Captain America review
If the biggest obstacle with Captain America is not turning a flag-wearer into a flag-waver, job done.
Following the Marvel template, it’s more about individual pluck than national pride; less a salute to Uncle Sam than a fanfare for the little man – as embodied by Steve Rogers (a digitally emaciated Chris Evans), a “90-pound asthmatic” unfit for military service, circa 1942.
But the kid’s got guts and he hates bullies, pegging him as the ideal subject for an experimental super-soldier serum that makes him look, as Clive James once said of Arnie, “like a condom stuffed with walnuts”.
Thus, Captain America is born – first as a baby-holding propaganda patsy, then as a two-fisted, shield-spinning Nazi-fighter.
Yes sir