Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review
I was not one of the biggest supporters of the first Cap film. In fact, it is one of my least favorite films to come from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, only in front of The Incredible Hulk. Now, that's not to say I disliked it. A bad Marvel movie is still above average. I just thought it was not fully satisfying or substantial, despite its cool retro atmosphere. Even so, the character of Captain America is one of my favorite in the Avengers. He's got an old-fashioned mentality of right and wrong that has always intrigued me, especially now that he's stuck in an age of such ambiguity in that area.
Chris Evans is eminently likable and perfectly cast in the role of Steve Rogers. He's endearing while still maintaining Cap's integrity and iron will. The rest of the cast is great, too, which is basically true for any Marvel movie. Scarlett Johansson appears as Black Widow once again, and she's still got that perfect balance of sexy, smart, and skilled. Samuel L. Jackson reprises the role of Nick Fury, one that he's played so well ever since his first appearance in Iron Man. Robert Redford's in this movie. It's always a good thing when you can say that. He's just as good as you'd expect Robert Redford to be. No disappointment there.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes at you fast, and it comes at you hard from the opening scenes. I mean, right from the start, I knew it was going to be action-packed, and it was. But not in a bludgeoning kind of way. The action is taut and efficient, and wholly entertaining. There was a boatload of action scenes, most of which were of considerable length. However, I found myself wanting the action to go on, not to finally end.
The action really was spectacular. I feel like I'm kicking a dead horse here, but I don't want to understate just how good it was. Like, crazy good. The action sequences were some of the best I've seen in a long, long time.
That being said, Captain America: The Winter Soldier wasn't full-on action from start to finish. There were numerous tense and suspenseful moments, the kind you'd find in an old-school political thriller. This building of tension was a good springboard for the action to take off on, and it was all transitioned and mixed together with deft by Anthony and Joe Russo.
The Russo brothers that I just mentioned surprised me with how well they directed this movie. They're perhaps best known for their work on the sitcom Arrested Development. However, they had never taken on a big-budget project such as a Marvel film. I love Arrested Development. I think it's a hilarious show. That being said, I respect the Russo bros.' work on this film even more.
As I previously stated, this movie delivered a good amount of genuine suspense. This largely stemmed from the film's political aspects. There's an ongoing feud between S.H.I.E.L.D. itself and its members throughout Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Tensions between the two parties begin to rise from the beginning when Rogers is unhappy with the modern state of law enforcement and governmental tactics. This leads to a big twist that I will obviously not reveal in this review. Just prepare to be surprised.
I feel I need to at least mention the character the Winter Soldier. If you've seen the trailers, you probably expect him to be really cool. And he is. He steals every scene he's in, which is arguably too few in number. He was menacing, scary, and also really neat to watch. I won't reveal who the Winter Soldier is, just to stay sensitive to those who haven't read the comics.
If there's one thing I will say against this movie, it's its length. It runs for almost 140 minutes, and it nearly justifies the length. However, towards the end, I felt it dragged a bit, which is rather unfortunate since the rest of the movie was so darn good.
Marvel has done it once more with this sequel. Not only does it improve upon the first Captain America movie, it reaches new heights for Marvel's Phase 2 of films. Definitely the best entry since The Avengers, and also one of the finest this franchise has ever delivered. I thoroughly enjoyed myself during this movie. It had just the right mix of compelling, layered plot, and good old blockbuster fun. This is an example of the top tier of comic book movie-making.
Comments
Post a Comment