Pun Salad

Mrs. Salad disclaimed any interest in seeing this; I suspect that she may be a sleeper HYDRA agent. But I didn't let that niggling detail stop me from heading off to the Cheap Theatre to check it out.

And it was awesome. Also, it was good.

A perennial worry with these movies is that they're going to traduce my early-70's comic book memories, making something violently at odds with my perceived fictional reality. And they didn't do that. Two thumbs up.

After a brief present-day prologue (that any Captain America fan will recognize), we're into Cap's origin story; in a parallel thread, we follow the evil Red Skull, aiming (as usual) for world domination. The Skull makes his initial Nazi allies look like wimps.

The cast is fine. Chris Evans was kind of insufferable as Johnny Storm, but does a good job here, projecting a straightforward all-American heroism. Tommy Lee Jones is wonderful as Colonel Phillips, initially skeptical about Cap's usefulness, eventually to be won over. Stanley Tucci has a small but vital role. Toby Jones—well, he's born to play either Truman Capote or Dr. Zola; guess which one he is here?

And, of course, Hugo Weaving is a perfect Red Skull.