captain

i was expecting to be "superheroed out" when we saw captain america: the first avenger last month. since the release of dark knight and the x-men series, all superhero movies went the seriously dark path, while recent months saw a whole gamut of superhero films that one might get tired of these films. but to my pleasant suprise, captain america did not give me the superhero fatigue syndrome. the movie was entertaining and fun. it was an all-out good old-fashioned superhero movie that celebrated heroism of the little guy.

many critics pointed out that this film's strength was its unskunked up premise behind captain america and remained true to its comics original concept. the movie did not offer any so-called intelligent messages but presented another take on one of the world's darkest hour, world war 2. of course, everyone knows that captain america was intentionally created to be an american patriotic figure who would defeat one of the greatest villains of all time, the nazis. but there was no "complicated" superhero lead, just a simple and noble character, which turned out to be a refreshing surprise. the movie had a fun feel, as one critic said, "happily stupid". the 40s setting was fantastically presented, down to the air of america's pre- and antiwar sentiments.

the effects were superb, especially for chris evans' pre-captain america little guy and had enough action scenes. it had a worthy cast, especially tommy lee jones, stanley tucci and hugo weaving. most of all, it leads nicely to next year's the avengers.