Movie Review: ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ thrills as the characters grow
Marvel Studios is so successful in their entertaining interpretation of Captain America, fans may believe the comic books are this entertaining, but that is hardly likely. Winter Soldier pulls from some great comic book tales, but threads deep and thoughtful subplots together better than any comic book story arc.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier picks up two years after The Avengers, in real time parallel to Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World. Cap leads a rescue mission which showcases the hero’s amazing skills and begins the series of events which form the central plot of Winter Soldier: a bad guy has a scheme to take over or destroy the world.
The face of this conflict is the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), a mysterious assassin, who, comic book fans know, has ties to Cap’s past.
The film is highly entertaining with great action perfectly orchestrated by directors Joe and Anthony Russo, but the highlight of the film is series of subplots which surround this main event. Chris Evans returns as America’s iconic hero, struggling to adapt to the 21st Century as Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow sees a key role in this film and her character’s confict is finally revealed.
Anthony Mackie shines as Sam Wilson/Falcon who takes up arms alongside Cap, not as a sidekick, but as a patriot primed to follow the “right” kind of leader. Nick Fury gets a great sequence and becomes a more complex character in this film.
The greatest message of this film is that the Russos and Marvel truly “gets” Captain America and that he is not a character who conforms to his age, but rather stands strong as a rock solid leader of the age. In the trailers fans have gotten a glimpse of this when Caps “This is not freedom, this is fear” and audiences will be pleasantly surprised by the integration of real life topics such as the NSA surveillance, a global governance, a one world order and national security versus a police state.
Marvel has already set a third Cap film for May 6, 2016.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier receives 4 out of 5 stars
Like the Marvel films which came before, this one is packed full of pleasing details for the uber fanboys, so add a star for the 6-10 year-old boys and their adult counterparts.
The details of the midcredit and final credit scene can be found HERE (for those of you who cannot wait or don’t understand what is featured)