I will admit that I like most of the comic book films, so I was excited about "Captain America". I finally found some time to go see this film and it clearly stands out from the other comic book films of the summer that include "Green Lantern", "Thor", "Priest" and "X-Men: First Class".
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the ultimate patriot willing to jump on a live grenade to protect others, but also with a disadvantage of being slight of build. After being rejected from the U.S. Army, Rogers is recruited by Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) to participate in the "Super Soldiers" program that will help defeat Hitler. As it turns out, the real villain of the world is Johann Schmidt, better known as Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), who has a god complex resulting from a discovery that ties in with "Thor" known as the cosmic cube.
The film is the last in the Marvel series prior to "the Avengers" scheduled for release in 2012 where the mighty Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America will be combined with the Incredible Hulk and others in the ultimate battle of good vs. evil. As with the other Marvel films the connections are almost as fun to identify as finding Waldo on a page filled with red/white striped shirts. The technology used by Captain America is engineered by Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), the father of Tony Stark and Iron Man and it wouldn't be complete without a Nick Fury appearance, which is always perfectly played by the ultimate bad-ass Samuel L. Jackson. The Super Soldier program is referenced in the "Incredible Hulk" film. When Red Skull is staring into the cosmic cube it appears as if he sees Asgard, the home of Thor.
The special effects used to make Chris Evans the skinny and weak version of himself was weird to look at. There were some size differences that I noticed particularly in a car ride with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). The timing from Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Phillips provided the perfect balance of humor and serious to the character.
Compared to the other comic book films of the year, I think the best was saved for last. I will actually give this one a 4 Quack rating. It still remains a summer popcorn and fountain soda film, but if you have seen the other Marvel films then you will want to continue seeing the series in anticipation of "the Avengers".
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