Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Cast: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford
Writers: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Ed Brubaker
Directors: Joe Russo, Anthony Russo
Rating: 12A/ PG-13
Running Time: 136 Mins
In a year featuring men that ejaculate web from their wrists, mutants on the verge of extinction, criminals guarding the galaxy, and robots shape-shifting into cars and jets along with the most convertible actor himself: Mark Wahlberg (pun); kicking off the summer/ spring movie season of these blockbusters is the patriotic first avenger: Steve Rogers as Captain America. Acting as a sequel to two films including 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger, and 2012's Marvel's The Avengers: this film has high critical and commercial standards to pick up on and Captain America: The Winter Soldier does it in impeccable fashion. Rather than the modern trend of our protagonist presented as a bearded recluse or lone traveler who's past efforts are mere traces of who they are now, our main hero is very active working alongside shifty spy organisation: SHIELD, it's director: Nick Fury (Jackson), and fellow sexy spy: Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow (Johansson). Steve is living in a world that he helped save and although it's never explicitly stated, wondering if it was worth the effort when secrets, mysteries, and generally the opposite to what he thought he was protecting float all around him, but underneath the surface.
depicted a hero well-known for his honest, "American way" methods of dealing with crime as a lonely alien trying to find his place in the world and not knowing whether or not he wants to be who he is. The makers of that film saw it as a way to make Superman modern and more realistic for an audience that have come to love films like
The Dark Knight latch on to and in many ways it worked, but what's admirable about
CA: TWS is that they take this truthful man who is used to the "punishment being after the crime" and take advantage of that to make the character interesting, and likeable instead of boring, and un-engaging. This makes Captain America an inspirational guy and altogether my favourite hero in the MCU so far.
Chris Evans nails this character down to the ground and really makes you buy Rogers as a man who's duty is all that he holds dear. He doesn't go through a dramatic arc, but throughout his tenure; I've always been more interested in the man under the mask rather than the other way round and there are so many great moments and scenes including a tearjerking set-piece early on that portrays the super-soldier as a man out of time, but full of courage and soul. Romanoff even calls him a "fossil" in the first few minutes of the film and there are other great lines that cinephiles can dig their teeth into as deeper themes and meanings which satisfies me and all of those who think of film as a pure art form.
The rest of the cast are on top form with Johansson rocking a nice hair-style and making the supporting character in Iron Man 2 feel like a distant memory, Jackson is also great as Fury is given a bit more of a background but still keeps his L. Jackson humor. Newcomers such as Redford and Mackie make brilliant first impressions with the former taking dark turns and twists and the latter providing great charisma and comic-relief. There are a few cameos and extended presences from characters I'd forgotten about but was welcome to see along with Stan "the man" Lee delivering a funny, unexpected glimpse of his popular awesome-ness. The great thing about all of these characters is that the film makes them appear as real people who inevitably have to make decisions to survive and not physical beings created to move the plot forward.
This film does feel grounded and although there are a few times that take you out of the experience because you might not have been prepared for something that would fit perfectly in science-fiction; it's a credit to the film-makers that you even feel that way in a film about a frozen WW2 pumped-up soldier tossing a shield around. The Winter Soldier does feel like a spy movie and it's the only comic-book movie I've genuinely been sitting down to with my eyes glued to the screen and constantly saying (in my mind) "this film's awesome".
If there had to be any stated faults with this sequel, it's that too many times it feels that this already ambitious film was about to take a step further into groundbreaking, but never does and I only noticed this about the fifth time they did it in a 2 hour - 10 minute movie. With that said, the action in this film is breathtaking, and there's no repetitiveness apart from the same weapons used, and each sequence had my jaw on the floor and it's the best action film in the MCU and the best I've ever seen in a comic-book movie.
I have so much more to say about this film but I'll leave it at this verdict...
Captain America: The Winter Soldier places its feet in familiar water that Marvel have attempted before, but not in so much specific detail that it links purely to the themes of the titular character. Great performances, stunning action sequences, phenomenal camera-work, awesome script with amazing dialogue, and a lot of heart.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier earns 5/5.
I thought this film was miles better than Thor: The Dark World, but I'm not so sure about Iron Man 3 but after repeat viewings, it just might be... List your thoughts down below and try not to get into spoiler-territory to much. Peace...