Chris Evans’ superhero stands up to bullying

Like Ryan Reynolds (“Green Lantern”), Chris Evans captures the physical perfection of the superheroes he portrays onscreen—from the playfully cocky Human Torch of the “Fantastic Four” franchise to the self-effacing idealist, Steve Rogers, in Joe Johnston’s current “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Thankfully, the comparisons end there.

While Reynolds had to turn on all the charm he could muster to buoy up Martin Campbell’s cartoony “Green Lantern,” Evans got all the help he needed from Johnston to make his latest foray into the superhero universe a substantial one:

The movie starts in the 21st century, when scientists uncover a mysterious red, white and blue shield in the freezing Arctic. But, Captain America’s story actually begins almost 70 years earlier, in 1942, not long after Steve Rogers, his asthmatic, 90-pound alter ego, decides to enlist in the military during World War II—without much luck.

Rejections

After serial rejections, Rogers’ fortune changes when he meets the inventor of the Super Soldier serum, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who sees the sickly youngster’s inherent goodness—and turns him into The First Avenger!

It doesn’t take long before Steve starts defying the orders of his superiors—the well-meaning but skeptical Col. Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and the lovely Strategic Scientific Reserve officer, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell)—to rescue captive soldiers from the Nazis, and from terrorist nonpareil, Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), who’s also been injected with Erskine’s DNA- and meta-bolism-enhancing serum! The star-spangled hero is also aided by the brilliant Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper)—yes, Iron Man’s dad!

Thereafter, Steve must make the ultimate sacrifice before Red Skull harnesses the power of the cube-like “tesseract” to destroy the United States! Where will the idealist’s sacrifice lead him?

A number of the production’s narrative elements have been played up to the hilt by the current film season’s many superhero movies, but “Captain America” manages to distinguish itself from the genre’s good-versus-evil triteness and predictability.

Seen side by side, Evans’ portrayals of the Human Torch and Captain America are as distinct as Superman and Batman’s polarizing personalities.

Daunting task

Johnston’s flick isn’t just about an “enhanced” person’s daunting task to thwart an evil genius’ nefarious machinations for world domination. More admirably, its protagonist valiantly stands up to bullying even before he’s bestowed the ability to defeat its perpetrators—a psychic boost for the “weaklings, cowards and little guys” of the world! What sets Rogers apart isn’t so much his brain or his brawn, but his heart.

A quibble: The film’s three-dimensional images aren’t as distracting as many other movies that use the technology—but, it’s frustrating to see a good number of scenes looking as dark as those seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s execrable “The Last Airbender.”

If filmmakers can’t make heads or tails of 3D the way James Cameron and Michael Bay do, they should do away with this unnecessary and frustratingly inconsistent “gimmick” altogether—because it zaps the life out of their movies.