Captain America: The Winter Review:
Bringing the Marvel Cinematic Universe To A Whole New Level
BY IAN
TAN
Captain America:
The Winter Soldier’ marks Marvel Studios’ final Phase 2 film before the sequel
to their juggernaut superhero team-up, ‘The Avengers’. This sequel sees Steve
Rogers trying to fit in to today’s modern society and explores his struggles
with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secrecy and ultimately being the true freedom fighter he is
and how he can give the people of today that freedom, considering the political
and secretive nature of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s operations and conduct. Then comes along
the menacing and wicked-cool Winter Soldier to wreak some havoc and reveal even
bigger secrets about Steve’s past, S.H.I.E.L.D, and ultimately for us - the
audience - a shocking revelation that is to turn the entire Marvel Cinematic
Universe around.
To be honest, this
was my least anticipated Marvel film of the Phase 2 series. Captain America was
never my favourite Marvel hero to begin with (I always felt he was a tad too
serious), and because of the fact that early rumours indicated that this would
be a very S.H.I.E.L.D-based film, I expected the central character story of
Captain America to be compromised in favour of Marvel’s world-building for the
sake of a proper lead-up to ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’. But boy was I wrong.
This film delivers on almost every level I expected it not to. Not only does
‘The Winter Soldier’ serve a well-told follow up to ‘The Avengers’, it works
just as well as a sequel to ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ in ways
that’ll blow your socks off.
Chris Evans is at
the top of his game in this sequel, providing audiences with the best and most
human portrayal of the first avenger that has now made him my favourite Avenger
next to Iron Man. So, for those of you not-so-die-hard fans of Captain America,
this film ought to change your mind. You really do feel just how lost in time
he is and how he feels he’s being played with by S.H.I.E.L.D. Evans also sells
it during the more emotional parts of the story, most notably in his few but
very meaningful scenes with the Winter Soldier. Scarlett Johansson reprises her
role of Black Widow and although she does not have as strong of a character arc
here as she did in ‘The Avengers’, she serves as a great companion/ sidekick for
Captain America and owns it when the action kicks in. Anthony Mackie too, does
a mighty-fine job as Falcon, creating a new fan-favourite who can hold his own
even next to Captain America. Other returning faces such as Samuel L. Jackson
as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders (Robin from HIMYM) as Agent Maria Hill do well
in their roles, which are bigger here than in ‘The Avengers’. Sammy Jackson in
particular gives Nick Fury a sense of vulnerability this time round, which is a
nice touch considering how untouchable he seemed to be in previous Marvel films.
The scene stealer here however, has to be Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier. Now
here’s an actor who knows his stuff. From the physical standpoint, Stan pulls
off his hand-to-hand combat sequences with extreme precision and bad-assery.
And when the drama button is pushed, Stan proves he’s capable at conjuring up
emotion to a point that you actually feel pity for his character. Much like
Cappie, Winty’s being used by people whose motives he’s unclear of.
As far as action
is concerned, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ is almost dope. This film
sports more action than any of Marvel’s Phase 2 movies have, and unlike the previous
Phase 2 entries (Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World), the action is relentlessly
engaging and the stakes do feel high, unlike say, in ‘Thor: The Dark World’
where, as high as the stakes were, felt unusually unimportant; we knew Thor was
going to save the day, but here, the entire Marvel Universe feels at stake.
This is due especially to the involvement S.H.I.E.L.D plays here and the
secrets this film reveals about the mysterious organization. As funny as it
sounds, it is this exact sub-plot of S.H.I.E.L.D. that so very well connects
this film to the first ‘Captain America’.
The one gripe I
have about this film though, is how the character of the Winter Soldier isn’t
given as much screen time and character development as one might expect. His
story here is basically a set up for future Captain America films. Now that
feels cheap: making the titular character’s presence in the film serve as just
a commercial for a sequel. However, as mentioned earlier, whenever the
Sebastian Stan is on screen, he does
a terrific job with the material he’s given and won’t disappoint comic book
fans in terms of the character’s portrayal.
As a whole,
‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ truly is the cream of Marvel’s Phase 2 crop,
combining the thrills and spills of good ol’ spy/espionage films, the best of
Marvel’s blockbuster action and world building, as well as a good character
driven story to make this one of Marvel’s best films to date.
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