Captain America is an uncomplicated guy, as befits a character who first burst onto comic book pages in 1941 with the Stars and Stripes emblazoned on his signature shield. Born runty but transformed in a lab into a Nazi-fighting supersoldier, Captain America – on page and onscreen, as played by Chris Evans – embodies old-fashioned values such as self-sacrifice, unwavering belief in American exceptionalism, and a chaste tenderness for a red-lipped dame. Captain America‘s retro aesthetic is corny but copacetic, and director Joe Johnston’s allusions don’t stop there; his tips-of-the-hat range from Powell & Pressburger’s 1946 picture A Matter of Life and Death to his retrofit of 1983’s Return of the Jedi hoverbike chase on Endor (prick your ears for the tell-tale Wilhelm scream, a stock sound effect from the Fifties that was revived in the Star Wars trilogy). Chockablock with occult mumbo jumbo, hyper-accented baddies, and a gruff, tough Tommy Lee Jones (as the Captain’s superior), Johnston’s film starts well with the rock ’em, sock ’em diversion of a Saturday matinee, but eventually, one starts to wonder: Does Captain America have anything original to say? The airless plot moves from geographic point to geographic point with hardly a blip in its dramatic arc, while potentially interesting detours are ignored altogether. The final conflict is so protracted as to comfortably accommodate a bathroom break. Don’t worry. You won’t miss anything you haven’t seen before.
This article appears in July 29 • 2011.