Release Date: April 04, 2014
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Written By: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Genre: Action/ Comic Book
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Chris Evans, Cobie Smulders, Hayley Atwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan
Run-Time: 135 Minutes
Well, here we have the sequel I wasn’t really looking forward to and wasn’t especially interested in. I liked the first movie well enough, but the idea of another movie didn’t interest me all that much. I’m just not that into Captain Americaas a character. Lets check out the review for more details.
Coming to the story of Captain Americafor those of you who haven’t seen the original, is Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a young man from New York Citywho wanted to enlist into the army during World War 2. Unluckily his weak body almost got him cast out but he managed to become part of a enigma program where upon he was injected with a super serum. The serum gave him an amazing athletic body with the powers to match. He was given a shield constructed from a rare metal ore known as vibranium. The first film, Captain America: The First Avenger started the origin story which led into the tale of Captain America’s attack against the evil Nazi officer known as the Red Skull who had come into possession of the Tesseract. A cube of unlimited power.
Despite defeating the Red Skull, his scientists and army, known as Hydra, Captain Americabecame frozen in the ice and wasn’t discovered until the modern day. He was recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. where he fought alongside the other Avengers against Loki in the hit film, The Avengers.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens some two years later with Captain now working as a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative. Steve Rogers is still struggling to adapt to modern times. He keeps himself busy by completing assignments for S.H.I.E.L.D alongside Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), but the work is starting to get to him. Captain isn’t all that comfortable with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s constant surveillance of pretty much anyone who breathes, and he questions whether or not working with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has actually done any real good. Things become increasingly complicated when a man with a bionic arm known as the Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan) arrives and threatens to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D, and take Captain down with it.
Acting wise, the whole cast members did their best. The acting as expected from Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson was excellent. Wafer thin characters are the movie’s main issue and it extends beyond Redford. It’s especially annoying to see Scarlett Johansson reduced to the wise-cracking totty after her mesmerizing turn in Under The Skin; she could be giving a great performance but we wouldn’t know because the cameraman is too busy leering at her behind. Mackie’s character – who becomes The Falcon – is primed to replace Bucky Barnes as Cap’s best friend, but isn’t all that interesting, and after.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, whose previous experience was limited primarily to television (2006’s You, Me and Dupree), promised a film inspired by the paranoid spy thrillers of the Seventies. And they definitely deliver on that promise. From the opening moments, which quite specifically pay tribute to Marathon Man, to the presence of Robert Redford, whose appearance in the film as a S.H.I.E.L.D. overseer is far from the movie’s only nod to All the President’s Men or 3 Days of the Condor, to a Henry Jackman score filled with doleful trumpet fanfares, that Seventies spy influence is everywhere. The story of the film is somewhat repeated. Big secretive agency is infiltrated by another secret agency and then tries to destroy the world. The plot is a trifle convoluted – Hydra has raised its ugly heads again – and in the context of the Marvel Universe, perhaps a little hard to believe for devoted fans. Sorry, no details/spoilers. Nope, not even a hint to the identity of the title character, a feared assassin, either. The action sequences are outstanding, particularly the one-on-one fight scenes. And very large objects are blown up in very big ways. Music by Henry Jackman did a good job in elevating the final action episodes with a solid theme. Cinematography by Trent Opaloch is just brilliant. Editing of the film by Jeffrey Ford could have been a 30 Minutes short.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of the character, and although I really enjoyed Captain America: The First Avenger and absolutely went bonkers over The Avengers, I never really bought Captain as a real badass. The top-notch screenplay is incredibly smart, and even clocking in at over two hours, the film manages to maintain a decent pace. Throw in an entertaining huge finale and two bonus end credits scenes; what you have is a crowning achievement in the already well-oiled Marvel movie machine. The Captain America: The Winter Soldier does feel like a set-up for future installments much like Iron Man 2 felt like an Avengers prequel, but as far as Marvel sequels go this surpasses Tony Stark’s Iron Man 2 and the overrated recent Thor: The Dark World.
The IMAX 3D conversion adds nothing on the screen and infact it hurt a bit. The conversion darkens the picture and when you have action scenes there are so fast paced the 3D is total unnecessary. Stick to normal 2D format in this case.
REMEMBER TO STAY AFTER THE CREDITS FOR 2 POST CREDITS SCENES!! (It’s really nice that they’re starting to set up for Avengers 2. and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch could be very fun broken characters.)
Survi Review: 3/5
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