Captain America: The First Avenger

Marvel Comics is on a quest to make every single one of their beloved characters into a mediocre movie. It’s unclear how this one slipped through the cracks to actually be any good. They are all leading up to what will undoubtedly be a terrible “Avengers” movie. The crossover madness started with “Ironman,” a good movie with only a tiny little scene after the credits indicating all the movies would be connected. But since then they have just been pumping out movies purely as contextual set up for the “Avengers” movie. One of which was all for naught, “The Incredible Hulk,” because its star isn’t even going to be in the “Avengers” movie. That one ranks among the worst of them along with “Ironman 2,” and “Thor.” But somehow miraculously America’s super soldier made it through unscathed.

“Captain America” is a rare treat, a super hero period piece. “The Rocketeer” was one that was great for its day. And the most recent X-men prequel was also one that was done well. This one is the story of a weakling whose only ambition in life is to be a soldier and when he finally gets his chance he takes part in an experiment which turns him into Captain America. This movie could have been extremely bad, but the story was handled so expertly that it is actually one of the better movies of the superhero genre. And for fanboys in the know there are a million hidden references for you to discover. It’s not easy to take a character that is so incredibly flat and give him depth. That feat was accomplished by having the triple threat of extremely capable writing, directing and acting. And the special effects in this movie are unbelievable.

So many of these movies go so horribly wrong that when one finally does it right it’s kind of amazing. This movie wasn’t even on the radar for most people this summer but it turned out to be one of the better blockbusters in a sea of awfulness. It really makes you wonder why they can’t make them all just as good.