Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Film Review

CAPTAIN America has forever had the viewpoint as being among the weakest superheroes in Marvel’s assembled superhero roster.

The other elements have the respective strengths, such as Iron Man’s technological array, Hulk’s destructive power, and Thor’s god powers. But the captain is essentially a standard soldier turned supermassive, which is largely down to the steroid injected into him at his origin.

One elaborate reading into him is that the shield is an admission of weakness – that he is significantly more vulnerable than his superhero chums and is a weaker link, although as this film routinely says, he’s not exactly easy to take down.

Although his origins film was of a so-so nature, the return outing of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is also the main continuation of Marvel’s ever-complex Avengers franchise for 2014, with this the last stop on the way to next summer’s Avengers: Age of Ultron – the second full-on superhero bunfight.

To the credit of the Captain, his persona as a trusting man from the 1940′s with set ideals thrown into the power struggle of the 21st century is an interesting concept. It could have been easy for this to be a simple wham-bam adjustment to our times, and coming across 70 years of technological innovation, popular culture evolution and changes to general life.

But the political elements are not so much bought to the fore as the key composition, and they’re played in a very interesting fashion. This film oozes Machiavellian scheming from shady characters – a bit like House of Cards with superheroes, which is fitting given Washington DC serves as the film’s primary backdrop.

Rogers’ boss remains Avengers assembler Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson), who is harbouring a barrel load of secrets just as SHIELD is getting the green light for the launch of a huge defence initiative entitled Operation: Insight. These are three giant plane-carrying warships, using satellites to pre-emptively find and eliminate potential threats to national security.

But Rogers is losing faith in the structure of SHIELD, after finding fellow agent and Avenger Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) received different orders on a mission in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The web of deceit goes further, with SHIELD head Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) unconvinced his former friend Fury is trustworthy enough – not helped by Fury’s lack of trust in everyone and everything. But things then fully begin to spiral out of control, leaving the Captain and Romanoff together on the run from the authorities.

The movie begins to take a turn for trouble when the titular Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and his hordes make their appearance, with a mission to take Fury out moments after he attempts to postpone Operation: Insight.

After refusing to divulge information on Fury, the Captain is added to the list of "take-outs" by as-yet unknown baddies, although they probably should've known locking 25 people in a lift with him was going to end in him victorious.

The tightly-woven nature of the film oozes political riffs, musings on the jettisoning of personal freedom and good, functional uses for each of its main characters.

Used particularly well is first film scientist Armin Zola (Toby Jones), whose consciousness is stored on a vast array of vintage data banks. He truly spills out the long game of scheming for good, confirming Hydra was not quite dead and more preparing to assume absolute control.

The interesting notion is another thing that is not quite far away. Similar mediums like the upcoming video game Watchdogs have been exploring the notion that the excessive extent of technology's place in all our lives is now making it very easy for the bad guys to prepare a global takeover.

This scheming and intrigue functions well despite the fact a lot of the basic structure within the movie conforms to cliche. There are a number of plot points – primarily near the end – that conform to the expected nature of these things, which seems to be standard issue for films of these nature. Some particular points come across when the identity of the titular Winter Soldier himself is revealed, and when the showdowns come along.

Naturally, as is the case, the final moments are a big showdown as Insight is preparing for its world-changing launch, with the film's final moments seeing burning ships and twisted metal fall from the DC sky as the Captain and the Winter Soldier have it out on the bow of a stricken and tumbling vessel.

This is an obvious niggle, but there is much to admire nevertheless. Particularly adept is the various performances, with Jackson and Johansson continuing the impressive performances they posted in during the first Avengers movie. Also impressive is newcomer Anthony Mackie as ex-military paratrooper Sam Wilson, who becomes a huge aid to the cause as the film progresses.

While some reviews said Captain America himself was outacted by Stan Lee and by a portrait of Dominic Cooper, his performance is nevertheless well functioning.

The Captain may still not be Marvel’s best superhero, but he and his friends do deliver a compelling vision of entertainment that continues the Marvel universe in a suitably grandiose fashion, and perhaps providing the studio a new direction to go into.

There is certainly plenty to build upon, and not just with an intriguingly positioned mid-credit scene that includes a new HYDRA and some minor characters from the X-Men comic books that threaten to play a big part in Avengers 2.


But for the moment, all Marvel fans can do after seeing this is wait and see if this more mature step becomes the stride Avengers 2 walks in.

3.75/5