Captain America: The First Avenger was a great origin movie for one of the oldest characters in the Marvel Universe. It was a great decision to do a movie almost entirely in the 1940′s. Director Joe Johnston was definitely channeling Raiders of the Lost Ark and his own The Rocketeer. This was easily the second best Avengers-related movie (right behind the first Iron Man1).
The movie really shines in the first 2/3rds of the movie highlighting how scrawny Steve Rogers physically and emotionally became Captain America. It’s not the best origin movie (Batman Begins) but, from the alley beating to the USO shows to the Bucky rescue mission, I think it had the best hero origin in a movie2. The final third of the movie was just okay. The final battle was kinda blah. It was just set-up to get Captain America to the present which was disappointing. If this movie wasn’t tying into The Avengers flick coming out next year, I think we would have gotten a better conclusion.
