Joe Johnston Comments After Watching First Cut Of His Film 'Captain America: The First Avenger'

Nobody who is actively making or promoting a movie is ever going to say anything bad about it. The movie is always "great" everyone on the cast is perfectly "wonderful" and it's never ever a bad experience. So, obviously, we have to attach that huge asterisk to these comments from Captain America director Joe Johnston. Still, that doesn't stop the hopeful movie fan in me from reading what Johnston said to the Los Angeles Times and getting even more excited for Captain America: The First Avenger than I already was. Maybe, just maybe, this movie is everything we were hoping for and more. Fingers crossed. Read his comments and let me know what your reaction is after the jump.

Johnston was talking with the Los Angeles Times about the film when he said this:

I watched the movie for the first time a few days ago and I just looked at the first cut and there is so much entertainment value — it's just flat-out fun to watch. Maybe I'm somewhat biased — I was there [when we made it] — but, seriously, it's funny, it's exciting and there's great visual effects.  The movie is going to be something more than people are expecting. This movie is going to surprise some people. It is the origin story of Captain America but it is also something rare — it's a period superhero film but there's great action in it. You don't normally think of guys driving around in 1939 sedans in an action film but there are some great action beats in it. It's just a helluva lot of fun to watch.

He also had some compliments about his leading man, Chris Evans:

All actors bring something unexpected to the role because they have to translate what's on the page and make a real character out of the black-and-white text that's there in the script. I hadn't worked with Chris Evans and I wasn't really that familiar with his work and I  didn't know what to expect. I was blown away by the subtlety that he brought to the role.  It was really exciting to watch him. He added layers to the character that were not on the page and layers that were not in the comic books. He made Steve Rogers into a real flesh-and-blood character and it was fantastic to watch.

Am I crazy to hold out hope that he's not just saying these things because he's on the record? Is there a possibility he's actually, genuinely proud and excited about this film? Can it be that good? What do you think?