Parts are greater than the sum

Rating: 8/10 (23 August 2011)

Let's start with the good stuff first. The basic Captain America story is a good one and makes for a solid movie. Marvel ALWAYS does well with casting, and it's flawless again here. Evans, Atwell (wow), and Weaving (Elrond) are all spot on, Jackson in a limited role and Jones are also good if not at this point overused. In my opinion Stanley Tucci steals the show in his early appearances as the gentle scientist who prefers the spunky but skinny Rogers for his project. And the CG action scenes which crop up during the movie are a little more realistic than the cut-action/rock video Michael Bay style, where you can't even tell what's going on most of the time. It also does well in projecting the WWII atmosphere. That being said, this movie suffers from two major flaws shared with other Marvel entries - it's TOO DAMN LONG and it is too derivative in its story line. These movies really don't work at over 1:30, it often seems like there's filler thrown in to stretch the time for network resale (or whatever the reason is). There's very little flow from one scene to another. The plot turns are almost formula, this one has elements of Spiderman I & III along with some Star Wars and Lord of the Rings thrown in. Maybe II will be better, I'm not giving up on this yet, but they need to step it up a little. Given an 8 just because this had the potential for a 9 or 10 but didn't hit the spot.