"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014)
The third founding Avenger gets his second film with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." While the movie continues Cap's story, it also introduces two people that have become an integral part of the Marvel Cinematic Russo: Anthony and Joe Russo. The Russo Brothers have become kind of architects when it comes to major developments in the MCU. And after seeing this movie, it makes a lot of sense why they were chosen.
This is also the first Marvel movie that takes an arc from the comics and really uses a lot of the beats. When Ed Brubaker took over "Captain America" he decided to break the cardinal rule of comics. There have always been two characters that have are untouchable: Uncle Ben and Bucky Barnes. Well, Brubaker threw that out the window. It turns out Bucky Barnes didn't die back in World War 2. His body was recovered by the Russians and he was brainwashed into becoming the assassin, the Winter Soldier. It's really the perfect premise for a film. So, Marvel decided to make it into one.
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" brings Chris Evans back as Captain America and Scarlet Johansson's Black Widow. The film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Colbie Smulders and Robert freaking Redford. The screenplay was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The movie opened nationwide on April 4, 2014.
"Captain America: The Winer Soldier" is my second favorite Marvel movie. It's the movie that solidified Captain America as my favorite Avenger, something I never thought would be the case. There's so much good in this movie. I like that from the jump, Steve is hesitant about what SHIELD is doing. I think there is this misconception that because Cap wears the stars and stripes and was a World War II hero that he just blindly follows the government, but Cap has always questioned everything. He's never been down with the shadowy stuff and in the comics there was a time that he gave up the Captain America mantle and became Nomad because he couldn't abide what the US government was doing. It's great to see that brought into the MCU.
I love that the Cap films each have their own theme pulled from classic eras of film. "The First Avenger" was a classic war movie and the writers of "The Winter Solider" have said that they wanted the film to feel like a classic '70's conspiracy thriller ala "Three Days of the Condor" and "All the Presidents Men." You definitely feel that influence right from the beginning, from the time Cap catches Black Widow performing a side mission from Fury in the midst of their rescue mission. Everything to do with Project Insight is suspicious and Robert Redford's Alexander Pierce is the textbook definition of the sleazy government guy that you can't touch.
The action scenes in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" are top notch. Astounding. Each one is bigger and better than the one that came before. The two that really stand out for me are the Nick Fury chase in the streets of Washington and the elevator with Captain America and the SHIELD nee HYDRA agents. The latter is my all-time favorite action scene in any MCU movie. Every time I watch it, I get the same thrill that I did the first time. The claustrophobia aspect of it is killer and it's just so badass to watch Cap lay the smack down on all these dudes.
The character work is great in this film. Samuel L. Jackson gets to really stretch his wings as Nick Fury in this one. He is usually kind of a periphery character. A way to move the plot. That is partially what he does here, but you get a little more insight into what makes him tick and I have to bring up that action scene. I love watching Sam Jackson show why Fury is the top spy in SHIELD. The relationship between Black Widow and Cap is another highlight of the film. They could have tried to force this romance between the two of them, but the brother/sister dynamic that they have is much cooler and a lot more compelling. Its not something that we see very often like this and Chris Evans and Scarlet Johansson have an easy chemistry that is really fun to watch.
I will say that the Winter Soldier, while cool, it's hard to get a handle on him. The movie is lucky that there is already this pre-established relationship between Cap and Bucky because if there wasn't the Winter Soldier would be pretty one-dimensional. The same could be said of Alexander Pierce. He's pretty flimsy, but Redford brings a gravitas to the character that isn't necessarily in the writing.
This film really does shake up the status quo. It doesn't kill off Nick Fury, which I thought was going to happen, but the revelation that HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD is a great one and it really does change things. It has wide reaching consequences. And I remember being really excited to find out what was going to happen next. They had a show called Agents of SHIELD in its first season, for crying out loud!
The first post credits scene shows Baron Wolfgang von Strucker has Loki's scepter and has been doing some experiments and has two mutants, er, miracles: Pietro and Wanda Maximoff aka Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Then, in the second, Bucky visits his Smithsonian memorial.
Next up, the scope of the MCU expands galactically as we meet the band of misfits the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Does anyone else love "The Winter Soldier" like I do? Is Cap your favorite Avenger? Do you hate it? Let me know in the comments.
This is also the first Marvel movie that takes an arc from the comics and really uses a lot of the beats. When Ed Brubaker took over "Captain America" he decided to break the cardinal rule of comics. There have always been two characters that have are untouchable: Uncle Ben and Bucky Barnes. Well, Brubaker threw that out the window. It turns out Bucky Barnes didn't die back in World War 2. His body was recovered by the Russians and he was brainwashed into becoming the assassin, the Winter Soldier. It's really the perfect premise for a film. So, Marvel decided to make it into one.
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" brings Chris Evans back as Captain America and Scarlet Johansson's Black Widow. The film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Colbie Smulders and Robert freaking Redford. The screenplay was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The movie opened nationwide on April 4, 2014.
"Captain America: The Winer Soldier" is my second favorite Marvel movie. It's the movie that solidified Captain America as my favorite Avenger, something I never thought would be the case. There's so much good in this movie. I like that from the jump, Steve is hesitant about what SHIELD is doing. I think there is this misconception that because Cap wears the stars and stripes and was a World War II hero that he just blindly follows the government, but Cap has always questioned everything. He's never been down with the shadowy stuff and in the comics there was a time that he gave up the Captain America mantle and became Nomad because he couldn't abide what the US government was doing. It's great to see that brought into the MCU.
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| Look at me in my good eye. |
The action scenes in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" are top notch. Astounding. Each one is bigger and better than the one that came before. The two that really stand out for me are the Nick Fury chase in the streets of Washington and the elevator with Captain America and the SHIELD nee HYDRA agents. The latter is my all-time favorite action scene in any MCU movie. Every time I watch it, I get the same thrill that I did the first time. The claustrophobia aspect of it is killer and it's just so badass to watch Cap lay the smack down on all these dudes.
The character work is great in this film. Samuel L. Jackson gets to really stretch his wings as Nick Fury in this one. He is usually kind of a periphery character. A way to move the plot. That is partially what he does here, but you get a little more insight into what makes him tick and I have to bring up that action scene. I love watching Sam Jackson show why Fury is the top spy in SHIELD. The relationship between Black Widow and Cap is another highlight of the film. They could have tried to force this romance between the two of them, but the brother/sister dynamic that they have is much cooler and a lot more compelling. Its not something that we see very often like this and Chris Evans and Scarlet Johansson have an easy chemistry that is really fun to watch.
I will say that the Winter Soldier, while cool, it's hard to get a handle on him. The movie is lucky that there is already this pre-established relationship between Cap and Bucky because if there wasn't the Winter Soldier would be pretty one-dimensional. The same could be said of Alexander Pierce. He's pretty flimsy, but Redford brings a gravitas to the character that isn't necessarily in the writing.
This film really does shake up the status quo. It doesn't kill off Nick Fury, which I thought was going to happen, but the revelation that HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD is a great one and it really does change things. It has wide reaching consequences. And I remember being really excited to find out what was going to happen next. They had a show called Agents of SHIELD in its first season, for crying out loud!
The first post credits scene shows Baron Wolfgang von Strucker has Loki's scepter and has been doing some experiments and has two mutants, er, miracles: Pietro and Wanda Maximoff aka Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Then, in the second, Bucky visits his Smithsonian memorial.
Next up, the scope of the MCU expands galactically as we meet the band of misfits the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Does anyone else love "The Winter Soldier" like I do? Is Cap your favorite Avenger? Do you hate it? Let me know in the comments.
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