A childhood fan reviews ‘Captain America,’ his favorite hero’s new movie

STEVE ROGERS was a scrawny boy from Brooklyn, N.Y., who desperately wanted to volunteer for the U.S. Army during World War II. Through a strange twist of fate and the imagination of creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, he became a test-case super-soldier who fought the Nazis as Captain America.

I was a not-so-scrawny child growing up in the Bronx, N.Y., long after we'd vanquished the Nazis, who was fan of comic books and loved "Captain America." I had a Captain America black light poster in my room (even though I didn't have a black light), I dressed as Captain America one Halloween and I went to comic book shows to find back issues and complete my collection.

I lost track of the Captain as I grew older, but got back into his story a couple of years ago with Ed Brubaker's tremendous "Death of Captain America" series.

So it was with a bit of fear that I went to see "Captain America: The First Avenger" (that darn Daily News movie critic Gary Thompson had to take vacation), because I was concerned the happy memories of my youth would be crushed like Captain America crushed the bad guys.

There had been attempts to film Captain America in the past - a B&W B-movie in 1944, a cartoon in the 1960s and the awful low-budget 1990 film version that's cheesier than Wisconsin.

Like Superman, the first symbol of truth, justice and the American way, Captain America presents problems for modern-day filmmakers. Whereas Batman, Spider-Man and Iron Man make great movie characters due to rich back story and neuroses necessary for good drama, the 1940s Captain America is more a symbol than a flesh-and-blood man. That's fine in the comic where reader imagination can add in as much patriotic fervor as one finds tolerable - but what about in a movie where you're seeing someone else's imagination? Will the "Star-Spangled Man" be too old-fashioned? Will his lack of angst come back to haunt him on the big screen?

When my childhood hero puts on his blue star-and-stripes costume and battles German soldiers, is the audience going to (gasp) laugh?

Thankfully, "Captain America: The First Avenger" gets most of the big things right.

It's not a great comic book movie due to a slow opening - more time is spent developing the villainous Red Skull than is necessary and the opening ice floe scene could conceivably have been eliminated. It's also hurt by the necessity, as is true in all origins movies, of laying down a lot of plot. But the World War II setting and sepia-tone coloring give "Captain America" a different look from its many shiny predecessors and it's clear a lot of thought went into making the film earnest without being too cornball.

Director Joe Johnston ("The Rocketeer," "October Sky") wisely scruffs up Cap's costume and shield and aptly sets the film in a sort of alternative World War II universe. Captain America never battles actual members of Hitler's army but with the minions of HYDRA, led by the Red Skull, a deformed Nazi officer who basically thinks Hitler is a wuss.

In battle, Captain America teams up with the uncredited Howling Commandos (whose terrific war comic had them led by Sgt. Nick Fury, but now that Samuel L. Jackson's Fury is too young to have led a platoon 70 years ago, Sgt. Fury is nowhere to be seen), giving him an army to lead instead of taking on HYDRA solo.

Johnston also borrows from Indiana Jones, "Star Wars" and James Bond (Iron Man's dad is Cap's Q) to give the film a texture that's both modern and of its time.

That may be one of the problems for younger audiences. Although "Captain America" has all the special effects technology of a modern-day superhero movie, it plays like it was made in the 1940s, when characters were allowed to breathe and not every fight scene was shot like a music video.

Chris Evans is a buff, earnest Captain, who plays a difficult role, which could have easily slid into ironic snarkiness, with conviction and the film is loaded with serious actors (Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Toby Jones, Stanley Tucci, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell) taking their roles seriously. There's no winking in "Captain America," the tone is consistently sincere and the film wears its patriotism proudly but not jingoistically.

So where does Captain America fit in to the universe of comic book movies? It's no "Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Spider-Man 2" or "X-Men 2" because it lacks a certain character energy and WOW! factor. But its look and attention to detail is terrific (the old-fashioned musical number tops a similar bit in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom") and it scores points for trying to tell a fleshed-out story instead of merely relying on a series of CGI set pieces.

It also may be the first comic book movie to which kids and teenagers should bring their parents and grandparents. They might like it more.

Best of all, in a theater packed with servicemen and women and USO volunteers, when Captain America went into battle with a star on his chest, an "A" on his forehead and a bullet-deflecting shield, nobody laughed.

(One technical point: Except for one or two cool effects with Captain America's shield flying toward the audience, there is no reason to spend extra money to see this movie in 3-D. It actually looks better in 2-D.)