Captain America: The First Avenger

I get excited about most comic book movies where I know a little about the character. I have also loved the Captain ever since the fight from the Civil War series where he beat the crap out of Spiderman. I wasn't too excited about this movie though because the last Comic book movie Chris Evans was in (besides Scott Pilgrim) was the Fantastic Four and it was terrible. Not his fault of course but it is hard to disassociate  the two when they share a leading man. Putting that aside, I enjoyed this movie. My low expectations could have been a factor but I left feeling like Captain America has a future in good movies. The movie did seem hurried a bit at moments but that seems almost unavoidable when covering the span of Captain America's career.
Backstory of a character, or his development, his debatably the most important aspect of a comic book movie. Who cares about Steve Rogers (Captain America) if he just gets pumped full of super Government steroids then fights Hitler? Sure it's cool but we need to feel a connection with him and they did a good job on this one. Steve Rogers spends the first 30% of the movie as a scrawny asthmatic young man dying to help his country but finding himself denied. He gets found by Stanley Tucci, kind of randomly, and gets put into training for the candidacy of this new experiment. This is where we see Roger's character in action. He is smart, dedicated, and selfless. He would take a grenade for strangers and a highly experimental drug just to help his fellow man. He seems very much like Spiderman in this regard. Starting out as a very small weakling then becoming a super agile and strong powerhouse. I don't want to spoil the end with more plot points but I would like to say this was an entertaining film with some moments of heart. Not my first recommendation for the summer but it is on par with Marvel's earlier big screen adaptation: Thor. It was fun and entertaining the way a summer popcorn flick should be but with too few moments of heart that would make it into a great movie. Go see it if you are a big comic book nerd or at the very least rent it before the Avengers comes out next summer so you don't feel lost. Oh yea, and definitely wait for something after the credits...
Excelsior