Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review
Frequent Arrested Development directors Joe and Anthony Russo faced two big challenges when signing onto Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The first was taking the comic equivalent of a wooden spoon and making him half-way interesting. The second was getting fans back on board after the heinous Iron Man 3, dull Thor: The Dark World and, well, Agents of SHIELD. Thankfully, they have achieved both. Well, almost...
The Winter Soldier is a sequel to both the original (read- meh) Captain America and the wildly better The Avengers. The film takes place directly after the latter, as well as incorporating several characters and themes from the former. The film follows Steve Rogers as he struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and battles a new threat from his own past: the Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier. He must join together with Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow (who kicks so much arse, you'll be walking out the theatre in a wheelchair) and Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury (who is basically Samuel L Jackson with an eyepatch) to take down The Winter Soldier and his employer, SHIELD director Alexander Pierce (a hammy but fun Robert Redford).
This being a Marvel Phase 2 movie, there are plenty of plot twists along the way. Hell there's even a twist that untwists a previous twist (?). Thankfully, the Russos never lose track of easily the best element of movie, the identity of The Winter Soldier. Not only is this mind blowing in and of itself, it opens a vast landscape for character development. How can Captain America fight [insert spoiler you already know if you use a magical thing known as the internet]? This is really the hook of the movie; Captain America's questioning of SHIELD, his allies and even his place in the world.
None of this would matter without a strong cast, and the Russos have garnered the best ensemble to date. Chris Evans is uniformally perfect as our hero, managing to inject a wealth personality from the most vanilla character since vanilla. Johansson is once again on top form as the Buffy-alike superspy. Jackson is at his awesome best. Redford puts so little effort in, he's indescribably compelling. Anthony Mackie's Falcon is an excellent, if underused, addition, compensating for our hero's blandness with a wit and charm sure to make him a fan favourite. Other new additions are sadly either perfunctory or distracting. Frank Grillo's SHIELD agent Rumlow is entirely forgettab- What was I saying? Emily VanCamp's Agent 13 is also spectacularly useless.
For a film directed by blockbuster newcomers, The Winter Soldier features the best action of the year so far. Special mention must go to a first-act car chase between Fury and a SWAT team, which manages to be thrilling, tense and funny at the same time. Whilst the opening shaky-cam-a-thon is in no way helped by 3D, it certainly sets the tone and pace of the entire film. Then, we have the finale...
Blockbusters are famed for falling at the last hurdle, and The Winter Soldier does nothing to change this. I'm all for ending a movie with a massive climax, but when your finale has 5 alternate subplots happening at the same time, you know you have a problem. The smart decision would have been to have the big "plot" climax at the end of the second act, and focus on the deeply personal Captain/Soldier for the last 15 minutes or so. It's such a fascinating road path to follow, but the alternate threads dilute it into a mild diversion. And, for me at least, the movie goes a few twists too far. The Russos seem to feel the need to load the film with as many beats as superhumanly possible. These attention grabbing missteps again seriously dilute the most interesting and fresh idea the filmmakers have. It never veers into Iron Man 3 territory (something's coming, I promise), so that's a plus I guess?
Captain America: The Winter Soldier perfectly encapsulates everything that's wrong with modern blockbusters (convoluted plot, over reliance on mythology, forgettable side characters) and what needs to be salvaged (witty dialogue, fantastic acting, thrilling action). It is something of a self-contradiction. Luckily, the pros just about outweigh the cons, making the Captain's latest adventure a fun, diverting appetiser for Guardians of the Galaxy...
PS The post credit scenes are squeal inducing
Five Word Verdict: A return to almost form
Score: 3 ½/5
For a film directed by blockbuster newcomers, The Winter Soldier features the best action of the year so far. Special mention must go to a first-act car chase between Fury and a SWAT team, which manages to be thrilling, tense and funny at the same time. Whilst the opening shaky-cam-a-thon is in no way helped by 3D, it certainly sets the tone and pace of the entire film. Then, we have the finale...
Blockbusters are famed for falling at the last hurdle, and The Winter Soldier does nothing to change this. I'm all for ending a movie with a massive climax, but when your finale has 5 alternate subplots happening at the same time, you know you have a problem. The smart decision would have been to have the big "plot" climax at the end of the second act, and focus on the deeply personal Captain/Soldier for the last 15 minutes or so. It's such a fascinating road path to follow, but the alternate threads dilute it into a mild diversion. And, for me at least, the movie goes a few twists too far. The Russos seem to feel the need to load the film with as many beats as superhumanly possible. These attention grabbing missteps again seriously dilute the most interesting and fresh idea the filmmakers have. It never veers into Iron Man 3 territory (something's coming, I promise), so that's a plus I guess?
Captain America: The Winter Soldier perfectly encapsulates everything that's wrong with modern blockbusters (convoluted plot, over reliance on mythology, forgettable side characters) and what needs to be salvaged (witty dialogue, fantastic acting, thrilling action). It is something of a self-contradiction. Luckily, the pros just about outweigh the cons, making the Captain's latest adventure a fun, diverting appetiser for Guardians of the Galaxy...
PS The post credit scenes are squeal inducing
Five Word Verdict: A return to almost form
Score: 3 ½/5
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