Captain America: Is It Worth Seeing?

 Captain America: The First Avenger tells the story of Steve Rogers, a skinny and physically weak New Yorker with a big heart, who is chosen to be the first in a new breed of super soldiers in the war against Nazi Germany.  The Captain has always been one of my favorite heroes.  He's a classic underdog who obtains the means to expand his abilities but he still isn't bullet proof or ridiculously over powered like Superman.  The serum just made him achieve the peak of human fitness.  He is also bad ass who never surrenders. So I had high hopes for his first movie adaptation since this awful 1990 film:

Oddly enough, prior to Rogers (Chris Evans) receiving the super soldier serum injections I have no complaints about the film.  Hugo Weaving was a great choice for the maniacal , Red Skull.  His Nazi sympathies and pursuit of an extremely powerful mythical object reminded me of a villain from the Indiana Jones series.  Meanwhile, Rogers' portrayal as the gutsy skinny kid who can't pass an army physical works well. He desperately wants to help defeat the Nazis but can't due to his physical limitations, so he's stuck in New York wearing hilariously short ties.

Was that normal in the 40's?

 My favorite scene of the movie's first half occurred at Dr. Abraham Erskine's (Stanley Tucci) selection camp when Rogers manages to succeed where more athletic man had failed due to his mental savvy.  Unfortunately, once Captain America is born he stops using his brain altogether.  All of his plans are a simple three step process:

Step 1: Locate Nazis
Step 2: Punch every Nazi in the face, occassionally throw shield
Step 3: Turn around as something explodes in the background

Mission Successful

 This is sad because the Captain's best comic book portrayals have all included his abilities as a leader and a brilliant tactician.  He is the "leader" of a small team of lovable misfits but doesn't seem to do any leading or planning aside from telling his men about his ground-breaking three step process.  I think this is a major mistake because Captain America will be leading The Avengers in the upcoming film of the same name (sit through the credits and you will get a teaser for it).

Also, the Red Skull's plan and motivations are never really explained.  He seems to have one-upped Captain America by developing an even more simplistic process for being a supervillian:

Step 1: Get mystical item, don't explain what it does
Step 2: Kill everyone, don't explain why

"My brilliant plan is halfway complete!"

The second half of the movie isn't bad, it's just very mindless and a let-down after the cool retro feel of the first half.


Is it worth seeing? 

If you usually enjoy superhero films, check out Captain America: The First Avenger just don't expect The Dark Knight or Iron Man it's more comparable to Iron Man 2 in terms of quality.  But if you are a fan of Captain America from the comic books, especially Ultimate Captain America, prepare to be somewhat bothered by the direction taken by director Joe Johnston.