Captain America is the perfect superhero for today. Iron Man is cynical and sarcastic. Batman is dark and brooding. Superman, while cool, is an alien we can't really relate to. Wolverine is just too damn angry. Captain America is just a really nice guy. He's very strong and has an invincible shield, but at the end of the day he's just a kid from the 40's trying to do the right thing. We can learn a lot from a guy like that. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the best comic book movie since The Dark Knight Rises, and Marvel's best film since The Avengers. It's fun, entertaining, thematically heavy, and just awesome. It's not perfect, and the editing gets a bit messy at the end, but damn is it fun. Captain America 2 is about Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) adjusting back to life in the real world. It's also a little bit about saving the world and stopping a big conspiracy within SHIELD, but mostly it's about him trying to return to normal after waking up about 70 years in the future. He tries to get a girlfriend and live life normally, but all that is hard when you're a super soldier for an elite government agency. Things get even more complicated for poor Steve Rogers when a mysterious and dangerous villain working for the evil Hydra agency called The Winter Soldier comes around killing people. Life is tough for Steve Rogers. Chris Evans was never a great actor before the Captain America movies. He was pretty awful in the Fantastic Four movies, and then was in a bunch of random crap that no one saw. Finally he got critical and commercial success with Captain America: The First Avenger. It was a decent film, but no one really talked about his performance. They should. Evans portrays naive and clueless perfectly. He's playing what's essentially a glorified Boy Scout, except he does it in such a way that you really love him for it. Scarlett Johansson helps support his performance really well with hers. She plays the sarcastic and beautiful Black Widow. We last saw her play her in The Avengers. She was good, but given nothing to do. Here she's given more of a story and pushes along the film effortlessly. Her character is really funny too, and Johansson delivers the lines expertly. Resently, it seems like she's had a bit of a resurgence. She gave an awe inspiring voice performance in Her, then she did this, and most recently she starred in Under the Skin. Scarlett has always been an amazing actress, (if you don't believe me go watch Lost in Translation) but recently she's been starring in more projects. I hope she keeps it up. Samuel L. Jackson plays the exact same character he almost always plays nowadays here, but it's entertaining as hell! Jackson looks like he's having a ton of fun here. And it's tons of fun to watch him work. Robert Redford is here for a little also. He's decent and does his job, but his performance is nothing special. The obvious best part of this film is the action sequences. I could be wrong, but I think the directors must have gotten the fight coordinators from The Raid for this movie. The fight scenes are that well choreographed. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo seem born to direct super hero movies. They direct with the assurance of Joss Whedon, and their own specific style. I'm glad they're coming back for Captain America 3. I did have a few issues with this movie. For one, there were a few interlocking and continuous fight scenes towards the end. They're good, but it gets really messy. Characters start blending together and it becomes hard to see what's going on. My other problem was with the character of The Winter Soldier. He shares the title with Cap himself, yet he's barely in the movie. Besides being a henchman to the main villains, he's barely in the movie. For anyone who has read any of the comics can tell you that his character deserves better treatment than he's given here. Those are my only real complaints here. It's a really entertaining and astoundingly well done super hero flick. A huge step up from the disappointment that was last year's Iron Man 3. I came this movie very warily because of Iron Man 3, and it really was a gigantic improvement. This is a really fun film, what else can I say? I give Captain America: The Winter Soldier 4.1 out of 5 stars. Happy Viewing! Remember to follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies if you haven't already.
I'll agree that the acting is really good all around, with Evans and Johansson giving some particularly great performances. Can't agree on the action, however, with was a boring mess, IMO. But eh, can't agree on everything, right? Nice review, Whit. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks man! I did say that I thought the editing was messy (especially towards the end) but the actual battle sequences were a lot of fun as a whole. But overall the movie was a lot of fun.
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