Cap's Long Overdue Close-Up Does What it Needs to, No More and No Less

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2011)

Easily the most faithful interpretation of the character ever to grace the screen, although it admittedly doesn't have much in the way of competition. Cap's is a story that's terribly tricky to translate from the printed page without slipping into an ocean of cheese somewhere along the way, and though this latest attempt does lose its footing from time to time, it always seems to recover with grace and dignity. It's more a living, breathing comic book than any of Marvel's big screen properties to make the leap thus far, with motorcycle chases, laser beams, crisply uniformed enemy forces and pseudo-iconic freeze frames around every corner. Chris Evans lives his role as the star-spangled Avenger, the white bread everyman with an unnervingly positive disposition, Hugo Weaving clearly relishes his chance to play the thoroughly evil, black leather-clad Red Skull and Tommy Lee Jones enjoys more than just a cameo as the brilliantly-cast drill sergeant in charge of the whole operation. Though I had hoped for a more honest depiction of the period, as I think a genuine WW2 setting is when the Captain is truly in his element, it's tough to maintain that perspective when bright blue lasers are firing from the enemy's hands throughout the picture. This is a solid effort, at least as good as I was hoping it would be, but not the heralding triumph it had the potential to become. Smack in the middle of summer blockbuster season was the right time and place for its debut.