Captain America

Rating: 4.5 Shurikens

The latest Marvel movie just hit the screens, this one about the World War II-era hero, Captain America.  The character was created by Joe Simon and the legendary Jack Kirby, and was extremely popular during WW2. Many comic book characters were originally conceived during the early part of the 20th century, including Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern, but they were mostly DC Comics characters. The stories of Captain America, with his sidekick Bucky Barnes, were published by Timely Comics, which was what Marvel was called back then.

After the war, the popularity of the character faded, but Jack Kirby revived him to be a core member of The Avengers, a team of super heroes that featured Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, and many others over the years. The Avengers will be featured in what promises to be one of the best movies of all time, due in the Summer of 2012.

This movie is filmed in subdued tones for the most part, giving it a nostalgic feel which is apt for the times in which Captain America originated. The story is about a young Steve Rogers, a frail man with a lot of courage, who really wants to enlist in the Army during 1943. He is rejected repeatedly, but goes to different recruiting centers, trying unsuccessfully to enlist, but he doesn't give up. Finally, a chance encounter with a scientist who is creating a new Super Soldier Serum to enhance the physical abilities of soldiers so they can fight for the ultimate defeat of the Nazis, gives Rogers a chance at his dream.

The part of Captain America is played by Chris Evans, who was also cast as The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, where he portrayed the character of Johnny Storm as good as the original comic book character was written. The man has talent, and it was evident in both of those movies. He also played in The Losers and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He will reprise the role of Captain America in The Avengers, obviously, and hopefully we will see one or two more Captain America movies.

Tommy Lee Jones, the Academy Award-winning actor who played in Men in Black and Men in Black II, as well as Batman Forever, plays Colonel Chester Phillips, the Army officer in charge of the project which has the goal of creating a force of Super Soldiers for the Allies. The Colonel is overplayed as a character, featuring in several scenes which would be unlikely in any real military situation, but then a Starship Captain like James T. Kirk would never actually have been in any of the original Star Trek situations, so it doesn't hurt the story that much. Still, it makes one go hmmm, which is distracting.

Hugo Weaving makes for a very convincing bad guy as the Red Skull, one of the original Marvel Super-Villains. The Red Skull starts out working for Hitler in the war, but decides to go it alone as soon as he locates a cube-shaped object which is the source of some real power. Long-time Marvel fans already know of the Cosmic Cube, and it is introduced at the end of Thor. The Red Skull finds a way to extract the energy and use it to power advanced weaponry to arm a secret organization called Hydra. This is also a feature of the early Captain America and Avengers comics. Hugo Weaving, who was Agent Smith in The Matrix and Elrond in Lord of the Rings, plays The Red Skull.

A very beautiful Hayley Atwell plays Steve Rogers' love interest from the original WW2 comic books, Peggy Carter. Atwell is a relative newcomer to the movie business, and plays a good female lead. Dominic Cooper is the actor who plays Howard Stark, the father of Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. A scene from Captain America, where Stark demonstrates his technology at a World Exposition, is a parallel with the expo in Iron Man 2. Sebastian Stan, also a relative movie newbie, plays Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers' friend. He doesn't really get to be the sidekick that appeared in the comics.

The movie also features some minor Marvel characters: Arnim Zola, a scientist who appears in various Marvel Comics stories as a baddie; Abraham Erskine, who appeared in the first Captain America comics as the inventor of the Super Soldier Serum; Nick Fury's Howling Commandos Dum Dum Dugan, Gabriel Jones, Jim Morita, and Jaques Dernier; and James Montgomery Falsworth who was the alter-ego of the character Union Jack.

Captain America is a good, long movie at 2 hours and 5 minutes. It is riveting, with lots of action and intrigue, and some really good characterizations and acting. It features lots of Marvel Comics trivia, and some good laughs. I found it to be immensely enjoyable. It is a must-see movie, and well worth the price to see it on the Big Screen. The tail-end sequence is a trailer for the long-awaited Avengers, due next summer. Captain America gets 4.5 Shurikens, go see it!