Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Review)

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Relentless. Action packed. Witty dialogue and just a whole lot of fun at the movies. Yes, that’s right, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is just another reason why DC Comic book films will never catch the universe Marvel has drummed up to near perfection on the silver screen. From Robert Redford playing the subtle, yet menacing bad guy, Alexander Pierce, to familiar faces with Scarlett Johansson returning as Black Widow, and newcomer Anthony Mackie as The Falcon, this movie kicks major ass from start to finish. And less we forget, Chris Evans channels Captain America in a way that I’m not so sure we’ve seen since the likes of how Christopher Reeve played Superman in the 80s.

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The story is part thriller, espionage, and probably a conspiracy theorists dream come true, citing that the Nazis (from the events in the first film) never quite went away, and their scientists ended up helping S.H.I.E.L.D. , along with their own agenda over the 50 or so years that followed. That led to Captain America questioning Pierce’s motive as a powerful politician in wanting all sorts of drones and technology spying on Americans, along with even questioning his main boss, Nick Fury for similar reasons. That wasn’t the America the blue boy remembered, and he wasn’t about to let that happen. Enter: The Winter Soldier. A secret weapon of sorts, and someone who has carried out the underground mission of HYDRA for decades. Who is this mysterious masked nemesis? Something I won’t spoil for all of you here if you haven’t yet seen the film!

Nonetheless, this in my eyes is a top 5 comic book film. It has just the right pacing, action, and humor to keep even a non comic book fan interested for it’s 2 hours and 16 minute running time. Speaking of action, I felt as if it had shades of what made a lot of Christopher Nolan’s Batman films work with car chase scenes, as well as a dab of some of the better choreographed action and stunt sequences from some late 80s action films spliced in for good measure. There’s also a good mix of serious to the lighter tones that you’d want in such a summer blockbuster. Too many times you’ll see an imbalance, something I thought was very evident in Iron Man 3, but not present at all here. Dare I say they captured the same aura that The Avengers did, for action and humor? Upon first viewing it was obvious everyone involved helped capture the essence of what made The Avengers such a success. The only real knock is the lack of a memorable musical score. It wasn’t bad, but not something you’ll go humming on the way home. For some reason it seems like Marvel comic book films prefer the subtle soundtrack versus the more bombastic style of DC’s past entries on the big screen. Now back to the good. You’ll notice the themes of loyalty, trust, friendship burn bright in this movie, and stay true to form from start to finish. It’s nice to see when a story allows a main character like Captain America find a way to ensure someone he considers the equivalent of a brother, not just get tossed out by the end of the film. (Cough, Man of Steel’s Achilles heal) Consistency in character arcs pays off by the time the lights in the theater turn back on…

Anyway, neither here nor there, but I would have a tough time believing anyone tell me they didn’t enjoy this film, if even just a little. This is the kind of flick that gives people a good reason to shell out the ten or eleven bucks to see something blown up on a life size scale. In the end,  it will be very interesting to see how the remaining phases of Marvel films play out as this film underlines there’s no indication of Marvel’s big-screen universe faltering in any way! Nuff said.

4/4 stars

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