Captain America: The Winter Soldier

10. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Phase 2 of Marvel’s plans for world domination, began with Iron Man 3. An excellent sequel in its own series, and a nice continuation from the events of The Avengers. Thor’s second outing was suitable but didn’t add much to the overarching story line. So where would that leave poor, little old Steve Rogers? 

Let’s face it. “Captain America: The First Avenger” was a fun adventure flick, but certainly not ground breaking. It was necessary in setting up the character to play his part in The Avengers and play it he did. Being the real Fish out of Water in that situation, Cap was thrust into the action, after a 75 year sleep saw him battling Nazi’s to battling Aliens, with no real preparation so far. Needless to say he stepped up to the challenge and got the job done. And amidst his fellow Avengers like Iron Man, Thor and Hulk, he looked pretty miniscule. Being restricted to the ground certainly had its limits for him, but he still managed to dispose of several dozen aliens and was the leader in the Avengers response to the attack on New York. 

2014 would be year for Captain America in his second solo film; arguably the best Avengers stand alone film, and one of the best comic book movies ever. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” took the character who was merely just fleshed out in his two previous films, and completely unleashed him on a 21^st century world. Sometime between the events of The Avengers and Winter Soldier, Captain America became cool… really cool. The opening action scene smashes onto the screen and wastes no time showing the audience Captain America was back, reinvented and the hero to watch. 

Diving out of a plane with no chute, he gracefully lands in the ocean, boards a ship that’s been taken over by pirates, and cleans up the top deck, disposing of no less than a dozen henchmen with an array of martial arts moves, and more ways of using his shield than you could ever imagine. Watching this action scene unfold the first time upon seeing this film in theatres blew me away. Not only was Captain America now cool and totally badass, he was a fully realised character, and I sat back to watch how he would take charge of this film and race towards its climax.

From the stellar opening action scene, “The Winter Soldier” goes from strength to strength, paying tribute to the events that have come before but firmly establishing itself as a film of its own merit. 

S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters now stand tall over the city of Washington D.C, where underneath it, below the Potomac river, a vast array of ships and Heli carriers await their mission. Nick Fury is back on deck again, unveiling the plans of this new arsenal of ships to Cap, touting it as a weapons system to protect freedom. But Cap doesn’t like it, sniffing it out for what it really is, honestly responding “This isn’t freedom, this is fear”, and sets the tone for the rest of the film. Having been a soldier of WWII, Steve Rogers was all about Freedom; he fought for it, almost died for it, and understood it’s true meaning on the battlefield. But still coming to terms with being a 20^th century war hero in a 21^st century world, he can’t understand the logic behind all the advanced technology and paranoid perceptions of the world his superiors seem to have. 

Outside of his duties, he reminisces about the past, visiting the war section at the Smithsonian Museum where he is featured on walls, and also pays a visit to his dame from the 1940’s, now a much older woman in her final days, crippled by age and illness. 

Despite his intentions to protect people and leave a reasonably peaceful life, Captain America is soon betrayed by his own army, and goes on the run with Black Widow in tow, to figure out who is really pulling the strings at S.H.I.E.L.D., and how they can be stopped. 

And did I mention The Winter Soldier? The character who proudly takes the subtitle of the film. If you’ve not seen this film, or any other Captain America /Avenger films post this one, then I won’t spoilt it for you. But let’s just say a character from Cap’s past is brought back, in a way he never expected, and Steve finds that not only are his comrades now his enemies, but one of his best friends from the war is also an enemy… when the hero is everyone else’s enemy, he becomes Enemy #1. But Captain America can’t be beaten, bought or bullied, so he commits to his mission, and will even go as far as to bring down S.H.I.E.L.D. if it means protecting the freedom of the world and its people. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a stellar entry in The Avengers cannon. Its story is smart, the performances are good, and the action is superb. In the hands of directors Joe and Anthony Russo, it has a more grounded and realistic look than any of the other previous films in the series, and it works. You will believe the action unfolding on screen, as it doesn’t aim to distract from the story, but serves it, and also increases the pace and speed at which proceedings move, ramping up the intensity of the drama and making you fear for the lives of our main characters. 

Chris Evans also adds a new dimensions to his character, showing a deeper, more mature side to Steve Rogers, and also blows you away with his advanced fighting skills. The standout action scene in this film, and any of The Avengers films for that matter, takes place in an elevator. As he is hunted by his own people, Cap is just descending the building by lift, when at every floor it stops to let in some of the guards, soldiers and even guys from the office. When it’s full, Cap realises what is about to happen. Calm and cool as ever he quietly says, “Before we get started… does anyone want to get out?”. The elevator is silent, until one of the guards thrusts his weapon. Cap reacts in a flash, and in about sixty seconds takes down ten guys with no problems whatsoever. This scene is expertly filmed, edited and totally believable, that it’s the clip I go back to watch on YouTube time and time again. And occasionally, I’ll watch the whole movie too.

Post Credit scenes – Things really start to heat up with the two post-credit scenes here. In a somewhat related plot line, the remaining servants of Hydra hide out in a deep, dark lab, talking about their new weapons in the war against the world. Aside from now having ownership of the Tesseract, they also hold captive a boy and girl – the Twins – who try to control their cells with amazing powers. We then cut back to the museum Steve Rogers visited in the film, where a display for Bucky Barnes the soldier who served in World War 2, is looked upon by a man wearing a hat that hides most of his face. It’s Bucky himself, “The Winter Soldier”. Turns out this sometimes hero and sometime villain, is still around, and we haven’t seen the last of him here.

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