Roll up, roll up. Come one, come all. Marvel (see what I did there) at the old age pensioner with the astounding strength. He knows no fear, he jumps from aircraft without the aid of a parachute and he also never seen without the world’s largest pizza tray.
The Winter Soldier marks the third outing for Captain America on the silver screen and it could be argued that this is also his finest too. Chris Evans (no not that one) seems to be getting very good at playing old Cappy. In the same way that it's now impossible to see anyone playing Iron Man other than Robert Downey Jr. It's almost unthinkable that the red white and blue uniform of Marvels ultimate Boy Scout could be filled by anyone other than Mr Evans.
The plot of The Winter Soldier is roughly one part political thriller, one part action movie and two parts entertainment. Hydra is the big bad again and seemed to have infiltrated SHIELD. From every department to every rank, there's nowhere their agenda isn't felt.
The script, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely is very good. Witty when it needs to be and not long winded when it comes to moving the plot forward. The directing reigns are handled by Russo brothers, Anthony and Joe. This is their first foray into the world of the movie blockbuster, having amassed most of their CV back catalogue work on TV series including Arrested Development and Community. However the real coup of The Winter soldier was getting Robert Redford to sign on the dotted line to play Alexander Pierce. And it's not just a blink or you'll miss it cameo either. Pierce is a pivotal role in the film and just goes to show how seriously Marvel treats its product.
With Redford playing the linchpin of the story and given its political and conspiracy overtones at times it feels like you’re watching a seventies movie in the spirit of The Parallax View or Three days of the Condor. Motives and trust are the key issues here. Who is pulling who's strings and why. Without giving to many spoilers away I can tell you the The Winter Soldier just happens to be the captains best friend Bucky Barnes, last seen falling off a train in the first film. Bucky is played again by Sebastian Stan, who incidentally only found out he was going to be in this film when a friend of his who was at Comic Con in 2012 called him up and told him that Marvel have just announced the title of the next Captain America movie and you're in it!
Now they don't really go into that much detail but apparently Hydra's experiments on Bucky are what have kept him alive this long and what are also responsible for him having a new shiny metal arm! Bucky gets his brain washed and is sent to eliminate Hydra's problems, the first if which is Samuel L Jacksons Nick Fury.
In a big set piece involving a car chase and a SHEILD vehicle that has a gadget list that would make Q from James Bond whimper. The best way I can describe what happens to Fury is to say that he gets "decommissioned". Once Fury has been put on the shelf Bucky then sets his sights on the captain himself. They have several "aggressive" meetings during the course of the film culminating in a fight that almost gets a little farfetched in the believability stakes. If any of you have seen Day 8 of 24 you'll understand what I mean. But I guess if Jack Bauer can be shot, stabbed and tortured and still do his duty and save the day then I guess good old Captain America can too.
There are other characters from the Marvel universe that return in this film. The biggest being Scarlet Johansson's Black Widow. As with The Avengers the character isn't there just for geek eye candy. She's just as tough as ever, intelligent too and unless my memory is playing tricks on me, only has one excessive cleavage shot during her entire time on screen. Apart from the strength issue The Black Widow is very much cappy's equal in every department and in a nice touch that will probably go unnoticed by most she spends the entire film wearing a necklace with an arrow pendant on it.
Another returning character from the first film is Dr Arnim Zola played by Toby Jones. Now his "performance" for the want of a better word is unusual to say the least. It will leave some cinema goers with a rather odd taste in their mouths. Just think Skynet meets early Amstrad and you won't be too far off the mark. I personally didn't really buy into it but again it does help move the story forward.
A new to Marvel film is the character "Falcon". He's played by Anthony Mackie and is thrown into the mix right from the get go. Falcon is basically one of those "does exactly what it says on the tin" type of superheroes. He has a jetpack with retractable wings (I've checked, they're not available on Amazon). He's one of the good guys and will hopefully return in future instalments further down the line although as far as I can tell he won't be in next year’s Avengers movie.
The Winter Soldier is a great film. There are some innovative action set pieces including the best fight in a lift you're ever likely to see. There's also a scene early on where Captain pulls out a notepad. In it he has a list of cultural bits and bobs he needs to catch up on. I've done some checking up and depending on where in the world you're watching the movie depends on what appears on the list (there are ten different versions apparently). On our list we get gems like The Beatles, the 1966 World Cup and right at the top of the page the TV show Sherlock. The American list contains Steve Jobs, The Moon Landing and I Love Lucy.
As good as the film is I do have a couple of issues with it. Firstly the film ends with SHIELD having basically been disbanded. Now they must have had a Winter Soldier script locked in place before Marvel launched Agents of Shield late last year and it's made me feel like the program is now redundant. Not sure how they'll get around that particular bump in the road when season two hits our screens but I'm sure they'll come up with something. My other gripe is that as much as I like the fact that Marvel likes to mix it up when picking directors for their films the actual films themselves are becoming a little bit formulaic. They all seem to have these massive fight sequences as their third act finale. Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and now The Winter Soldier all end with huge battles. Now I know that you have to go into these big tent pole films with certain expectations but there are other ways of creating spectacle and tension. The pay off at the end doesn't always need to be physical.
I'll finish off by saying (and it really pains me to do so) that Marvel are now miles ahead of DC in terms of what they're bringing to the table. The Batman vs Superman film has been put back a year and now won't grace our screens until the summer of 2016. By then Marvel will have finished "phase 2" of their story arc and will be well and truly full steam ahead into "phase 3" with films like Ant Man, Dr Strange and Iron Man 4. If further proof were needed of Marvels superiority over DC when it comes to transporting comic book characters to the big screen, let me offer the following as evidence. It was reported last year that a Warner Bothers executive when being questioned as to why Wonder Woman was not being given a standalone film before she appears in the Batman vs Superman film, the response given was "the world isn't ready for a Wonder Woman movie". I would like to point out the Marvels next film The Guardians of the Galaxy has a talking racoon with a propensity for firearms violence... Your move DC, your move.
Oh and before I forget make sure you stay for the credits. This is a Marvel film after all.
Twitter Review:
Steve Rogers, a man out of time. With his #SHIELD crumbling and best friends turning against him, trust is a high value commodity.
#Fearless
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/?ref_=nv_sr_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SlILk2WMTI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-xjmJl-bI
