Captain American: The Winter Soldier is the third installment in Marvel's Phase 2 which began with Iron Man 3 and followed by Thor: The Dark World. And it would only seem fair for The Star Spangled Man to get a sequel!
In this film we get to see how Steve Rogers has been adapting to the 21st century. This is the first time we've seen him in action in present day after the events that happened in The Avengers. We see that he's now working with SHIELD and Black Widow on military missions. Trouble emerges when a mysterious masked figure called The Winter Soldier emerges and starts wreaking havoc and it's up to Captain America to stop him.
My description of the plot doesn't do the film justice. I tried to make it as simplistic as possible because the plot is far more complicated and interesting than what I wrote. I just don't want to give away any spoilers at all because I don't want to be the guy that ruined a movie for you.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier does what Catching Fire did, which is blend enthralling action sequences with an enticing political storyline. But unlike how the first half of Catching Fire felt like a political thriller while the latter half was a full blown action flick, The Winter Soldier seamlessly blended both halves evenly to give us one of the best Marvel movies to date.
This is without a doubt the best solo Avenger film since the first Iron Man and the best Marvel sequel since Spider-Man 2. I was flabbergasted by how terrific just about everything in this film was! I'm especially surprised because this is a sequel and if Marvel has faltered in one area, it is that they have struggled with making worthy successors to the first film in the franchise. While I did enjoy Iron Man 3 and really liked Thor: The Dark World, (not so much for Iron Man 2) I never considered them to be great. But not only would I consider Captain America: The Winter Soldier great but for a better word, marvelous.
How is the action? Terrific. I love the fact that they used as little CGI as possible. Not that I have anything against CGI! It's an incredible tool that has advanced the development of action movies. But like all good things, CGI should be used in moderation. Which it is in this film! I loved the hand-to-hand combat fight scenes. They had a sense of realism to them and realism is something that isn't always achieved in a comic book film. There is a particular car chase scene early on in the film that might be one of the best I've seen in years.
The action is awesome as expected, but what really makes this addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe so memorable are the relationships between the characters and the excellent script.
Before this film, I considered Captain America as a "minor" Avenger. He doesn't really have any great powers," is what I used to think. This film put me over the edge to realize that Captain America is a force that you do not want to mess with and makes his shield as powerful a weapon as Thor's hammer in my eyes. The scene in the elevator when he took out an entire team of highly trained soldiers and hit men using only his fists made me say, "Okay, I'm on board. This is one hero that really earns the title of super."
Scarlet Johanson is wonderful as Black Widow. The relationship formed between her and Steve is not just shown but actually put to the test. The two have such believable chemistry together that I would not be surprised if the two of them started an actual relationship in the films to come. That would be tough to explain to Hawkeye though. Speaking of which, where was Hawkeye in all of this? Heck, Anthony Mackie as Falcon probably had more lines here than Jeremy Renner did in The Avengers!
While we're one the subject, Falcon was a great addition to the cast! I really liked his character and how he is sort of going to become Captain America's right hand man. Plus, that wing suit is probably the coolest gadget not made by Tony Stark. I can't wait to see him in Age of Ultron along side the rest of the Avengers.
Aside from sequels, the other field that Marvel has struggled in recently is that of villains. Mickey Rourke was forgettable in Iron Man 2, I can't even remember the name of the villain in Thor 2 and don't even get me started on The Mandarin. It seemed that outside of Loki, Marvel had no other memorable villains. Well now they have two: The Winter Soldier and Alexander Pierce.
These two characters reminded me a lot of General Tarkin and Darth Vader from Star Wars. Pierce being Tarkin and The Winter Soldier being more like Darth Vader. Robert Redford plays Alexander Pierce who I think was the perfectly cast in this role as a corrupt political puppet-master behind the ins and outs of SHIELD. He shows both sides of personality by commanding a great presence about himself as a leader and being downright despicable as a villainous mastermind. Like Tarkin, Pierce is the top dog who calls the orders. The Winter Soldier on the other hand like Vader, does his masters bidding. I love the backstory given to him and how he connects this film to the first Captain America film. Which leads me to the script.
The writing is solid. We learn about Steve Rogers personal life. All of the things he's been catching up on in pop culture and history and Natasha even tries to set him up with a girlfriend. And that situation really highlights their relationship with each other. It isn't romantic, but rather a great bond of trust and friendship and I love seeing that.
My problems with the film are very few. There is a scene involving an A.I. (of sorts) that I felt was a bit out of place. I also thought that it gave into the cliché that the bad guy tells you his entire evil plan before he kills you which really gets under my skin. And I wish that Alan Silvestri composed the score because I really enjoyed his work on the first film.
Final Report: With a powerhouse script that doesn't skimp out on character development or political depth and riveting action sequences, Captain America: The Winter Soldier raises the bar extremely high for all Marvel films to follow. So hit me with your best shot X-Men Days of Future Past! Give me your best because this is one superhero flick I do not see being bested for a while.
Sorry this is being posted so late. I did see the film (twice) during its first week, I've just been having trouble getting time to finish this post up. So sorry for the wait.
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