So the interesting post conclusion: Captain America: The First Avenger works because it’s not really an action movie — it’s a period drama about a good man who gets turned into a weapon but never stops wanting to be human. The shield isn’t his symbol. The choice to not stop being kind is.
What makes The First Avenger fascinating is how it subverts the typical superhero origin. Steve Rogers doesn’t become heroic after getting the super-soldier serum — he’s heroic before. The film spends nearly 40 minutes showing him as a scrawny, asthmatic kid from Brooklyn who keeps getting beaten up in alleys because he won’t back down from a bully. Captain America- The First Avenger