 |
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) |
You may remember in my review of Captain America: The First Avenger, that I mentioned the best MCU films are the ones that play around with the genre. The first film was a war film, and this one is a spy thriller. A really well handled spy thriller to boot. Everything about the espionage aspect of this movie was handled wonderfully. The pace is much slower than you'd expect a superhero movie to normally be, but a little faster than a typical spy thriller, so when the big superhero action scenes come in and pick up the pace, it's not a complete tonal shift. The actual espionage content is also really nice in terms of what it brings to the story. It's suspenseful and tense, and you don't know who you can trust, and it all works with the character of Captain America beautifully. This is the kind of story you can only tell with the character of Cap, and I love how far this movie pushes him, not just physically, but idealistically. It tests not just his strength, but the strength of his character, and it all just works so well with the themes the movie brings up. I'd go so far as to say that up to this point in the MCU, this is the most well directed movie so far, and I cannot sing the praises of the Russo Brothers enough. A lot of credit has to go to Marvel for watching that two-part paintball episode of Community and trusting those two to handle a big-budget epic like this, especially when their previous film credit prior to this film was You, Me and Dupree.
 |
| Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow |
Which isn't to say the movie only works as a spy thriller, as the action scenes are incredibly entertaining. This movie single-handedly makes Captain America one of the coolest Avengers, despite having not the most interesting power-set on paper. When he's slinging his shield around, I'm not thinking about how impossible those shots are, I'm thinking about how f***ing awesome it is, which means the film does its job well. The film also doesn't hesitate to knock Cap around a lot, because it really does. That elevator fight scene is one of the single best sequences in the entire MCU, and the film doesn't really let up on Cap after that. When your hero gets thrown off a bridge, into a bus, then that bus gets rammed by another bus, that's just brutal. The action doesn't stop at Cap, though. Black Widow gets a lot of time to shine here too. Not only do we get some really exciting action scenes with her in the spotlight, but the espionage side of the movie works hand-in-hand with her background as a Russian spy, and she gets a lot of time to show off that side of her skillset too. But, really, every character gets their moment in the sun, and one of my favourite scenes in the movie was the ambush on Nick Fury right at the beginning. It's tense, exciting and it shows off why Fury is as important as he became in S.H.I.E.L.D.. This scene also gives us our first look at the Winter Soldier, who just owns the screen anytime he's there. He's not even in the movie as much as you'd think he'd be, but that just makes it even better. Whenever he shows up, you know it's going to get intense, and his sparing use honestly works better for the movie as a whole. If he showed up every other minute, it would just get repetitive. The movie gives us just enough of him to show him off as a legitimate threat, but not so much that he overstayed his welcome.
 |
| Chris Evans as Steve Rogers |
Of course, I mentioned how well Cap works in this story, and how well integrated Nat was as well, but I should also mention how great they were as a pairing. Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson have excellent chemistry, but what I loved more than that was just how much Hollywood has matured to get to the point where these two are paired up for a sizeable chunk of the movie, and they feel no need to shoehorn in a romantic subplot. It's a cleverer movie than that, and it's honestly a little refreshing. Samuel L. Jackson is once again excellent as Nick Fury, and we also get more time with Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill, and I really wish she was in these movies more. Not only is Cobie Smulders an excellent actor, but Maria Hill is a really great character of her own right, and I really want to see more of what she can do, since what I've seen of her so far really hasn't disappointed. We also get introduced to Anthony Mackie as Falcon, and talk about good chemistry. Right from the first scene, he and Evans seem like they've been best friends for years, and Mackie does an excellent job in this introduction on his own. I will say that it was a little off-putting at first when Falcon showed up, since for the bulk of the movie it was relatively grounded, and adding those wings into the picture seemed a little off, but I like how they were used in the end, and they went a long way towards spicing up the action, so it worked by the end. We also get a lot of Falcon out of the wings by the end, so it balances out well.
 |
| Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson |
Now, let me talk at length about the Winter Soldier, and this is your last chance to back away before you really get spoiled because, yes, the Winter Soldier is Bucky Barnes, Steve's childhood friend who he presumed dead. This is an excellent plot twist. Not only is it perfectly reasonable for what these movies have established of their world, but it's also really what this film needed to lift it to another level. Before this reveal, the movie was an entirely entertaining, thrilling and suspenseful spy movie. Adding this extra layer makes it a personal story for Steve Rogers, and right there I present to you the icing on the cake. Steve's resolve to completing the mission juxtaposed with his devotion to his best friend is honestly admirable, and this is what I was talking about with the 'strength of his character' earlier. When these two face off in the final act, it's really powerful stuff, and you can tell a lot of thought went into getting to that moment and making it hit the hardest it could. Not only is Steve's faith in S.H.I.E.L.D. compromised, not only is HYDRA resurfacing after he supposedly stopped it decades ago, but now he has to somehow try and break through to his brainwashed friend while not risking the mission itself. You see what I mean about all the layers working so well together? Everything was thought out, everything was planned, and what we're left with is a movie that just hits you where you live. I do have my little complaints here and there, but they couldn't detract from the overall experience all that much. Oh, and Abed from Community has a cameo. That right there is the cherry on the cake.
 |
| Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier |
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) is the best MCU film to have been made at the time of its release. If you made a case for this being your favourite MCU film ever, I would find it hard to disagree with you. As it stands, there are a few other movies I prefer to this one, but that doesn't stop this film from being so f***ing good. 9.5/10.
Next, it's Guardians of the Galaxy.
No comments:
Post a Comment