05/04/2014
Rohan Lulla gives you THE VIEWERS GUIDE TO CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
Woah!! What just happened here?!
I’m still reeling from what I witnessed last night!
We’ve just been delivered one of the coolest superhero movies ever made. The Cap and crew absolutely blow the roof off in their second outing, ‘The Winter Soldier’!
If you told me I’d say this about Captain America 2 years ago, I would have had a hearty laugh. But make no mistake; this is possibly the strongest movie Marvel has offered up outside of Avengers.
To be honest though, I wouldn’t even necessarily classify ‘The Winter Soldier’ as a superhero movie. It’s got all the ingredients of a really great Bond movie. Rogue government organizations, Evil master plans, a fairly mysterious Villain, and layers of story, wrapped up in one big summer blockbuster. And what a treat it is!
Captain America has always been one of Marvel’s more vanilla characters, and Marvel knows they need a great premise around Cap to make it interesting, pretty much like Superman is for DC. And by combining a great political paranoia story, with a more emotional approach to the narrative, they’ve found the perfect marriage.
Mad props to The Russo brothers for making this happen. One wouldn’t normally peg the guys who gave us ‘Community’ to craft such a taut political thriller/superhero movie, but they’ve given us one of the smartest summer blockbusters, possibly since Chris Nolan’s Inception.
What will surprise a lot of viewers is the amount of screen time Black Widow has in this movie. She’s almost a female lead here, something I didn’t expect. Falcon is surprisingly well executed, and gets a great show stealer of a set piece towards the end. Nick Fury too has quite a meaty role here, something Fury fans have been waiting for some time now. Movie buffs, be sure to keep your eyes open for a great little Sam Jackson Easter egg at the end of the movie.
The plot is a lot bigger than the titular ‘Winter Soldier’, which is a good thing, cause I half went in expecting this to be some sort of revenge story. He adequately challenges Cap more than once, making him a worthy foe, and his big reveal two thirds into the movie adds an interesting dimension for those who haven’t figured out his identity halfway through.
The other thing I really loved about this movie is how tightly knit it is to the events of the first movie. While set in the current day, about 70 years after the events of the first movie, it connects strongly to his past. Winter Soldier doesn’t seem like an independent story, but rather a continuation of the events of the last movie. That’s not to say you have to see ‘The First Avenger’ to get ‘The Winter Soldier’ but it is a far more rewarding experience if you have.
My only real gripe with Marvel is that going in to any of their movies, you kinda know that most if not all of their characters are going to come out of recurring world or even universe ending scenarios, largely unscathed, and that doesn’t make the danger of these situations as profound as it can be, but on the flipside it comes with the territory of building such a large cinematic universe. Joss Whedon has promised ‘Death, Death, and more death’ in Age of Ultron, so here’s hoping for that to change.
At almost 2hrs 20 minutes ‘The Winter Soldier’ has one of the longest and most taut Marvels films, and there’s not a second I felt it bogged down due to this. Every scene takes the story forward, and the run time gives the audience a chance to let the numerous twists sink in as well, before another curve ball is thrown at us.
If this is how summer 2014 is kicking off, the films coming in the next few months really need to be ready to bring it, cause I anticipate, this is going to be the benchmark all tent pole films are going to be held against over the next few months. You absolutely CANNOT miss it.
As always, be sure to stay back for a nutcracker of a post credit scene, where we meet Quicksilver and the Scarlet witch, the two new joiners to the ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ next year.
