Early reviews of 'Captain America' mixed, to say the least

The guy who played Johnny Storm appears to be on fire.

Update: As of Wednesday night, the movie was registering a 59% on the Tomato-meter.

Captain America may need that shield to protect himself from the movie critics throwing tomatoes, or so it would seem. RottenTomatoes.com tweeted Wednesday that "'Captain America: The First Avenger' is currently rotten." It's important to note, though, that the rating is based on just five reviews, and those were split by one vote, with three not liking the movie. Their comments:

Marshall Fine, of Hollywood and Fine: Feels less like an exciting comic-book-hero movie than required reading for a course called The Avengers, arriving in theaters next summer.

Drew McWeeny of HitFix: (Marvel) saved one of their very best movies for last, and I suspect Captain America: The First Avenger will send audiences out of the theater rabid to see what's next.

 Tim Grierson of Screen International: Captain America has a decent amount of heart and retro appeal, although neither can compensate for what is otherwise a rather ordinary comic book film.

Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve: Yet another superhero pic but one nicely rooted in history.

Karina Longworth of Village Voice: (A) hokey, hacky, two-hour-plus exercise in franchise transition/price gouging, complete with utterly unnecessary post-converted 3-D.

But they are just critics. And I think the track record is pretty clear that, as a group, they are unkind to comic book/super hero/sci fi movies. Too many critics go into every theater wanting to see "Citizen Kane." C'mon - it's the summer. Some people just want to know whether the price of admission is worth two hours of escapism out of the heat.