Captain America 201

Captain America 2011

Directed by Joe Johnston, the man who gave us a similarly throwback type of movie called “The Rocketeer” back in 1991 (if you’ve never seen that movie, do yourself a favor and rectify that now), “Captain America: The First Avenger” offers up a nice balance of Origin Story in the first half and an “episode”, if you will, in the second half. While most Superhero Origin movie seems to tread water as the superhero goes through the motions of becoming that superhero, watching Chris Evans go from the skinny kid from Brooklyn to getting “superhero-ized” courtesy of Erskine’s super soldier serum (with help from Tony Stark aka Iron Man’s dad Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper)) actually makes up the film’s best moments, a rarity in the genre. Johnston handles Steve Rogers’ transition nicely, thanks in part to a great supporting cast that includes Tucci, very effective as the humane genius, Tommy Lee Jones, and the very capable Hayley Atwell as British secret agent Peggy Carter. Atwell’s admitted on-the-spot adlibbing in regards to her character’s first, ahem, contact with the newly minted, freshly buffed Steve Rogers is one of many nice moments featuring the superhero out of costume.