I've never followed Captain America in comics though I do know a little bit of the origin. So I'm one of the people who could sit back and enjoy the movie for what it was rather than nitpick on gaps in the CA lore.
The best thing about the movie is what's not in it- and that's cheap advertising gimmicks, such as a character opening a laptop to show an Apple or Sony logo, or car symbols or Coke, Pepsi or any fast food restaurant. It, however, would have been interesting to see if they could tie CA into their food products by having Marvel burgers or the American Superburger...I dislike cheap advertising tricks and thankfully this was completely avoided. Gone also was any chance of using high tech gadgets much like what was shown in Iron Man 2.
I found the plot interesting- the buildup to Steve Rogers becoming Captain American was done well and very interesting. The downside would be the action sequences which I thought would be more realistic or appropriate to the time setting. Instead several sequences were more reminiscent of what Iron Man 2 felt like.
As I'm not a CA follower some of the historical nods to certain symbols or the side characters themselves were lost to me but I did enjoy that Howard Stark's character was in the movie as it introduced the origin of Stark Industries and it's technologies of the future.
Actingwise Chris Evans did a surprisingly good job. In Fantastic Four he was OTT and hammed a lot and was generally quite annoying. Here he's more serious, focused and determined. There were a lot less quips, something I really detest in American made super hero movies. The cheesy quips might work in graphic novels or comics but in movies it comes off as plain lame. Hugo Weaving was quite good though too- he's becoming quite popular in characters taken from literature, comics or cartoons.
This is a movie for pretty much every age gap. There are no swear words (I don't even think the word damn makes it into the movie!) and no sex scenes so kids are perfectly fine to watch it. It's definitely the best superhero movie of the year and one of the better ones made entirely. I doubt that any sequel will be as good in terms of plot and story setting but in the meantime enjoy this summer gem.
