Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger is a stunning example of a World War II comic book brought to rich, technicolor life. As the title suggest it is the origin story of the hero Captain America, a super soldier from the second world war who through circumstance survives nearly unchanged into the 21st century. The story begins with Steve Rogers, the penultimate 90 pound weakling with a heart that just won't quit. The war is on and he wants to join the army to fight. A doctor in a secret program notices his enthusiasm, and recruits Rogers to become part of a secret project to test a process that will create super soldiers. Men who are bigger, faster, stronger and all over simply more than even the best trained warriors of the world. The process works, but a Nazi spy kills the doctor who created the process, and the formula dies with him, leaving Steve Rogers as Captain America.

Though he's initially used as a PR stunt, Rogers proves his worth by single handedly breaking into a Nazi base and rescuing more than a hundred prisoners of war. He becomes a finely honed instrument as he and his team find and destroy one base after another of the Nazi's secret super weapon development program Hydra. Hydra, led by the infamous Red Skull who is every bit as strong and capable as Rogers but a thousand times more ruthless, has plans beyond the war to the world. Only Captain America and his team can stop them.

This film builds on the mythos set out in other Marvel movies like Thor and Iron Man, with characters like Howard Stark (father of Iron Man's Tony Stark), and items like the cosmic cube (a relic that was once part of Odin's treasure chamber in Thor), Captain America ties up all the loose ends and sets the stage for a team of super heroes to come together to fight threats that endanger the whole world. And it accomplishes all of this while telling a seamless story that, in reality, is a precursor to all of the other films that come after it, chronologically.

A comic book movie grown up, Captain America: The First Avenger won acclaim and praise to equal the other Marvel films, and it solidified the dynasty that was being built all throughout the film lead ups. With superb writing, beautiful action and the rich, vibrant hues that feel like they're straight out of a comic book, the film hit every point.