O Captain! My Captain (America) by Movie Reviewers on Creators.com

Recently

Tyler Labine: From TV BFF to 'Tucker & Dale' Tyler Labine has blood on his hands. His Calgary hotel room is stained with the ignominy of a brutal two-week bacchanal out in the woods. The voices of the dead screech in his brain. He and his associate, Alan Tudyk, try to cope with all they've …Read more. 'Killer' Cast, Not Much Flash Robert De Niro. Jason Statham. These are two iconic names that, alone, have carried some of the best tough-guy blockbusters. Toss in the second-tier talent of Clive Owen, and you've got an unstoppable action triumvirate. It's a pity, then, that …Read more. 'Drive' Crashes and Burns 2011 will go down in the Hollywood history books as the year of Ryan Gosling. The man with the Photoshop-perfect abs and cool sheen — but who also has proved himself to be a fine thespian and occasional musician — has utterly dominated …Read more. Fed Up With 3-D Three-dimensional cheerleaders have really scraped the bottom of the barrel with this one — and I do mean bottom. The fourth installment of the "Spy Kids" series, starring Jessica Alba and Jeremy Piven, took a note from the amusement-…Read more.

O Captain! My Captain (America)

Tina Turner might protest that in this oversaturated comic-book movie environment, "we don't need another hero." We've already got the surefire hits ("Iron Man," "X-Men"), the mighty newbies ("Thor") and the not-so-super (two green fellas, Lantern and Hornet). Movie studios are getting to the point where they're scraping the bottom of the barrel (Captain Planet has an upcoming big-screen adaptation. Who're they going to cast, Al Gore?) or rebooting franchises that last got rebooted a mere few years ago (Superman, Spider-Man).

This overpopulation of the extraordinary reminds us of a phrase once uttered by a villain — Syndrome, from "The Incredibles": "When everyone's super, no one will be."

So thank heavens for Chris Evans and his interpretation of one of the oldest superheroes in the Marvel pantheon, Captain America. In the eye-candy spectacle, subtitled "The First Avenger," a scrawny patriot named Steve Rogers (Evans, CGI-ravaged) will stop at nothing to enlist in the Army. It's World War II, and this saintly runt wants to follow in the footsteps of his soldier father and his confident chum Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). But seeing as he suffers from a litany of ailments, does pushups like a girl and has been forging his enrollment papers, he's rejected again.

Steve happens upon an expat German scientist (Stanley Tucci, extremely likable), who invites him to become part of a military experiment aiming to create the ultimate warrior. Steve is flabbergasted as to why he's a candidate. The doctor insists it's not because of his physique; it's that he has compassion and a desire to serve the greater good.

"Gen. Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons but are won by men.

Our goal is to create the greatest army in history. But every army begins with one man," says the stalwart Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones, having a blast in this grizzled role). He doesn't initially get along with pipsqueak Steve, but once the experiment is complete, the diminutive lad bulks up to Superman status. But he's still relegated to another "important" role back home in the states: touring spokesman for Army bonds, prancing around in his classic red-white-and-blue tights. His brothers in arms look at him like a dancing monkey, but a high-ranking female British ally, Peggy (played by Hayley Atwell), sees more in him.

Though WWII is the backdrop for "Captain America," Adolf Hitler is only an unseen poltergeist. The real baddie is the megalomaniacal Johann Schmidt aka Red Skull, a former Nazi whose lust for the power of the gods trumps his loyalty to Germany. Hugo Weaving, no stranger to iconic nerd-favorite characters ("The Matrix" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogies), performs here with a perturbed lilt, but he makes the mutated Red Skull almost something of a Shakespearean role. It's not Academy Award-caliber, but Weaving does well with the menace.

Perhaps it's this film's restraint from trying to be cool and modern that allows it to be so captivating. It's based on old-school principles we don't see often in today's superheroes. Steve wants to vanquish enemies and fight for truth, justice and the American way. (Spider-Man just wants to sulk and listen to Dashboard Confessional.) The 3-D effects, though converted, are more aligned with the fun, engaging "jump-out" method from the 1950s rather than the yawning atmosphere most movies create now. Props to director Joe Johnston ("Jumanji") for getting "Captain America" right.

"Captain America: The First Avenger." Rated: PG-13. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes. 3 stars.

To find out more about Melissa Bobbitt and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.