CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER is the story the Marvel movie adaptations have been waiting for and needed. Director Joe Johnston's vision of Cap is an origin story within an origin story, retroactively setting up the bravado behind the IRON MANs, the brawn of THOR and the eventual superhero summit that will be THE AVENGERS in 2012. More importantly, this film is the most character-driven of them all so far, and Chris Evans' surprisingly deft and empathetic performance is the true muscle behind the red, white and blue. Set in the early days of American entry in World War II, the lines delineating good and evil are writ large and boldly around the world. Heroes abound as men and women line up to serve their country and defend freedom for all against the destructive tyranny of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi thugs. Yet diminutive weakling Steve Rogers becomes the unlikeliest of heroes thanks to a top secret experiment, and the beefed up Super Soldier is set loose to defeat the Hun over there in marvelous Marvel terms. While not without its flaws, CAPTAIN AMERICA puts heart in all this comic book heroism with splendid 1940s detail and rollicking fun.

Steve Rogers is a born underdog, a 90-pound weakling with the heart of a hero who endures getting beaten up and held back by the world due to his sickly stature. With World War II inflaming Europe, Rogers fails the Army physical five times in his attempts to enlist and fight back against the bullies he's stood up to all his life. The night before his good friend Bucky (affable Sebastian Stan) ships out, Rogers makes one final attempt to join, catching the eye of government scientist Dr. Erskine (excellent Stanley Tucci). Erskine, a German ex-patriot now helping the U.S. Government fight Hitler, offers Rogers one chance to serve the cause of good by agreeing to join his experimental program to create and train Super Soldiers and equip them to defeat the Nazi nightmare. Rogers quickly agrees only to learn he will undergo an advanced physical transformation courtesy of Erskine's muscle-building serum and techno-genius Howard Stark's Vita-Ray infusion chamber. Yes, kids, this is old school comic superhero building in its best and fondest form. Sure it's science fictionally silly at face value, but this vintage throwback to Cap's comic origins works in a 21st Century film thanks to Evans' endearing, heartfelt performance as the forever-bullied wimp who yearns only to prove his inner valor doesn't match his scrawny outer image.

The CG magic which reduces Evans to a rail-thin, shrunken fraction of the actor's six-foot stature works quite seamlessly, never devolving into visual trickery that might distract you from liking Rogers. Better still, Evans succeeds mightily in garnering empathy for his character's underdog plight without descending into pathetic pleas for sympathy. His Rogers is a scrapper who boasts as a bully delivers haymakers on his chin, "I can do this all day."  Brilliantly, this attitude plays two ways: Rogers refuses to back down and give his tormentor the satisfaction of winning (proving the heart of a hero), while unfortunately his claim is true as the thug could land punches all day with little danger of harm from his puny opponent (admitting the reality of his weakling physique). Evans makes us feel for little Steve Rogers without ever asking us to feel sorry for him, and he masters a difficult performance in acting like he's a 5-foot-7 wimp to perfectly match his CG-diminished scale. Rogers is very much a man yearning to grow up beyond his boyhood frame and frailty, and Evans completes his character magic even when he's fighting at full-size to defend freedom: despite the muscles and all-American armor, Captain America still stumbles and stutters when talking to a beautiful woman, and that crucial, humble aspect of his boyhood charm remains throughout the film.

Joining Cap in the fight are Colonel Phillips (genially gruff Tommy Lee Jones) and that stumbling block of a beautiful woman Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who head the Strategic Scientific Reserve, with Stark (Dominic Cooper) providing the 1940s sci-fi machinery that turned a meek runt into the first Avenger. All three co-stars propel the sometimes ponderous plot forward, and while Jones could likely enact the grumbling, laconic Phillips in his sleep by this stage in his career, he avoids a rote performance despite an underwritten role. Atwell is gorgeous in that ineffable British way, and a solid match for her character's 1940s wartime sensibility when women stood strong in the war effort without trying to become men in the process. Cooper is the perfect paternal linkage in the past for Robert Downey Jr.'s suave swagger as the modern-era Tony Stark, while embodying Howard as his own man — even better, the actor neatly ties his performance in with John Slattery's 1960-era Howard Stark as seen in IRON MAN 2, completing the Marvel movie hat trick with aplomb.

Naturally Captain America needs a villain to fight and avenge the global destruction waged by the Nazi scourge, and he gets a doozy in Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) who is hellbent on world domination with or without Hitler. A former volunteer of Erskine's scientific research before the war, Schmidt employs his imperfect physical prowess and greed for power to create his own private army of Super Soldiers within HYDRA, the secret Nazi deep science division. Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) assists Schmidt in this cause, though he soon finds the latter's bloodlust and disloyalty to Hitler's war campaign quite frightening in its destructive scope. Fans of the Joe Simon/Jack Kirby Cap comics know that Schmidt, behind his tear-away face masks, is the infamous, ruthless Red Skull, and Weaving (with the aid of crimson-hued prosthetics) delivers as his fans would expect: think Agent Smith without the sunglasses and skin, then add a Werner Herzog German accent. Frankly, though the skull-faced appearance is suitably frightening it's also a bit distracting, and Weaving's menace retains its power better in his human guise, as indeed the undying truth about Nazi horrors is that they were carried out by people: it is the human mask hiding the monster within which makes such goosestepping ghouls the villains we still love to hate.

Speaking of which, director Johnston has said with regards to his film and script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely that one of their mutual creative inspirations was RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Indeed they, along with cinematographer Shelly Johnson, production designer Rick Heinrichs and costume designer Anna B. Sheppard, present one of the best 1940s-period films since Spielberg's RAIDERS thirty years ago. Nazis may never go out of style as cinematic heavies, but it would have been very easy to ruin such a period piece by drowning it in a sea of inappropriate, incompetent CG visual effects and ultra-modern story sensibility. Johnston's solid reputation for such historic dramatics and spectacle, evidenced in THE ROCKETEER and OCTOBER SKY, serves him well and expands his reputation as a spot-on filmmaker when working with good, sturdy material (JUMANJI and JURASSIC PARK III not so much). The World War II genesis of Captain America the comic persona basks in loving respect in Johnston's film, a worthy tribute to the lasting Marvel property while highly accessible and enjoyable to today's audience. Some of the action fumbles arise, however, when he and the writers borrow too much from Indiana Jones' playbook: since Cap is far more "invincible" than Indy, the daring chances Cap takes lack the mortal danger which Indy faced so bravely if recklessly. Rarely in any of Cap's shield-flinging fights with dozens of HYDRA baddies do we ever question if Rogers is truly endangered, since we know his weapons, armor and physical prowess can defeat any foe not wearing tank treads and a cannon. FilmEdge applauds the script and film for not rushing Rogers into action as Captain America, and his origin tale is quite plausible given how comically awkward Cap's creation is before he punches his first Nazi. Still there are moments in the opening half which could have been trimmed (not deleted) to pick up the pacing a bit sheerly in screen drama terms.

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Kudos to veteran composer Alan Silvestri for his unabashedly heroic and period-fitting score, one of his best efforts since BACK TO THE FUTURE earned him a generation of film music fans. A salute to Alan Menken and David Zippel as well for their stirring, delightfully sappy "Star Spangled Man," Cap's literal theme song in 1940s USO show-stopping style and a snappy tune that makes you want to buy war bonds as you exit the theater. It's a clever fit with the Richard Sherman-composed tune "Make Way for Tomorrow Today," IRON MAN 2's hope-for-the-future theme at Howard Stark's World Expo as the wartime inventor became a futurist visionary a la Walt Disney by the 1960s, and further unites this ever-expanding cinematic Marvel universe. Running a bit longer at 125 minutes than it needs to be, its otherwise peppy plot sagging at moments in the second act, the easy appeal CAPTAIN AMERICA's vintage heroism and earnest lead performance by Chris Evans cannot be denied as championing the best a Marvel comic-based movie can and should be. This delightful dose of World War II clarity in world vision may serve Cap well while in his element, but it only makes his eventual emergence into 21st Century complexity via THE AVENGERS all the more promising for the character's growth in his next mission. Steve Rogers' historic context also deepens the prior Marvel movies by proxy, especially with Howard Stark's growing role in the genesis of what will become S.H.I.E.L.D. and spawn THE AVENGERS, filling in parts of son Tony's psychology in the IRON MAN entries. Franchise mechanics aside, Joe Johnston's effort to finally bring CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER to theaters will reward Marvel fans and general moviegoers alike with a good old fashioned, rollicking adventure in the cineplex. While Marvel may risk oversaturating its own market by firing up so many stand-alone franchises only to blend them into one star-studded megafranchise next summer, Cap proves his worth as a stand-up guy and an enjoyable standout in the superhero crowd. As always, fans should stay through the end credits for a sneak preview of Cap, Tony Stark, Thor, Black Widow and Nick Fury in THE AVENGERS, meeting up in theaters next Summer.

Note to moviegoers: FilmEdge says skip the extra ticket cost for 3D presentation for CAPTAIN AMERICA. Johnston did not shoot his film in 3D, and while we've seen far worse stereoscopic conversions of 2D movies, the depth effect here adds little to the film's enjoyment. While the 3D avoids being a visual gimmick, we found it distracts a bit from this period soul of the film as a superfluous modern add-on. All the better to enjoy the great '40s-style cinematography and set designs, which will truly shine brighter in 2D screenings.