Starring Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johannson,
Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford, Cobie Smulders, Emily VanCamp,
and Frank Grillo.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (Dan
DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill, and Daniel Sudick).
What is it about?
Captain America: The
Winter Soldier picks up in present day America. Captain Steve Rogers (Chris
Evans) is adjusting to present day life (after being frozen since the 1940’s),
with mixed results. He continues to operate as a soldier for S.H.I.E.L.D (just
google it), along with espionage expert, the Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson). After
the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Samuel L. Jackson) is killed by a mysterious combatant
named the Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan), Evans, Johannson, and
newcomer Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie) go on the run. In a race to get to the bottom of a
conspiracy that makes it impossible to trust anyone or anything, will they stay
alive long enough to find the truth?
Why is it worth seeing?
Captain America: The
Winter Soldier is the third film of Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe, Marvel’s unprecedented film franchise experiment. With directors
Anthony and Joe Russo at the helm, Soldier
combines nifty fight scenes with paranoid 70’s era thriller vibes, through the
lens of a comic book movie. While a movie about a thawed super soldier hardly
qualifies as a documentary- the results feel more realistic than other Marvel
movies featuring electric metal suits, lightning gods, and green rage giants.
With Evans’ super soldier the last remaining remnant of
America’s “greatest generation”, he must adjust to how politics and ideology
have changed in the next millennium. But how does one do that when alliances and
agendas are constantly changing? It’s hard enough to fit in when you hot wire
cars to “borrow” them, and insist people take their feet off of the dashboard- you're the last of a dying breed. Even watching Evans interact with an old friend, racked with age appropriate dementia/Parkinson’s-like
symptoms, makes him a lot more sympathetic than most movies of this nature. Assuming he figures out why, just whom is he fighting for?
As an antagonist, Robert Redford’s character is more
relevant today than ever, a powerful shadow figure who wants to tear the past down
to make room for something else. Rooted in ideology that refuses to account for
messy business like democracy and freedom, his teflon coated chicanery just could
have more endurance than the super powered Evans.
But when the paranoia and isolated journeys of writers
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely aren’t being felt, the Russo brothers
prove themselves adept at punching together fight scenes. In particular, the
elevator disagreement may be the best cramped space-fight scene ever made- even
if Cap’s shield isn’t much of a parachute.
While the logistics of Floating Battleships that target
civilian populations betrays the intelligence and immersion of its world building,
Winter Soldier plays out more like, Bourne Identity, than say, Superman- and is the better for it. It
creates a world full of enhanced humans, and then plunks them here on earth,
where super powers blur with super fears, and bravery is matched ably by paranoia and cowardice. Unless we’re talking about stunt doubles.
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