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It was a pleasure to realize, once "Captain America: The First Avenger" got under way, that hey, here is a real movie, not a noisy assembly of incomprehensible special effects. Of course it's loaded with CGI. It goes without saying it's preposterous. But it has the texture and takes the care to be a full-blown film. You know, like with a hero we care about and who has some dimension. And with weight to the story. As we plunge ahead into a limitless future of comic-book movies, let this be an inspiration rather than "Thor" or "Green Lantern."

Now the full-bodied story comes into play, involving, as all good comic-book movies must, a really first-rate villain. This is a Nazi commandant named Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), who essentially controls his own private army and has schemes of surpassing Hitler. His minions salute him, not Der Fuhrer, and he has dreams of creating super weapons. Eventually, as the rules of comic-book drama require, Captain America will pair off against Schmidt, who is revealed to be the hideous Red Skull, whose skin tone makes him resemble those ducks marinated in red sauce you sometimes see hanging in Chinatown restaurant windows. Schmidt demonstrates once again that, when it comes to movie villains, you can't do better than Nazis.

The adventures of Captain America are fabricated with first-rate CGI and are slightly more reality-oriented than in most superhero movies — which say to say, they're still wildly absurd, but set up and delivered with more control. CGI makes another invaluable contribution to the movie, by shrinking the 6-foot Chris Evans into a vertically challenged 90-pound weakling, and then expanding him dramatically into the muscular Captain America. This is done seamlessly and he's convincing at both sizes; I doubt there's a single shot in the movie that shows Evans as he really is.

I enjoyed the movie. I appreciated the 1940s period settings and costumes, which were a break with the usual generic cityscapes. I admired the way that director Joe Johnston ("October Sky" and "Jumanji") propelled the narrative. I got a sense of a broad story, rather than the impression of a series of sensational set pieces. If Marvel is wise, it will take this and "Iron Man" as its templates. See it in 2-D if you can.