Captain America: The First Avenger

Instantly Marvel's second-best cinematic effort — and in a summer when so many genre movies from "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" to "Thor" just couldn't get it quite right, "Captain America: The First Avenger" hits all the right beats in all the right places.

It works as a straight action movie, it's as effective and true a comic book superhero flick as you'll get, and it acquits itself well as a two-hour trailer for the next movie in the series, "The Avengers." (Though rumor has it there's a little extra post-credits nod to that flick, our advance print did not have one. Thanks, guys.)

"Captain America" stars Chris Evans, doing his super-powered double-dip (recall he played Johnny Storm/Human Torch in two "Fantastic Four" films), playing Steve Rogers, a sickly, scrawny little guy who, in 1942 New York, wants nothing more than the chance to fight for his country. He's a determined, tough, scrappy man, although, as one of the Army doctors tells him, his asthma alone would keep him out of the service.

So he lives a life of shame, until he meets Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German defector who is developing a method for creating a "super soldier" to turn the tide of the war. He wants to provide an American counterpart to Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), a member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle who took the serum before it was ready, leaving him with a red, deformed face and the nickname the Red Skull.

Schmidt is the head of HYDRA, a scientific research organization that has an array of advanced weaponry powered by a mysterious cube of which Schmidt has taken possession.

Meanwhile, Erskine sees young Rogers (all full of vim, vigor, and an innate goodness), knows he's the perfect candidate and gives him the serum. It works, and Rogers becomes Captain America, the mighty ... poster boy for the American war effort. Of course, that all changes when Steve's friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) goes MIA fighting HYDRA.

From there, Steve looks to shut down HYDRA and the Red Skull and take his place as the First Avenger.

Oh, and he finds some time to romance the fair Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), a tough, comely government agent who helps recruit Steve for the job.

Evans is a touch bland as Captain America, but honestly at this stage of the game, that's the character; he's virtually a red, white, and blue boy scout who doesn't really get interesting until down the line when his country begins to let him down.

The supporting cast, headed by Weaving (Agent Smith from the "Matrix" films), Tommy Lee Jones (whose mere presence raises the movie to the next level), and Toby Jones ("Infamous"), who plays Dr. Armin Zola, the Skull's right-hand scientist.

Director Joe Johnston perfectly blends the World War II vibe, beautifully shot in washed-out golds and muted blues, with present-day bookends. If the film has any flaw, it's a slow-moving midsection with little to offer in the way of real action sequences. (We get a couple of clipped montages, but nothing of real substance until closer to the film's finale).

The action does ramp up, though, with a couple of solid sequences and even a couple of crowd-pleasing 3D shots involving Cap's shield — one of the coolest superhero accessories in recent years. The finale is a thrilling mano-a-mano inside a flying HYDRA plane, action taking place outside the plane and in, and features something of a cliffhanger ending — the perfect lead-in to the upcoming Avengers film.

"Cap" also does arguably the best job of the Avenger lead-in films of fitting into the universe without falling prey to gimmickry or awkwardness. We get Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) contributing to the effort, but there's nary a mention of his little boy or his hot-rod red and gold suit of armor. Nor do we get even a whiff of the Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, or any other non-Cap character for that matter (well, at least not until ... well, I don't want to spoil too much if you're not familiar with Cap). It's a subtle touch that allows us to focus on getting to know the characters rather than living with the trickery.

"Cap" is the blockbuster of the summer — a rollicking good time that makes a crowd-pleasing film that does neither too much nor too little, hits the beats it needs to to keep the story rolling and offers just enough to move us down the path to 2012 when Joss Whedon finally makes our fanboy dreams come true.