Patriot, super-soldier and the most violent Ultimate Frisbee player in history, Captain America finally gets the proper big-screen treatment after nearly 70 years with Captain America: The First Avenger, an obligatory origin story and extended commercial for next year’s The Avengers. With Chris Evans (previously the only watchable part of Marvel’s failed Fantastic Four) sporting red-white-and-blue tights as wimp-turned-World War II icon Steve Rogers, First Avenger is exactly what Cap should be: an old-fashioned Nazi beat-’em-up wherein the genetically modified hero two-fistedly pursues the maniacal Red Skull (an appropriately menacing Hugo Weaving) and his army of laser gun-wielding Gestapo, whacking heads with his invincible shield, blowing shit up on his motorcycle and romancing bombshell Brit agent Hayley Atwell. Hack director (and George Lucas protégé) Joe Johnston reverts to Rocketeer mode to craft a gee-whiz actioner with nods to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Evans spits one-liners with gusto, showing comic charm in a cheeky sequence that plays to Cap’s jingoist origins as a propaganda puppet on the USO circuit. Sure, the action’s as generic as its hero (and the ending is a rushed mess), but that’s just what Captain America needs to be: a fun piece of mindless escapism full of explosions and Nazi killin’ that earns its “Made in America” stamp by forgoing serious storytelling in favor of chest-thumping Neanderthal gestures and straightforward patriotic charm.