Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011)

The latest Marvel adaptation sees the Star Wars FX supremo Joe Johnston take on the task of making the stable's most politically suspect and superannuated hero a viable product to be milked for screen and merchandising bucks, whilst having to juggle with the need to lay down the groundwork for next year's superhero combo behemoth The Avengers. This may sound too painful to behold, but Johnston has at least realised the utter ludicrousness of the character and so we get no loftier ambitions than that of a humour-laced rollercoaster, with an earnest simpleton in a laughable costume at first used just as a wartime propaganda poster boy until proving his gumption by saving the world from cartoon Nazis, first and foremost Hugo Weaving determined to outham his own estimable previous hammings. It's strictly for kids despite the satirical winks, but thankfully unlikely to make them walk out of the cinema advocating U.S. intervention in foreign countries, probably by virtue of being so inoffensively forgettable.

4/10