Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

To start, I want to warn everyone, THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS. Anything in italics, is considered a spoiler, remember, you've been warned. 

So to start off, let's just go over how the day went. Around 11:00 my friend had came over so we can get ready to leave. I was anticipated with excitement, just as much as my friend, at that time around 11:45 we were hearing about a crash that was on I4 on the way to Winter Park, I live 2 hours away from Winter Park and even though the original plan was to leave around 2:00, we had to hurry to try to beat traffic and make to the premiere, nothing was stopping me from seeing this. We left, grabbed a bite to eat 8 exits away, then finally we arrived at the theater. To show you what kind of line I was dealing with, here is two pictures on how the line looked 20 minutes in when I arrived. 
<img src="http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/29375/cap6.jpg" /><img src="/images/users/uploads/29375/cap5.jpg" />
The picture I took is where I was standing. So I was pretty close to the entrance, so I waited for about 3 hours, at 6:15 I took another photo of the line cause I had a few cigarette breaks in the parking lot and noticed the line was getting bigger each break, when the line finally moved, I took this picture.
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Yea, it was big, and guess what? 350 people, did not get to see this movie from wherever they traveled. Sad, but true. Not to mention, 2 people behind me traveled as well and from Tampa/Brandon (Tainted87 knows exactly where we are at to the distance of Winter Park.....or any Floridian on this site.) Anyways, I finally got in and at 7:38, the movie began. SO LET'S GET STARTED!
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I don't need to remind that spoilers will be present in this review, like I said, avoid at all costs. Anyways.

<blockquote>The movie begins on a brisk morning in Washington DC, we see someone jogging from a distance, seems like a typical jog, till Steve Rogers comes running in obviously at a high super-speed, commenting on the jogger "To your left." First line in the movie, and it gave me the best laugh in awhile in a Marvel movie. Anyways, this scene is meant to represent how Steve meets Sam Wilson who happens to be the jogger. It seemed to me that they are already friends, just not that close, probably jogging buddies I presume but it was a very well written scene between them and funny and subtle. Moving on; Captain America is called on a mission to rescue hostages on a remote tanker ship from Batroc The Leaper (not named that in the movie, but named Batroc) who who is holding hostages. Black Widow, Crossbones and other SHIELD agents are called upon to save the ship and rescue the SHIELD hostages who are agents, including Jasper Sitwell. The scene is pretty damn action packed with a bunch of martial arts fighting and a great look of how much Captain America has advanced in his training and the strength of his power from the serum. As Black Widow is given clear direction to save the hostages with Crossbones; Captain America meets up with Batroc as they have a hand to hand fight scene (which is awesome) that leads to Cap, realizing Black Widow is disobeying direct order to do a personal mission for Nick Fury to silence any known files on the ship and send it back to SHIELD. Cap is extremely pissed and let's Fury know after the mission is over with shortly after. Soon after, Fury shows Cap what SHIELD has been planning, sending him into a warehouse contained with three giant HELICARRIER ships with over 100 missles attatched to them. The name...well pretty big but I forgot, but it's purpose is to kill any enemy or let's just say a group of a million enemies in a matter of minutes without causing destruction with nukes and what not. Cap sees it as you guessed it, a way to enact fear instead of giving freedom. Fury disagrees, they have a small argument which it leads to Cap realizing he is not ok with working with SHIELD at all, despite the nice paycheck he probably gets.

After said scene is done, Fury tries accessing files on information on the ships, which he realizes that they have a restricted access on them towards Fury. Fury decides to go on a car trip, to which he is bombarded with police officers who happen to be (assuming) are HYDRA soldiers swarming him. The action scene is incredible as Fury fights his way through. The scene ends with Winter Soldier attacking Fury and Fury escaping despite being critically injured. Cap heading home finds Fury half dead and secrectly tells him via through his phone that they are listening to their conversation as they use code to talk, in minutes Winter Soldier assassinates Fury. Cap chases him down, but before he does, Fury hands Cap a USB drive and tells him "Don't trust anyone" and dies. Meanwhile Cap chases Winter Soldier but escapes like in recent clips. Soon after, at the hospital Cap is told to go back to SHIELD but to hide the USB drive, when going back to SHIELD he is asked by Alexander Pierce what Fury had told him, which Cap lies, on his way out, the elevator fight scene begins to where SHIELD makes Steve Rogers a wanted man as Steve fights his way out of SHIELD. When he arrives back at the hospital he meets with Black Widow who happens to know who killed Fury, to where Steve is having paranoid delusions on not trusting anyone including her as well. When that happens she explains she had encountered Winter Soldier before as he had killed her partner at the time, shooting her right through the ribs killing her partner on a mission. They both agree to search for him and through the USB find out that their next clue is in Wheaton New Jersey, where Steve Rogers trained in the military before he became Captain America. Soon after they find a hidden base to which Cap points out wasn't there when he was in training, going there they realize it is a secret SHIELD base, maybe where SHIELD began, going further in realize a secret underground lair leading into a room with outdated technology, except for a USB port system to which they connect to which they turn on ARMIN ZOLA, who happens to be an AI now after he died, he transfered his mind to the computer. Zola explains to them that during the time that SHIELD banded together, he was one of the first members, but on the downlow he was working with HYDRA at the same time, along with other agents as well. With Howard Stark being one of the founding fathers, HYDRA/SHIELD was also responsible for killing Howard Stark and numerous other agents, including Fury. Basically if they knew about the secrecy, they had to be killed. </blockquote>

Now after spoiling the first 45 minutes of the movie, let's review it. The movie is indeed an intense thrill ride. The conspiracy thriller that we are set to believe in this movie is believable and for any new audience member who has no idea about Captain America, will certainly feel this huge twist bigger than Mandarin, Loki being alive or any other twist in the MCU. It was no doubt a shocking twist shit, even I felt it, but I digress. The actors in this movie don't seem to hold back, every single actor seems entralled in the movie well enough to feel like the characters are believable and everything seems to be happening in real-time. Chris Evans delivers a deeper, better look at Steve Rogers and his conflict with SHIELD as he doesn't feel right about the new time he lives in, the part of "a man out of time" is played literally and metaphorically in this movie very well. Robert Redford, is more than just a cameo in this movie but a terrifying villain, but the worst villains are the ones that you seem to trust and end up stabbing you in the back with your favorite knife, Redford is that character. 

As for worries for Winter Soldier, he isn't a plot device in this movie, he is an actual character, a hitman, A TERMINATOR. I use Terminator because his purpose is clear as day, complete the mission at any means necessary with little words what so ever. As for his personality, he seems like a man that has lost a part of himself, almost like a ghost. Where both Cap and Winter Soldier show this incredible link to the past, both of them feel more than one in the same like the feeling that both of them are drones or slaves to their affiliate. Like Cap was to Fury in the beginning and how Winter Soldier is to HYDRA. 

As for action, the action is top notch from beginning to end with plenty of room to breathe and enjoy. In fact, I compare it to Terminator 2 Judgement Day where both Cap & Terminator 2 have just the right amount of action, and stop at the right moments where it doesn't seem to overboard, too drawn out or short, it is just right. As for the comedy which happens to be the biggest criticism in the MCU by some or more than likely a lot of fans, the comedy is more subtle than shoved down your throat. I compare Thor The Dark World where it feels that fat kid in Matilda eating chocolate cake, stuffing it down his throat as the whole school watches it, towards the end they begin to cheer like idiots towards the simple fact he shoving chocolate right down his throat, then HE GETS HIT IN THE HEAD, and it's gone, forgettable, don't talk about it again. Here in Captain America: The Winter Soldier though, it gives you the right amount of moments of comedy without it irritating or annoying half the audience members with cliched obnixous personality characters (Darcy). Overall the comedy works pretty well, again it is very subtle, but not enough to harm the movie in anyway since it fits perfectly. 

As for MCU easter eggs, I only saw 2, but I did hear there is plenty to go around that others have noticed, but I only noticed one since they said it outloud, or Sitwell did. Since it is a spoiler, Stephen Strange is mentioned as being a threat to HYDRA/SHIELD. So technically, he might have his powers already. As for the other one, Avengers Tower was seen, and I have been told that a name does appear and it is not Tony Stark at Avengers Tower, so that leaves me wanting to see it again to see who the hell was that name, but great Easter Egg nonetheless.

In closing, the movie was a superb comic book movie that ranks up with the best. The characters feel fresh and and evolved than the first film or The Avengers, the action is refreshing, the plot harkens back from a 1970's political thriller, to Terminator 2 and The Fugitive. Music, sound, everything made it a thrilling and engrossing experience that stands out as different and comparing it to others would be a crime. As for how it ranks in Marvel movies, the movie ranks to me as THE BEST MARVEL MOVIE SINCE IRON MAN & THE AVENGERS. Oh yes, I went there. It clearly went above and beyond with this movie, the shift of the MCU is apparent in this movie and doesn't hold back and makes you curious as to where the MCU is going with Avengers 2.

A solid

10/10
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