USA! USA! Captain America scores!

Well, not this summer anyway.  But you saw Captain America all the way through until after the final credits, right?  Personally, I got chills from my arms to my cheeks – a serious physical reaction.
 

But that’s next summer, and we’ll take one last look at what we got to see.  Most recently, it was Captain America: The First Avenger, Joe Johnston’s adaptation of the classic comic book by legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.  As the title suggests, “Cap” will be one of The Avengers before long, but for now he's the star of a true adaptation of Simon & Kirby’s story – its World War II setting makes it unique among modern super hero movies.  Instead of Foo Fighters music, we get boogie woogie bugle boy-type patriotic songs.  It makes for a very fun movie.
 

The scriptwriters are smart enough to know though that a story created in the 1940s has to be adapted to modern audience’s eyes if we’re going to take it seriously.  So the whole “Captain America selling war bonds” gimmick and the silliness of his costume were handled brilliantly.  They even turned it into an homage to the cover of the first Captain America comic.  It was very well-done.
 

Chris Evans was an effective Captain America, both as his muscle-bound self and as the scrawny special effect (which made the handsome Evans look like Watchmen’s Jackie Earle Haley).  Interestingly, he was also an effective Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies – he’s a one-man Invaders (fanboys get it).
 

To our ongoing rankings, subject to change as a film’s impact sinks in.  First, the all-time Marvel movies:

1. Spider-Man 2
2. X2
3. Spider-Man
4. Iron Man
5. Thor
6. X-Men
7. Captain America
8. X-Men Origins:  Wolverine
9. Hulk  (yes, the first one)
10. X-Men:  First Class

 
And the final “fantastic four” of Super Hero Summer:
1. Thor
2. Captain America
3. Green Lantern
4. X-Men: First Class
 

Bring on Rise of the Planet of The Apes (And “Roc-Con” – Rochester’s Sci-Fi Anime Con on Sept. 24th at the Main Street Armory)!