Eye Candy #557 - "Captain America - The First Avenger" (2011)

Captain America - The First Avenger: The latest of Marvel Comics’ movie franchise launches (after Spider-man, X-Men, the Punisher, the Hulk, Iron Man, and now Thor), their third superhero film this summer, and their last film lead-in to next summer’s “Avengers” movie (for which this film has a big teaser at the end), this film introduces one of Marvel’s oldest heroes, Steve Rogers aka Captain America (played by Chris Evans), a skinny kid from Brooklyn that finds himself the recipient of super powers due to a government experiment to create super soldiers during World War 2, run by Professor Erskine (played by Stanley Tucci) and Colonel Philips (played by Tommy Lee Jones) .  He uses his powers to fight the Red Skull, his Nazi counterpart (played by Hugo Weaving), alongside his sidekick Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and the Howling Commandoes, while fumbling at  romance with agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell).   This film is a little different than most of Marvel’s output because 1.) it’s played more seriously than say, “Thor”; and 2.) it’s all in flashback, so the exposition that is so often shoe-horned into a comic book movie IS the whole enchilada here, with the film focusing on Cap‘s creation and exploits during World War 2 up to his eventual disappearance in the Great White North.  This leads into his more contemporary “man out of time” exploits for any sequels and the “Avengers” film.  Sure, there are some changes from canon (the “demise” of Bucky and Cap is different), but it’s also faithful to more minutiae as well (such as the inclusion of the Commandoes, though their membership has been tweaked to include other Marvel WW2 characters such as John Falsworth and Jim Morita).  The acting is uniformly good, with Stanley Tucci the clear stand-out as Erskine - he adds great depth to a character that in the comic book is essentially just a plot device and owns every scene he‘s in.  Evans restrains his Glib Factor and does well in the lead role (the CGI “skinnying” effects aren’t believable all the time, but for the most part it was okay).  Weaving’s make-up as the Red Skull was very good (compared to previous versions), very Jack Kirbyesque with large block teeth.  Director Joe Johntson (“Jumanji”, “Hidalgo”) does a good job moving the plot along here, covering a lot of ground in just a hair over 2 hours.   Compared to the other 2 superhero movies I’ve seen this summer (Thor, GL), this was better than both.  I'm a Cap fan from way back and I left happy.  Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”