Review - "Captain America: The First Avenger" - Mix in the bare-knuckle adventure of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark", the patriotic nostalgia of "The Rocketeer" (Directed by Joe Johnston, same Director of this film) and a bit of the production designs of "Star Wars: A New Hope" and you have Marvel's most complete comic book to film transfer since the first "Iron Man"*. This is an old-fashioned adventure movie made by filmmakers who obviously harbor some degree of love, understanding and respect for the source material.
Chris Evans, whom I was previously quite skeptical of in the role, pulls it off excellently. He's able to make the role his own and flourishes as the film progresses. Haylee Atwill is a solid love interest, although a full-on romance isn't quite allowed to blossom. Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci are great in pretty much every scene they're in while Hugo Weaving (once again in a villainous role) oozes pure menace as "The Red Skull"- the dude's money as a bad guy. Dominic Cooper (as Howard Stark), Sebastian Stan (as Bucky Barnes) and Toby Jones are surprisingly good in support. And yes, Stan Lee has a funny cameo.
Negatives I'll bring up; I've always hated montages used to show the progress of "our hero's" fight against evil- I think it's a goofy, lazy cop-out and it's present here a few times in the third act.
Hopefully, with this film's success, I can look forward to newer "reboots" of classic, pulp characters like "Doc Savage", "The Shadow" and "The Phantom"- here's to dreaming. The whole thing has an old-school feel to it that I'm not so sure will resonate with today's "sensibilities."
Highly Recommended
8.5 outta 10.
*- This Review was obviously written well before 2012's The Avengers.... :)
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