The last of this summer’s batch of super hero movies, Captain America delivers a fun and exciting film that not only makes for a great super hero film but also works as a WWII adventure film.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) really wants to join the military and fight the Nazis in WWII but is too short and scrawny to be accepted for the service. He tries to sign up in several different cities and is denied each time until he is noticed by Dr Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who is a scientist working on a special military program to produce a super soldier. The military is trying to step up its game in response to the deep science faction of the Nazi’s called Hydra, led by the ambitious and powerful Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), who are making great strides in technology and may or may not be growing too big for its breeches. Rogers volunteers to be injected with the Super Soldier Syrum and becomes just that, instantly going from a weakling to the peak of physical perfection. Sidelined to figurehead status after a Hydra attack ends the Super Soldier Program, Rogers eventually uses his powers and mantle as Captain America to take the fight to Hydra and try to stop the Red Skull’s madness once and for all.

Typing out the plot outline of this movie feels weird because on the one hand it is wrote comic book history at this point and on the other sounds completely asinine. It is easier to accept in a comic book presumably because you are dealing with drawings and an enhanced suspension of disbelief. When you are watching a live action movie and  have a dude in a red white and blue costume throwing a shield around who is fighting a guy with no skin on his face it becomes much more difficult to pull of credibility. If you think I am being a snob or that I am being ridiculous, just look to the 1990 Captain America film starring Matt Salinger. That movie was bad enough that I am pretty sure it had something to do with why the star’s dad JD Salinger remained a recluse until his death. There is a lot that could have gone wrong here and thankfully for comic book fans, not very much of it did.

Tone is one of the biggest confounds to movies like this just as it can be a saving grace. This summer has seen examples of this in both X-men First Class and Green Lantern. Green Lantern botched the tone and was a failure (as a film, not so much financially) whereas X-men nailed the tone and was surprisingly great. As with Thor, Captain America needed to be handled delicately from a tone standpoint to keep it from being a farce. Director Joe Johnson seems to have understood that well as he has delivered a film with a spot on tone. This movie feels just as it should and more than anything else that is why it succeeds. Had the tone gone slightly darker or slightly campier then it would have been an unwatchable mess.

Some people have expressed concern that this movie is going to be some kind of right wing rah rah patriotic wankfest but Captain America has never really been about that and the powers that be here understand that. Certainly America are the good guys here but it is less about empty patriotism and flag waving and more about exactly what it means to be a hero and what that might cost.

The story takes its time to get where it is going but the pacing is set well and it never forgets that it is an action-adventure film and it distributes the action scenes liberally but never over does it. These scenes are well choreographed, photographed and executed making them enormously effective. What is kind of amazing is that the action doesn’t really ever wander into looking ridiculous. No matter what costume Captain America is wearing he looks good kicking ass and the action is always exciting.

When Chris Evans was cast there was a lot of dissension amongst the fanbase, particularly given that Evans had already played in the Fantastic Four films as the Human Torch and that this represented a massive miscarriage of comics continuity justice. All of that bitching needs to stop because Evans rocked as Captain America and played him as flawed but basically good guy who really wants to help. Evans feels at ease with the role and carries it off flawlessly. Hugo Weaving is terrific as the Red Skull and turns in a performance rivaling the menace of Smith from the Matrix. Haley Atwell holds her own as love interest Peggy Carter and never feels like a token or object.

The supporting cast, particularly Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips, is very strong and shows the care taken in casting and the seriousness the actors took with the roles. Gone is the campy Tommy Lee Jones of Batman Forever and in his place we have a Phillips who is funny and a little quirky but also no-nonsense and in control. Jones plays the character as if he were in a serious WWII drama and that is what makes it work so well. Dominic Cooper likewise turns in a great performance as Howard Stark, Iron Man’s father and occasional confederate of the Captain.

It isn’t all puppy dogs and ice cream here though as there are some occasional technical issues that take the viewers out of the experience and hold the film back from being truly great. Some of the effects go wrong and look unconvincing while there were some weird sound issues. The sound issues were probably problems with the theater but the graphical glitches were just unfinished and subpar efforts. Having said that, these issues are not fatal to the movie and are infrequent enough that it doesn’t ruin anything for you.

Conclusion [8.5 out of 10]

Captain America doesn’t really break new ground from a story standpoint but it is a solid and exciting effort to close out this season’s super hero movies. It also manages to avoid feeling like an extended trailer for next summer’s Avengers movie which was refreshing after Thor spent half of the movie being just that. Captain America is a very successful movie and should not be missed by comic fans and fans of WWII movies.