On Sunday 29th December I saw an extended preview of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The preview was introduced by Kevin Feige who said we’d seen the adventures of Iron man and Thor and now it was time to catch up with Captain America.
The preview was essentially the lift scene that is hinted at in the trailer. The scene begins with Cap in the lift, as the doors open a couple of men get in and say hi to Cap, this is repeated at each floor. As the lift fills up you see Cap noticing sweat beads on the guys heads, nervous glances between them or their hands hovering close to concealed weapons. Steve clearly knows whats coming which is when you see the trailer scene that includes “before we start does anyone want to get off”. After that comes a brutal fight, I say brutal in the context of Marvel movies, this obviously isn’t watchmen and the henchmen are knocked out cold pretty quickly. However the scene does show Captain America in pain and struggling to overcome the odds, this isn’t as easy as Black Widow’s fight in the Avengers. I suppose one could question the tactical advantages of attacking someone in a lift in such large numbers? The henchmen are trying to secure Cap using magnetic handcuffs so they may be trying to take him alive. The scene ends with the familiar trailer scene of cap retrieving his shield by stamping on it. Then the rest of the Captain America trailer played out except there was an extended glimpse of the Winter Soldier character at the end.
All in all the preview was interesting and I’d say this looks a lot better than the first one, whilst the first film showed a lot of the key sequences in montage to save time, this fight was not glossed over at all and really showed that Cap is a lot more Hero than Super. The scene itself reveals nothing, the henchmen could be SHIELD agents trying to bring Cap in or they could be allies of the Winter Soldier the attack could even be part of Cap’s daily routine like Clouseau and Cato
All in all I’d say the Marvel movies have been varying degrees of adequate, I think the first Iron man remains the peak of the MCU. The Winter Soldier looks like a really interesting swerve away from the increasingly colourful worlds of Thor and Iron Man, and the first Captain America and may just show that despite the weaker powers and seemingly less complicated personality, the character is actually the most versatile avenger.