Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014):

Synopsis – Captain America finds his trust tested when S.H.I.E.L.D., the shadowy organization that polices the world turns out to be a little shady (get it?). Then some dude with a robot arms shows up, and he kicks a lot of ass.

Staring – Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie, other actors including some SPOILERS.

As I established in the Thor: The Dark World review, I am a Marvel comics nerd. Watching these movies are my opium. I can’t tell you how many random asides and mentions from the characters on screen got my pulse racing with excitement. Several times I leaned over to Sarah and whispered what was essentially nonsense to her, getting me that look that says “I'm happy you're excited, but I don't know why.” I really wish that Sony and Fox would just get with the program and make some sort of deal with Marvel so that their movies could mix-it-up with the main Marvel films. Spider-man should be running into the Avengers! The X-Men should clash with the Hulk! Ghost Rider should continue to have movies that relate to nothing! I pretty much loved Captain America 2, even if I can see that it’s not a perfect movie. Perfect for me though? Yeah, pretty much, but I am TOTALLY biased. Here’s a little breakdown:

What I Liked:

-I think the way Marvel fleshes out its film’s stories is kind of brilliant. When I left the theater initially, I thought I had seen a very well-crafted story. Now that I have had more time to reflect, I realize that no, there really wasn’t much depth to the plot at all. But that doesn’t really matter, because it was all a super awesome ride. To really tear down the plot and examine all the pieces individually is to invite the flaws to overwhelm the picture, and consequently my enjoyment of it. Not worth it when it comes to an action movie like this.

-Chris Evans continues to impress as Captain America. Compared to his work as The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies he is practically Shakespearing his way through this work. He might just be now forever cemented as the character in my brain, the way Christopher Reeve is for Superman.

-They handled their social and political commentary in the movie pretty damn well. Sarah pointed out to me after the movie that they had pleased the left wingers by siding against global surveillance, while pleasing the right wingers by calling it Communism/Socialism. Plus, you get a guy like Robert Redford in there, who is a staunch liberal, playing one of the heads of the biggest policing force on the planet (Also pointed out by Sarah. She’s much smarter than I). For a big budget movie like this, I don’t think taking both sides of a debate could have been handled more smoothly.

-Falcon, man. Falcon was my favorite thing in the movie. I would love to see a whole movie just around that character. Anthony Machie plays him cool and relatable, simultaneously out of his league but ready to take the challenge head-on anyway. More Falcon, please?

What I Didn’t Like:

-I like Scarlett Johanssen as an actress, and I like seeing her in these movies, but there was something a bit off about her performance this time around. I can’t really put my finger on it. Maybe she was just exhausted from doing 40 movies at once. She has 2 in the theater right now and another one coming out soon (The other films are Under the Skin and Lucy).

What I Hated:

-Once again, as with Iron Man 3, I find the amount of gun violence in these films abhorrent. I realize that this might make me a crazy person. It’s all in an action movie after all, and it is based on previous work that also features a lot of gun play. Even so, I can’t separate myself from my role as uncle to 13 nieces and nephews, no matter how hard I try. Kids watch these movies, and kids get influence by what they watch. I don’t think I would let my child see this film, at least not till they were older.

Verdict:

The fact is I really enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I may even go see it again at the theater I liked it so much. Also, I missed part of the movie because I had to go get the management at one point so they could kick out the assholes that were using their cell phones (that didn’t work out of course, but at least I tried). Anyway, go see the movie in the theater if this is you cup of tea, because it is really good stuff.