Captain America

Good evening and welcome back. Been a while, sports fans. So let's just jump right into it, there's a lot to catch up on ---

Here we have the trailer for "Captain America: The First Avenger," which is mostly Marvel Studios continuing to put the pieces in place for their 2012 adventure-smash "The Avengers."

Following on the heels of the already-released, "Iron Man," "Incredible Hulk," and "Iron Man 2" and trailing "Thor" into theaters by two months, "Captain America" puts the final piece in place for the build to the ultimate cinematic team-up, an endeavor so financially promising that Warner Bros. has already announced that The Dark Knight Rises and Superman: Man of Steel are to be ignored immediately after their release to pave the way for "Justice League."

Sheesh.

But we're not here to discuss that. "Captain America" looks like fantastic fun, even though the trailer gives us nothing new to chew on in terms of execution. Standard cold intro to the world of the film, to the hero and why he shouldn't be a hero, then what makes him a hero, followed by action montage finishing with title and quick joke. All the beats are hit as square as the good Cap'ns jaw.

One of the places where the trailer misses is that we only get fleeting glimpses of two elements that look extremely promising: Tommy Lee Jones and Red Skull. Tommy Lee Jones appears to play a WWII Army commander who gives a Disney-version of Brad Pitt's speech from "Inglorious Basterds," but somehow has enough in him to make it still sound fun. Even without mentioning any Nazi scalps.

Then there's Red Skull, played by everywhere-franchise-actor-second-only-to-Ian-McKellen Hugo Weaving. Seriously, between those two we have the X-Men franchise, the Matrix, Transformers, and Lord of the Rings covered. McKellen almost landed Dumbledore for Harry Potter, twice, and aside from a Star Wars or Bond flick, there's really no where left to go.

Anyway, Red Skull is seen in one of the trailer's most interesting shots, peeling off his skin to reveal a grotesque red face, but the trailer flickers and cuts away before we get any more of that. No further reference in the preview to the fact that the main villain is a giant red skinless freak.

Epic sad.

The only other miss with this trailer for me is that the first time we see Captain America in full costume, entering as the hero, he is firing a gun. Not very super-hero-y, if you ask me. While loyal to the comics, it's a bit 80's action star for that to be the hero shot.

Music selections are good. Trailer definitely tries to evoke the connection to Iron Man with a similar 'heroes aren't born, they are forged' vibe, mostly through the sound effects and the sparking on-screen text.

As a fan of all things geek, I will declare this an 'Opening Day' trailer, but I do have to point out the irony that Chris Evans also starred in perhaps the most interesting trailer for a super-hero movie to-date, "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer." But I can't blame him for putting a little distance there.

Also, for a good laugh, check out the NSFW (bad language) Captain America trailer featuring "America, F**k Yeah," from 'Team America: World Police." Great for a giggle.