Review: Boy, is America Great in Chris Evan's "Captain America: The First Avenger"!

Chris Evans as Captain America

One of the things that almost every superhero movie adaptation has to deal with is the costume.

While spandex and tights can look okay on the comic book page, it's hard for them not to look ridiculous in the more realistic world of live action movies. So most movies choose to either joke about the costume (as in Spider-Man) or update it (as in The X-Men). But one way or another, it has to be dealt with.

Of course, the "costume factor" is really just one small part of a bigger issue: most well-known superheroes were created sometime between the 1940s and the 1960s — in a much less cynical, much more innocent era — and mostly written for kids. One way or another, the hokey and simplistic themes of a lot of comic book superheroes have to be dealt with in modern movie adaptations — and again, the choices are usually either to joke about them or update them (or both).

The new movie Captain America: The First Avenger, premiering at ComicCon today and opening in most cities at midnight tonight, takes a pretty different approach: it completely embraces its character's innocent, retro roots.

It's 1942, and geeky, scrawny Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, his real-life muscles eliminated through CGI) wants to enlist to fight the Nazis. He's repeatedly turned away, labeled 4F, until a kindly scientist (Stanley Tucci) sees an underlying bravery and strength-of-character that no one else sees. In fact, the scientist thinks that he'd be the perfect candidate for an experimental serum that will create an army of super-soldiers able to take on the evil Nazi scientist Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving). Naturally, Schmidt is conducting experiments of his own that will let him conquer the world.

Chris Evans sans muscles (via some impressive CGI)

But after the scrawny boy is turned into a super-soldier, a mishap destroys the laboratory, leaving him as one-of-a-kind. At first, the army not realizing what they have, uses the newly labeled "Captain America" as a propaganda tool. But Steve's underlying character is so strong that he won't be denied the opportunity for real-world heroism for long.

And here's the thing: this is all played completely straight. In this United States, Americans are all brave and unselfish (and Steve is the bravest and most unselfish American of all!). Meanwhile, secret scientific treatments that turn people from weaklings into super-soldiers are (mostly) completely safe. After all, American scientists would never, ever subject anyone to any real danger.

In other words, in this United States, there are no Tuskegee experiments or Japanese internment camps — nor will there be a Vietnam War, or a Watergate, or a Karl Rove. Our government can always be trusted to do the right thing. We're the GOOD GUYS in absolutely any and everything we do.

And interestingly, Captain America was originally created back in World War II as something of a pro-America propaganda vehicle. So this is entirely in keeping with the character's roots.

As I was watching the movie, I kept thinking, "This movie is either the most simple-minded jingoism I've seen in ages, or a refreshingly non-cynical homage to a much more innocent era."

In the end, I decided it was both — and that you have to draw your own conclusions about what that all means. And if there's any question about whether the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing, it's answered in a very entertaining sequence when Captain America himself is used for blatant propaganda purposes (this is also the clever way they explain the costume, which looks perfect).

In other words, the movie gets off a pretty interesting "meta" riff on their own character and movie.

Captain American: The First Avenger is a little like the meta-ironic 1997 film Starship Troopers, in that what you see on screen isn't necessarily the point the movie is making (even if both movies also know full well that plenty of viewers will never see beyond their surface messages).

So all this food for thought aside, is the film worth seeing?

It's beautifully shot, and the action sequences are exactly what you'd expect in a big budget event film like this. Meanwhile, the film's bold campy retro tone gives it a fresher feel than it might otherwise have had.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd mostly seen it all before — probably because I have seen it all before, thanks to Hollywood's recent onslaught of superhero adaptations. An evil scientist has developed a technology that can destroy the world? *Yawn* (Then again, I'm not sure how they could've pulled off Captain America's retro tone with a more complicated, Alan Moore-like plot.)

Still, for what it is, the movie delivers: it's not quite as good as X-Men: First Class, but it's much, much better than Green Lantern.

Two things to watch for: a funny cameo by Stan Lee (the legendary writer who worked on Captain America, but did not create him), and the maybe-not-so-clever way in which they set the character up for his appearance in next year's film The Avengers (which will gather Marvel superheroes like Iron Man, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk together in one movie, and which is set in the present day).