Iron Man(!?) Wow! I dropped off at THE wrong time, apparently). Still, I was delighted that they were making a gigantic summer movie out of it and getting fully behind it. Top-notch talent was being put together for the project with the SFX to go with. The result is what I expected: A huge, action-packed (though it does drag a bit at times) movie that's immensely entertaining. They really get the character right, as best as a condensed movie version could be expected to. It's amazing how the writers and director deal with how he becomes Captain America, how he gets his abilities, how he gets his name (he's a propaganda piece, selling war bonds). The costume he uses on his U.S. bond tour is just about exactly the one from the comic (sans chain mail). Then, when Rogers chances upon real action, his costume is modified for real combat. There are some bad one-liners in it, which shows that the production may have been more rushed than, say, Thor or Iron Man, which where more polished. But overall I found that Joe Johnston (highly underrated as a director) finds just the right combination of heart, fantasy, and action here. Time should be good to Captain America: the First Avenger.