Captain America: The First Avenger

A superhero film set in the Second World War. Steve Rogers is thin and ill. He applies five times to enlist and is refused every time. A scientist notices him. What they are looking for is character rather than strength, and he is taken into an experiment. His body changes afterwards, but the army does not send him to the front. He is toured from stage to stage selling bonds and becomes a mascot in a costume. He goes to the front himself. In Italy he walks into a camp alone and frees the prisoners. From there the film is a campaign. A unit is formed, a train is raided, and a friend is lost. On the other side is the first attempt at the same experiment. The Red Skull took the same serum and turned into something else. What the narrative is interested in is not strength but choice: the film introduces Steve before he is strong and has him make all his decisions in that weak state. The Peggy line is close to a period picture and the last scene closes on a conversation over the radio. The thin Steve was produced by computer. The actor's head was carried onto another body, and that was unusually heavy work at the time. The 1940s were built largely in Britain; a street in Manchester stood in for Brooklyn of the period. Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving and Stanley Tucci are in the cast. Joe Johnston directed. Who it is for: anyone who wants period atmosphere and a classical hero story. Who it is not for: anyone expecting pace; the middle is crossed with a fast montage and the war years are not given enough room.