There are some nice things going on here, starting with the basic premise. The eponymous, enhanced hero is simply a physical externalization of the integrity and decency of the actual, original guy. We’re in Superman territory here, real schoolboy stuff, and it’s tremendous that the producers of the film undertake it all in good faith. There’s no sarcasm, no subterfuge, no sophistication. Captain America.
Well, good for them. C.A. goes about doing good, as have so many wonderful American people, or policies, or administrations. Partly. Are Americans, in the film and through this and every other part of history, sometimes dangerously lacking in their awareness of irony, multiplicity and ambiguity? That’s for sure, though that still doesn’t mean that this movie needs to address it. But there’s something more basic going on here. As I watched this I felt something that hasn’t really or usually hit me with these last years’ endless run of super-movies. We appreciate 12 year old boys and all, but a story so completely pitched at their understanding of things, or derived from their sense of proper or powerful communication, is finally a pretty juvenile undertaking. Grow up!