The Star Spangled Man With A Plan

There's something very, very right about the Marvel Studios movies of the last five years. I love Christopher Nolan's Batman Triology, I think they are master films. But somewhere on his quest to create a grim and gritty reality, Chris lost the, well, fun of seeing a guy in tights fight evil.

No fun allowed!

Marvel has yet to lose the fun. Their movies are bright, colorful, fast moving and at that, pretty remarkable bits of film making. Captain America: The First Avenger, directed by Joe Johnston and starring Chris Evans as Cap himself, continues well in this vein.

Evans has proven himself in the action adventure field fairly well. In fact, last year I dubbed him "Comic Book Man," having been the only good thing about The Fantastic 4 movies, and playing sell out Lucas Lee in Scott Pilgrim. But he's perfectly in his element as Captain Steve Rogers. CGI'd down to look like a skinny weakling for the first forty five minutes, Evans still shines through as the Brooklyn kid with a heart of gold who just wants to serve his country.

But then things get fun. The fangirl in me loves the Marvel Studio movies because they do very well on the hottie front! Not to sound like a bad stand up, but sometimes you just need a little eye candy, amirightladies? Now even once he's suped up on Dr. Abraham Erksine's (played to lovable perfection by Stanley Tucci) syrum which turns him into the perfect physical soldier, he's no Chris Hemsworth, but Evans is dreamy in that All American, throw a baseball, drink a beer, backseat of a Chevy kind of way. (As opposed to the Broody Norse God running through the rain kind of way...*sigh*)

Seriously, Sexiest.Thing.Ever.

Captain America ups the hottie ante, though, with Sebastian Stan as Roger's best friend James "Bucky" Barnes, and wait for it...Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark!

Close Second

Yes, that's right, not only is Howard Stark a prominent part of the film, but he's played by the absolutely smoldering Cooper, (who I've been mildly obsessed with since I saw him in The History Boys on Broadway.) If this is a fictional universe where Dominic Cooper is Robert Downey Jr.'s father, I WANT TO LIVE IN THIS UNIVERSE!

But back to the movie. Captain America fights The Red Skull, played by Hugo "Agent Smith" Weaving. Seriously, folks, when he opens his mouth even when he's playing an elf king or in this case a deranged Nazi scientist who's face has been mutated to look like a well, red skull, my CSD kicks into high gear and I immediately expect him to start dodging bullets and asking if he can speak to "Mr. Anderson." But still, he was awesome.

Rounding out the cast were Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, um I mean Federal Marshal Sam Gerald...OK look, he was playing Colonel Chester Phillips, but really he was doing his Tommy Lee Jones thing, and doing it real well and Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter. I even almost forgot about that time she went to the fair with Dawson Leary she was so good. (I said almost. This is Dawson's related CSD, the deepest kind)

Of course, like all of these movies, Captain America was a set up. There's an End Game. And that End Game is The Avengers. And that's what's up next. When Steve brought down The Red Skull's plane in the middle of the ocean, his friends searched for him. They found the Tesserae (do I have that right?) but no Steve. He wound up frozen for 70 years, and was awakened in modern New York, by Nick Fury. The credits roll.

But this is Marvel, so you've got to stick around until the very last frame. After the credits we see Steve beating a hanging punching bag, which he then punches right off the ceiling. Fury enters the room and gives Steve a message. "It's time to save the world."

Then we see it in all of it's glory. The trailer for The Avengers, with it's amazing tagline "Some Assembly Required." I was too busy gaping (and I kind of had to pee) to take you through it blow by blow, but it looks fantastic. Plus I got a tingly when I saw Chris Hemsworth as Thor again, so we know that's not a passing thing...