Marvel Comics' recent spate of film adaptations has come very close to redefining the sequel. Rather than forcing a narrative out of the highest of concepts and continuing to flog a dying horse, or pulling a cheap "origin" story out of thin air (abandoned, at least for now, after Wolverine), the gang at Marvel has taken a long view in crafting the Next Action Event. Marvel films have been rewarding loyal viewers with Easter eggs (almost every film has a post-credit teaser), high profile directors who understand filmmaking, and subtle star cameos (like Jeremy Renner's blink and you'll miss it moment as Hawkeye in Thor). This is, of course, the lead-up to the mother of all superhero movies slated for next summer: The Avengers.

The beauty of the existing Marvel universe is in its ability to criss-cross properties, reference other characters, and in the process carry forward stories that have only marginal impact on the current piece. The last stop before summer 2012 is Captain America: The First Avenger, in which we learn a little something about Tony "Iron Man" Stark, even though he's nowhere to be seen. The powers of Thor's Asgard - taking the form of a blue cube - do have an influence on our modern world. It's the little details that make the Marvel universe on film so rich, and so much fun.

Captain America: The First Avenger is by no means perfect: it lacks Iron Man's contemporary wittiness and Thor's shameless entertainment value. It is, by summer tentpole standards, somewhat dour and serious, with a hero that's equally dour. But it works in service of this particular story, which takes viewers back to WWII (how Captain America winds up a peer of Tony Stark and Nick Fury is only partially explained) and a Nazi threat gone utterly bonkers.

Captain America begins with a high-tech science team digging Captain America's shield out of an unidentified frozen landscape (also "found" in Iron Man, but we'll let that slide for now). There's a ship with the shield, and the film promptly flashes back to 1942 Norway. Nazi science division officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving, reinterpreting The Matrix's Agent Smith) is on the hunt for some kind of otherworldly artifact, which he finds, and which then endows him with all manner of dastardly powers - and the physicality of his alias, Red Skull. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, literal 90-pound weakling Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, Sunshine, Fantastic Four) is rejected for army enlistment for the fourth time. Listening in on one of these rejections is runaway German scientist Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who's working on a top-secret military program building super-soldiers with none other than Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper). He takes Rogers into the program and turns him into a buff warrior. He becomes Captain America at the behest of the Defense Department, which doesn't want its multi-million dollar experiment endangered on the front.

Captain America: The First Avenger is a slice of old-fashioned, serial adventure storytelling; tonally it feels more like Raiders of the Lost Ark - which gets one of the all time great shout-outs - than anything from Marvel's recent body of work. Working from a briskly paced script by writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia) not quite as high profile director Joe Johnston (The Wolfman, Jumanji) makes sure the women are dames, the streets seethe with fedoras, and allows Weaving and Tucci to release their high school drama German accents (though no one lets loose with a, "Ve heff vays of making you tock!"). But the film also takes pains to recognize, and address, the fundamentally perilous nature of a story that glorifies an American war hero at a time when the American military is intensely unpopular around the world. Which incidentally is where the bulk of the film's grosses are going to come from.

Captain America has a knowing attitude on this front. When Steve is turned into a super-soldier, the Defense Department keeps him at home, winning over the hearts and minds and doing his part as a glorified circus clown. The public loves him, real GIs don't. The segments that involve the Captain's song and dance are all glittery stars and stripes cartoonishness. When that flops at a USO stop and the Captain is compelled to go on a solo, unauthorized rescue mission, he is finally given a real rank - complete with a grubbier, rougher uniform. The garishness of the propaganda tour is a direct counterpoint to the subdued, worn leather of the Captain's working uniform. It reflects the friction between the sensational war effort hype and the actual war, and the shift says more about the gaping chasm between the two than words often can.

Evans is perfectly cast as the honest, principled, all-American boy that refuses to be told "No," when his beliefs are challenged. He looks the part and plays it totally straight, and gets great support, as is often the case with these kinds of movies, from veteran Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips - dry as a bone and more deadpan than anyone has a right to be. Jones brings what little levity Captain America has to the proceedings, and Cooper (Mamma Mia) puts yet another spin on the Stark Sr. as we've come to know him. The romance (there's always a romance) between Hayley Atwell's (The Duchess) Agent Peggy Carter and Steve is blessedly understated too, as is its tragic end.

Yes, Captain America is more fuel for the anti-3D fire (nothing is particularly remarkable in 3D) but the special effect of note is how Evans' head has been seamlessly grafted onto a 90-pound weakling body (the man that comes out of Erskine and Stark's contraption is all Evans). It's amazingly convincing and one of the few modern effects in a film that executes its camera tricks almost in line with the period setting - at least until the fantastical aspects come to the fore. Captain America: The First Avenger isn't the most polished or cutting edge Marvel pic, but it's a key piece of a larger puzzle and it carries out its duty perfectly. And viewers that stick around after the credits will be treated to the greatest Easter egg yet. Bring on 2012.

Captain America: The First Avenger opened in Hong Kong on Thursday.