Captain America:The First Avenger (2011): Ferocious jingoism at its finest.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

I like Chris Evans. I think the guy is absolutely hilarious in everything he stars in. His sarcastic banter was the only worthwhile addition to the abysmal Fantastic Four films (and of course Jessica Alba’s perfectly shaped buttocks) that made that film even remotely watchable.

Evans was simply born to play these type of roles.

So with that I bring you the latest installment from the Marvel Studios juggernaut. Captain America: The First Avenger.  Starring Chris Evans as the titular hero, the always outstanding Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Philips, the menacing Hugo Weaving as Nazi Super villain Red Skull and of course this Movie Monkey’s ultimate film hero Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.

If you are searching for a film with an intense character study, emotional depth and intriguing plot, look elsewhere.

If you simply need to turn your brain off for two hours and enjoy the latest installment of state of the art CGI, shallow characterizations, silly dialogue and the always popular textbook happy ending. This is your film.

Not to mention a savage jingoism that makes you want to stand up and yell, “AMERICA, HELL YA!!!” when the film reaches the credits.

Now I understand these type of films are not meant for serious film scholars to critique incessantly. This is simply a great way to spend 2 hours and get a much-needed escape from high gas prices, a dismal economy, a never-ending war and mindless reality garbage on TV.

If you are not familiar with the legend of Captain America, let me bring you up to speed. Steve Rogers (Evans) is a fiercely patriotic American with a thirst for war and to defeat Hitler and his band of evil Nazi’s whose plan includes genocide and world domination. Unfortunately our hero is a pencil neck geek who gets refused military service on the grounds that, well he is a pencil neck geek. In comes the top-secret “Super Soldier” program which magically turns our hero into a living Greek statue and we now have the makings of the next American patriot Super-hero to battle cartoon villainy.

In comes the required villain played by the always popular Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith) and a few plot points lifted from several classic Captain America comics and you now have the latest blockbuster installment in the Marvel Studios franchise.

I am sure this film will make half a billion dollars and we will be subjected to a trilogy of Captain America films each declining in quality from its predecessor. That is expected. But what this film accomplishes that so many other films in this genre fail to realize (Ghost Rider), it makes us love going to the movies.

Check out the trailer below:

Interesting bit of movie geek history. This is not the first film adaptation of America’s greatest super-hero. Check out 1990’s failed Captain America film directed by Albert Pyun starring the car jacking and listless Matt Salinger in the title role and Darren (FRA-JILLY) McGavin, in what was surely one of the many reasons Marvel Comics was on the verge of bankruptcy during the late 90’s until the release of 2000’s X-Men. Just plain bad movie making at it’s all time best.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

124 Minutes

Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Directed by Joe Johnston

Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell