Evaluation of the World Today - Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review

I've had a rather tenuous past with Captain America. His first movie was aggressively average in every way, doing nothing to impress me or make me angry. However, I could forgive this mediocrity because the movie was, in reality, just a conduit for Marvel Studios to introduce Cap so that they didn't have to do all that work in The Avengers and collect some money on the side. However, Cap promptly followed that with another boring appearance in Avengers where his only role seemed to be wagging his finger at the rest of the protagonists when they didn't conform to his 1940's worldview. Let's just say that Captain America had a lot to prove when his sequel, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, came out. However, I am happy to say that Cap finally proves himself to me in the sequel.

The story picks up just about where Avengers left off, we see what Cap (Chris Evans) has been up too since that massive battle in New York. He's essentially Nick Fury's (Samuel L. Jackson) errand boy now, playing the big rooms for S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). The film opens up with Cap cracking jokes and kicking ass, taking back a ship from terrorists alongside a small squad of soldiers. It's pretty impressive seeing Cap clearing the entire ship by himself and even rising to the challenge when the head honcho of the operation goads him into fighting without his shield. However, during the operation, Cap walks in on Black Widow doing something off the books for Fury which once again leads us back to Cap's trademark finger-wagging. Early in the film we get brought back to Cap's trust issues with Fury; a strong hint here is that trust becomes a key issue in the movie. We also meet Secretary Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), Fury's friend and a member of the World Council, those same people who belittled the Avengers even though they had just saved the freaking world. Pierce is heading up S.H.I.E.L.D's "Project Insight" in which they plan to take three giant helicarriers and exterminate threats preemptively. Of course, Cap is already skeptical of this project and begins to question his commitment to S.H.I.E.L.D. As he takes his time to contemplate this, the organization becomes compromised, starting with an attempt on Nick Fury's life. With nobody to trust, Cap goes on the run with Black Widow and are joined by ex-military man Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). The three begin to unravel this conspiracy and have to deal with constant attempts on their lives by what they thought was S.H.I.E.L.D, who now appear to be led by a mysterious super soldier, The Winter Soldier, who has ties to Cap's past.

The Black Widow/Captain America shippers will go crazy here but in truth the film finally gives the characters the depth they've been missing.

The plot moves along at a pretty solid pace and there's plenty of action to boot. However, it's at it's best when they character's are left to themselves to develop. Cap's main storyline in this universe is adjusting to how the world has changed while he was asleep. While in Avengers he was mostly just there to be the idealist and his character never really went anywhere, here we finally get to see him adjust. Black Widow seems to be constantly bothering him to ask someone out on a date. Meanwhile, Cap's love interest from the first movie is alive, however she's elderly and on her sickbed. That scene in particular just hints as to how disoriented Cap is in the modern era. When Black Widow tries to help him move on, Cap comes right back with some armor piercing questions for her as well. The heroes of the film seem to get more light shed on their individual characters than they did in any of their other appearances in the Marvel universe. The real question is whether Captain America really even needs to adjust at all. The movie doesn't just bring up Cap's struggles with understanding the world of today but also that we ourselves may be missing some of that idealism that we had in the 40's. In this respect, The Winter Soldier is easily the most realistic and thought provoking of any of the Marvel Studios films as most of the others were just fun, mindless romps. This movie isn't just a strong superhero film, but it also gives you something to chew on philosophically when you leave the theater. Christoper Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy changed the expectation for what a superhero film should be and it's encouraging to see Marvel finally rise to that challenge. It's nice to finally get some character depth for Captain America and Black Widow. After seeing the movie it feels like we actually have an understanding as to who these characters really are underneath. Captain America is more than a guy who dresses in stars and stripes and Black Widow is more than just a badass agent. However, even with Captain America and Black Widow getting most of the screentime, the most memorable character in the film for me was Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson. While he never evolves into much more than "stock character who shows up to help the heroes", his lines were some of the film's best. It's clear that the actors all have great chemistry with one another.

However, this doesn't mean that The Winter Soldier is a perfect movie. The plot, while interesting, is a little convoluted (most comic book plots are so it fits) and there are a couple things that could be elaborated on. Robert Redford feels a little out of place in this film and as far as villains go, he's neither cunning or intimidating. If anything his character becomes a stock Knight Templar who seems a little too Ax-Crazy to be the savior he claims to be. In simple terms, there's not enough from the enemy side to make us understand their motives at all. In turns out that Hydra, the villainous organization from the first film, is behind the coup d'etat in S.H.I.E.L.D. and plan to use Project Insight for their own villainous purposes. It's a fine twist but it never feels more elaborated upon. So with the main villain of the film not really seeming too threatening of a person, that mantle should fall to The Winter Soldier right? I mean the film is called Captain America: The Winter Soldier, right? Unfortunately, while the Winter Soldier is sufficiently terrifying and badass in almost every way, he's barely on screen for most of the movie. The reveal of his identity doesn't come until three-quarters of the way through the movie and even then it feels like he's still in the background of the film. For a character who's name appears in the film's title, he never evolves into much more than a minor plot point. However, end credit scenes hint at him playing a bigger role in the future. This also begs the question as to where Hawkeye was during all of this. I mean, S.H.I.E.L.D. had another badass agent in their locker who could come right out and helped fight the turncoats. Perhaps that's just because I wanted to see more of Jeremy Renner's character since he's another one who still hasn't gotten his due in a Marvel film yet.

The Winter Soldier is a title character for this film and yet he's pushed to the background for most of it.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier isn't a perfect movie, but it's a very good superhero movie and that's all that anyone could (and should) really have asked from it. One of my biggest complaints about the Marvel movies is that there are rarely times when their characters are asked to question their own ideals and motivations. Captain America stands out because he's the one of the Avengers that you can definitely count on to stand by his ideals until the bitter end. Altogether, The Winter Soldier doesn't put it all together but it's wildly entertaining and it's calmer moments where the character's finally receive some depth makes it shoot up my list. Of the stand alone Marvel Studios movies I would say that it's the best one yet because of it's relevance to some of the questions that we ask ourselves today. Lastly, the film ends on a rather interesting note which makes next summer's Avengers: Age of Ultron even more exciting.

My Score: 4/5