As usual, I know I’m horribly late to the game in writing up a review because I finally have been able to see this movie. Honestly, I had been waiting for sometime to catch Captain America: The Winter Soldier on iTunes and just bought it on HD. Back when the latest X-Men was released, I thought about seeing Captain America at the theater but figured it was a bit late and simply save my money since I intended to buy it anyway. Unfortunately, for myself it took longer than I had hoped.
That said the wait was definitely worth it.
Thus far, I have been quite satisfied by the entire Avenger series. Truthfully, the only comic book series I ever cared about was the X-Men. Growing up I casually would watch super hero shows like Spiderman, Superman, etc., but I was never a hardcore fan. Even the X-Men was something I followed briefly, eventually running out of time in favor of studies.
So when these superhero movies started popping up, there weren’t many I honestly had a deep desire to check out, especially after a few really bad cases (e.g. Blade, Elektra, etc.) I would actually put the X-Men in this category where the series has been mediocre thus far. I still will watch it but I think as long as they continue with the current director, they’ll just botch things up.
The Avengers though has been an excellent surprise. The way they have developed the main characters into their own little franchises then bringing them together has been an excellent formula. Each one can then go into the backstory and provide some character development, sprinkled in with hints as each series led to the first Avengers movie and having a familiar cast and group of characters meet up without needing massive amounts of exposition.
With the first Avengers movie out of the way, the series now can begin more interesting characters arcs as each hero dives inward and starts seeing their own weaknesses or perhaps problems with the world. In the case of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it is Captain America who, having internally remedied his past through his first major victory in the Avengers movie, now is questioning the way the world is moving.
The first Captain America film for me created the typical stiff, pure almost paladin-like idealized hero. The character was a reflection of his time in being a representative of America from World War 2. In the current day version, we still see this character who has a sense of morals and values that resonate with the ideals of what America ought to be in the minds of the people. However, the people we think are running America and the world are what changed. Or perhaps it never changed and its this issue that Captain America slowly learns throughout the film.
In the beginning, we still see Captain America as a major force for SHIELD. He goes in an operation to take out a boat that turns out to be part of another secret mission in the spy-vs-spy operations of the organization. When he sees his companion Natasha/Black Widow obtaining information rather than helping him with a fight, he starts questioning his place within SHIELD.
That’s the main growth point of Captain America in this film which is what makes him more likeable. Before he was just the soldier following orders. Here, he finally starts to wake up on his own and sees a bigger picture of the realty of this new world. And, indeed, it is a New World Order that is approaching.
When his boss Nick Fury has an assassination attempt at Captain America’s own home, Fury teaches Captain America not to trust anyone. This is a huge leap forward in the character as he has been thus far a mindless tool. But Captain America isn’t mindless and he adapts quickly, using the tools around him like the internet to rapidly assimilate the missing block of history in his life.
Most of the movie is about him slowly unveiling that his past has managed to catch up to him with Hydra making an internal attempt to dismantle and take over SHIELD. In the movie, Hydra becomes a kind of allegorical figure for the shadow governments (e.g. New World Order/Illuminati) that many conspiracy theorists point out exist currently. However, the thing is that Captain America realizes that SHIELD too represents a danger to society because they are nothing more than manipulators themselves. The tools that SHIELD and Hydra are building are threats to humanity rather than measures of security and in any single person or organization’s hands, they still are a menace.
That’s where Captain America’s core values of what peace resonates so heavily and make him able to see that moral ground. He sees that evil isn’t simply a single group or person carrying a flag. It’s really about power, manipulation, control and removing individualism from the equation. This is a higher ideal that few besides superheroes who choose to pursue causes like this can achieve, which is why he makes such a great hero in this movie.
Now, I did read about how some people raved on how this was the greatest movie of all time, etc. For me my standards for “greatest” are exceptionally high where only films like Alien, Aliens, the Godfather 1/2, etc. can reach such accolades. I feel that there was maybe too much action and too much dialog at times. Parts just felt really disjointed because of the two. Also, the acting while good wasn’t at a higher emotional level for me. Scarlett Johansson felt really flat here, maybe even disinterested. The interactions between Captain America and his former friend Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier also pretty flat for me. They spent so much time having Falcon flying around and them trying to bug the ships that it left little room to develop any solid interactions between Captain America and Bucky. Also, there’s just too many typical Hollywood smart-Alec one liners that lace the dialog and bring emotional attachment to a very low level.
I think the plot generally was good in creating a more contemporary environment. There’s a lot of hints dropped that connect the things happening in the background with recent events and popularized conspiracy theories. But parts of it I think weren’t well developed. It felt that there was just a lot of name dropping without delving too deep in certain areas. The details often times just went over my head or got lost as we moved from scene to scene. Pacing-wise, it was pretty decent. You never are bored and the action scenes aren’t overly gratuitous.
In general, I think they’ve done a pretty decent job with the series thus far and continue to keep my interest. Chris Evans proves to be more likeable as the series progresses and that’s important to a franchise, especially in playing a character that most modern audiences more than likely would scowl at due to more archaic ideals. I am very much looking forward to seeing the next Avengers movie, but I do think they are missing a movie in between just for the Hulk. It’s a shame in some ways because I do like Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk (Edward Norton, while a good actor, just doesn’t fit the mold) and they haven’t done as much with Mark Ruffalo to continue developing his character.
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