In 1942, sickly Steve Rogers is determined to enlist for the war effort, and finally gets his chance when he volunteers for a secret project to create a super soldier. When the head of the project is assassinated, Rogers is relegated to USO propaganda tours. Eventually he gets the chance to prove his worth by going up against the Red Skull, a rogue Nazi with a superweapon based on an ancient Norse artifact.

Generally fine attempt to bring Captain America to the big screen, benefitting greatly from the decision to film it as a period piece. The cast is excellent, though it would have been nice if the Howling Commandos had gotten more screen time. As it is, they are little more than extras. And the idea that a mere Senator could hijack a secret military project in the middle of World War 2 is a bit asinine. The respect for the source material and a game attempt at dovetailing this film with the overall Avengers theme make up for those slight deficits.

This is the movie America needed right after 9/11. Instead we got the miserable pile of dung that was Superman Returns. Sigh.