Finally an Heroic Performance and What a Shield!!!

Rating: 9/10 (26 July 2011)

Joe Johnston was the man to direct this film. It's exciting, nostalgic, patriotic, and a lot of great fun. For a solid two hours, we get to travel back in time to an era where everything was a lot simpler and good fought evil, without, well, many unnecessary and way too clever for their own good, distractions. Johnston has recreated a time, with a good, old-fashioned turn by Chris Evans, playing "Captain America", with enough sincerity and bravado to win our hearts and sympathy in the opening scenes of the film. He improves as the story unfolds, and contrary to the usual expectations, here is a film, where the charisma of the protagonist shatters the villain from the beginning. In other words, the formula would have been explosive if the villain had been more interesting, but Evans carries the film beautifully all the way to the end.
Throw in a little mysticism, add a touch of Nazism, some bullies, and threaten the country, stir a big dash of patriotism, and a rousing score, and we have a powerful film. This takes me to the rather interesting conclusion. Everything worked very well in the 40's, so what are we doing in another time period? What was meant to be a colorful introduction, becomes an interesting transition, and if you manage to sit through the credits, you'll be rewarded with what might turn out to be the movie of 2012. It'd be interesting to see if Johnston can make lighting strike twice. Whatever happens, he'd better hold on to Evans, a man who now ranks alongside Bale, but without that extreme dark side.
"Captain America" will surely be remembered at Oscar time, and it's good to see that it has not been a disappointing summer. Personally, I didn't think I could find something to match the delights of "Potter VII", but somehow, here it is, and it's a very satisfying experience.