Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review

 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Directors: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Stars: Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L Jackson, Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan, Cobie Smulders, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo, Toby Jones, Jenny Agutter & Hayley Atwell

Running Time: 136 minutes.

Release: 26 March 2014

After being thawed out of suspended animation and the turbulent events of the Avengers, Steve Rodgers aka Captain America (Evans) struggles catching up with the modern world and finding his place within it with his old school ideals when an old friend is killed by The Winter Soldier (Stan) and finds that SHIELD has been subverted by it's enemies and is branded a traitor and is forced to go on the run,to get to the bottom of this dangerous deadly mystery he enlists the help of his fellow Avenger Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Johansson) and Sam Wilson aka The Falcon (Mackie).

Chris Evans has surely come a long and proven himself to be a brilliant Captain America, a lot better than I expected, the groundwork was laid out in Captain America:The First Avenger and his struggles with adjustment the world which began in The Avengers and continues on in this. In this film we really see him struggle with the modern world, as he's from the 1940's he has old school ideals and principles and does not bare his emotions he keeps it all bottled inside. There's also a humorous side to it too.

I have to say I prefer the stand-alone films as it gives the character more space to develop than in a team film. He really does give heart to Steve Rogers a man out of time slowly adjusting to the new world whilst keeping his morals and beliefs. Captain America used to be an icon of WW2 but Steve has moved on from this he just sees himself as a soldier and does not like being classed as a legend but as an equal. He brings out as much as the other characters as to what they bring out of him. I have to say he's my favourite Avenger alongside Thor.

He's very strong, smart, agile, courageous, brave, morally grounded, righteous and always sees the best in people and he's really forgiveable and good hearted . He also has a dry sense of humour.

What I really liked about this film is that there was no real big romantic sub-plot in this like there is with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) & Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Not that they were forced or anything like that but just a bit typical of superhero film, saying that though there is a scene with his 'best girl' that is really heartfelt and tugs on the heartstrings but i'll get into that later on.

I can't write this review without mentioning the brutal realistic fight scenes he partakes in throughout the film they are absolutely incredible far better than any I have ever seen in any comic book film to date ! And there's many of them i'll just say “before we get started, does anyone want to get out”.

Being quite frank and honest I was not really a big fan of Iron Man 2 nor the inclusion of The Black Widow (Johansson) for that matter I felt she was tacked on but in The Avengers she grew on me and she's even more improved in this as she get's a lot of screen-time mostly alongside Captain America. She's a fantastic character. When branded a traitor Steve can't really trust anyone aside Natasha and Sam. We've never really been given a back story to Natasha though we have received hints that it's a really dark one and a spin off film of The Black Widow has been mooted.

At first Steve has trust issues with Natasha as her background is far from clear and she's supposedly done a lot of bad things in the past and as the film goes on he begins to trust her more. She's very intellectual, strong, agile, quick and knows fully well to handle any firearm and ready to join the heat of battle. She has a sense of humour and likes to make light jokes of Steve's time away from the world,

Anthony Mackie plays Sam Wilson who's also known as The Falcon, his story in this film and how he got his wings is much more realistic in this as he is given a flight suit by Stark Industries, he is a solider and a expert in hand to hand combat and knows how to handle firearms and becomes one of Steve's friends and the groundwork for that has been laid out in this. I've not seen Mackie in much only Gangster Squad, Hurt Locker and Half Nelson. He's a great addition to the cast as Sam Wilson a man somewhat like Steve as he shares in the same ideals as Steve and is a soldier and he see's Steve as an equal not a legendary hero. I would like to see him again possibly in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America 3.

Samuel L Jackson returns as the tough as old boots bad ass Nick Fury. I have to say with all the films featuring Nick Fury he has the most screen-time in this than in any other. Jackson is perfect in the role. Nick Fury is Steve's aide and superior and he in return see's him as one of the best soldiers. He has some fantastic scenes in this especially in the car chase scene involving a mini-gun it's terrific and not completely what I was expecting and cemented his status as a bad-ass. Also at the end there's a nod to his role from Pulp Fiction as Jules a film I need to see. I have to add the story he tells his grandfather and trust is absolutely brilliant I loved that scene.

Robert Redford plays a new original character Alexander Pierce a high end SHIELD officer who's old school like Steve and used to work alongside Nick Fury. I know of Redford but I have not seen him in all that much to be honest but I know he's one of the classic actors who made two of the best conspiracy theory thrillers of the 70's and he's right in his home turf in this and it's brilliant. He's absolutely brilliant actor and brings such conviction to Pierce a man who's seen it all.

Sebastian Stan plays The Winter Soldier the almost mute, tragic assassin who's been used by those who have subverted SHIELD for their means. He barely says a line in this film only a handful of lines in fact, in this as he's just the muscle of the antagonist in this film. I know quite a bit about The Winter Soldier as I have read some of the comic books in the past and when I heard about him and his backstory I was instantly interested in the character and was pleased as punch that he's in this film. They have nailed the character just right in this film. He looks and acts a total bad ass. They got the costume just right. He's a great match for Cap.

The reason that he's a tragic character as his masters cryogenically freeze him between hits and if he's been out of cryo for too long he starts remembering who he is and they can't have that so they wipe his memory clean again robbing him of his humanity he also has a cybernetic arm as he lost one of his arms before he was found.

His fight scenes are absolutely fantastic again with Captain America's some of the best scenes I have ever seen. As a character he is remorseless, cold, ruthless, vicious and near nigh unstoppable

Frank Grillo plays Brock Rumlow an operative who's in the same unit as Steve. Now this is a minor spoiler his character later becomes Crossbones one of Captain America's enemies and in this he starts off as an ally then later a nemesis who's mission to hunt and kill Captain American and Black Widow, he's a brilliant hand to hand combatant and a rather large build man. I've never seen him in a film or anything before but he's great in this and I would really love to see him become Crossbones.

Cobie Smulders reprises her role as SHIELD agent Maria Hill she has a more prominent albeit small role in this film as one of the few agents that Steve trusts. She has one absolutely fantastic scene in the film towards the end I was not expecting it well her to appear when she did. Also I may add she's far more enjoyable and likeable than the Agent Coulson played by Clark Gregg I find him rather annoying and a overrated character personally. She's great in her role and I was rather surprised that she mostly did TV work.

Emily VanCamp plays Agent 13 aka Sharon Carter a former SHIELD operative(her second name is not mentioned in the film). She is Steve's sort-of love interest. Nothing really happens between in this but I suspect something will down the line. She is the niece of Peggy Carter, Steve's love interest from The First Avenger and speaking of Peggy.

Hayley Atwell reprises her role as Peggy Carter, Steve's “best girl” his love interest from The First Avenger whom he never got back to have a dance let alone a real relationship with her due to him being frozen in ice after thwarting the Red Skull's plan. There one scene together is so tragic and poignant and it really does pull on the heart strings as they found each other far too late. Though you can clearly see they both dearly care for each other.

I admit I was starting to cry as it's the only relationship within the Marvel Universe that I actually give a damn about as it feels so authentic and real and very tragic, it's a pity they never did a little dance scene as he would of fulfilled his promise to her.

Thankfully we are getting more of Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter in a Agent Carter series as she's a fantastic character and Hayley Atwell played her well. In some ways I think that they should have had Hayley playing Sharon as I prefer Hayley to Emily and the family link would have been clearer.

On another link to the past the nazi scientist Dr. Armin Zola (Toby Jones) has partially cheated death, his one and only scene is particularly chilling and pivotal and Toby Jones does a great German accent the actor is a great chameleon.

Jenny Agutter has a small role in this film as Councilwoman Hawley I forgot that she would be in this film then I remembered she was in The Avengers. She's in one fantastic scene that absolutely blew me away which I don't want to spoil. Also Stan Lee has a great cameo role as a security guard.

Henry Jackman did the score to this film and I must say it's really good but not entirely rememberable it sounds similar to Zimmer's work on The Dark Knight, not like that's a bad thing or anything but I felt he could of done something different to fit the old school spy thriller theme of the film. I later found out he's done the score for X-men First Class and hails from Hillingdon where I come from !.

I can honestly say i've never heard of the Russo Brothers but looking them I see they have directed a lot of TV series of big hitting US series and the Film You Me and Dupree and Colinwood, I must say for directing a full blown old school superhero thriller hybrid film they have done outstanding job they really have a great eye to capture all the action in this film, I felt there was no shot out of place within the film. They really have an eye for action set pieces of which they did plenty I am really happy they have signed up to direct Captain America 3.

The film gels an old school paranoia thriller with a comic book movie and the result is unprecedented it's one of the best comic book films i've seen, it's up there with The Dark Knight in quality for me and in my humble opinion the best Disney owned Marvel film to date and one of the sequels that ups the ante of the original film along with Thor: The Dark World. This film gelled Cap's past, present and future perfectly and it was incredibly thematic ; loyalty, friendship, trust, paranoia, past, morality and doing what is right.

If your a comic book fan or an old school thriller fan or both for that matter you'll really enjoy this film, it's got a great twist plot, fantastic script, rich character development for every big player in he film, amazing set pieces, stunning costume design, well gelled special effects that don't ruin the film and a great if not all that memorable soundtrack. I highly recommend this film and i'll be sure to get this on Blu-Ray hopefully a steelbook !.