Jasonic's Favorites: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Hello, and good evening, Internet!
You might remember I did the first MCU Cap film on this and my old blog, however, I shockingly never got around to this one, which is debatably my favorite of the Cap trilogy -- soon to be quadrilogy unless the upcoming film doesn't count because it's a new character taking up the mantle. Regardless, I am happy to finally get around to this one, which was the most fantastic Marvel movie of its time -- 10+ years ago (my how time flies)!
Released in 2014, Captain America: The Winter Soldier was the highly anticipated sequel to the mostly successful Captain America: The First Avenger -- and the character's first solo outing since the breakout success of The Avengers. It was the first of a few MCU titles directed by the now iconic duo of Anthony and Joe Russo and their directing mastery of MCU films really shines here -- arguably brighter than their later films, but not because their other films were bad. With the steady success that the Marvel movies were garnering at the time, the film received positive reviews and grossed high at the box office for being more than just a simple run of the mill action flick starring everyone's favorite superhero. Being a second act in a trilogy, many would say it propels Cap's story as well as the overall story of the MCU forward in a similar vein to the model sequels of our time such as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Dark Knight. Comparing this movie to the The Dark Knight for example is a very accurate statement because of how much it resembles its plot to a degree and I even used that exact analogy to explain to my dad how deep it got in a way that wouldn't outright spoil some plot points that resemble said Batman movie. That said, I hardly ever hear anyone complain about this movie and its various aspects even nowadays, proving that even if people don't like the MCU as much as they used to, it may yet stand the test of time as the MCU movie that's about as close to a masterpiece as we have gotten so far or ever will get at this point in time. With as much as people did gush and may continue to gush about this movie even today, is it possible that there are any valid criticisms toward it? I don't have many nitpicks with certain aspects, but regardless, I firmly believe this movie garnered the praise it deserves. Now without further adieu, let's strap on our Captain America helmets, equip our star spangled shields, and delve right into the political conspiracies that make up the majority of Captain America: The Winter Soldier!
***MAJOR SPOILERS*** (unless you don't care, have seen this movie in the past, or have read up on the MCU, in which case, be my guest)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier takes place about two years following the Battle of New York in The Avengers. In it, Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) has been working as an espionage S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and struggling to adjust to modern life since the world is so much different from how he last left it in 1945. After meeting VA employee Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) on a morning jog through Washington D.C., Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) calls Steve to a new mission to rescue hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel including Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández) from a band of pirates led by Georges Batroc (Georges St-Pierre). Though Cap manages to fight and beat Batroc to have him captured, Romanoff deviates from the objective to extract S.H.I.E.L.D. data from the ship's computers, Rogers reprimanding her for seemingly jeopardizing the mission. When Rogers confronts S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) about Romanoff's actions, Fury briefs him about the newest Helicarriers made for Project: Insight designed to eliminate threats preemptively, Rogers believing that such a program is not true freedom, but rather fear -- like a giant gun pointed at the heads of specific people. Though Fury tries to decrypt the files extrated by Natasha, he is unable to and asks the Secretary of Internal Security, Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), to delay the project to which Pierce disagrees. On his way to rendezvous with Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Fury is ambushed by assailants acting as cops and other officials led by a mysterious assassin named the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and is forced to hide out in Rogers' apartment, telling him securely that S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised and hands him the flash drive of Romanoff's extracted data. Unfortunately for Fury, he is shot by a fleeing Winter Soldier whom Rogers pursues and is unable to catch when the assassin shockingly catches his shield and tosses it back. Fury is apparently pronounced dead from his injuries before a mourning Rogers (whom Fury told to not trust anyone) is summoned by Secretary Pierce about what Fury was doing in his apartment the night of the assassination. Though Rogers learns that Fury actually hired the pirates as a front for Romanoff extracting the data, he withholds information from Pierce thus branding the captain a fugitive who goes on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. with Natasha. With America's head security establishment compromised and the data on the flash drive pointing Cap and Black Widow toward the truth, the world of Captain America and the security of Earth in the Marvel universe will never be the same.
As someone who wasn't entirely familiar with political thrillers when this movie originally came out, I was blown away by the amount of intrigue the plot synopsis I just described set up. Literally, all I just described was the story's first act and a little thereafter, which is unlike most movies I review where my plot synopsis goes over at least the first two acts before I leave off on a cliffhanger and later analyze the finale if not some aspect of it; that said, it goes without saying that what all that sets up ended up being the most shocking twist in the MCU at the time and it's common knowledge for Marvel movie watchers such as myself to know what this movie revealed as far as the status of S.H.I.E.L.D. Without further adieu, I will say that this sequel deepens the lore and intrigue of the MCU by having it be revealed that former Hydra scientist, Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) was recruited into the organization in its early days to allow Hydra to regrow and covertly spread its influence throughout the world once more. All this was revealed at the movie's midway point by an AI preserved consciousness of Zola that Cap and Black Widow discovered in the midst of Cap's old training camp in New Jersey. With that being the midway point of the movie and the Steve Rogers' Captain America trilogy as a whole, this movie does well what I love about sequels when they expand well on the original by integrating previous elements and making them more interesting, and this movie does it especially well that I can't help, but gush about it. That being the major aspect of this movie as a whole somewhat undermines the fact that the movie isn't as much about the Winter Soldier as you'd expect -- it is the title after all -- and I will say that was a fair criticism some people had with the movie at the time of its release. With hindsight of the later MCU projects such as Captain America: Civil War and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I'll say nowadays that makes sense that they were saving some mystery about the Winter Soldier himself and his activities for a later date, likely using the introduction of the assassin as a hook point for people to get invested in the idea of the movie. For Marvel comic and cartoon fans, of course, we all knew that his reveal as Steve's friend Bucky was going to be the major twist about his identity and we were hardly shocked; for casual moviegoers, however, they either had the twist spoiled by comic fans or were genuinely shocked to see Steve's best friend turn evil for some reason. Either way, 10 years have passed and it is now common knowledge that Bucky is the Winter Soldier.
Like with any good Marvel project, this movie excels well in its acting department; Chris Evans is once again an excellent lead as Captain America, demonstrating the patriotic spirit of the man out of time who serves as a symbol of American patriotism in modern times where the definition of such seems to be lost. The aspect of his character adjusting to modern times isn't explored much in this movie, but they manage to have fun with it in the scene where Steve and Natasha are undercover in the mall avoiding the S.T.R.I.K.E. agents led by Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo) and Natasha improvises many awkward couple interactions for Steve to attempt in order to look inconspicuous -- case and point: when she tells him to kiss her on the escalator. That being one of my favorite parts of the movie was all thanks to Evans portraying a more awkward side than we're used to with his character being forced into these unfamiliar situations (man from the 1940s after all). Scarlett Johansson is more than just the perfect beauty to portray Black Widow -- who may as well be akin to a love interest for Cap in this based on the interactions they have -- but she also portrays well the competent, sassy, even inconspicuous sides of her character well. The running gag of her suggesting specific women to Cap throughout the movie plays well into the interactions they have, giving the two a sense of chemistry as well as the fact that they are becoming better friends who learn to trust and know each other better. Anthony Mackie is a swell addition to the cast of the Marvel universe in this movie, playing not just a black guy for the sake of having a black guy, but an effective ally with a sense of duty to Cap, the man he respects most and the trust they build in addition to Black Widow is one of the major themes that this movie follows through well with. I didn't quite talk about Samuel L. Jackson's acting as Nick Fury in my review of The Avengers, but I do believe he fits well both the look of the character -- the Ultimate comics originally modeling their version of him after Jackson -- as well as the secretive, no-nonsense persona that Fury demonstrates as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. The fact that he rarely swears much less use the "MF" term in these movies is almost unheard of, but the fact that this is now one of his most iconic roles in cinema is a testament to the impact his acting has had on the character. For those who were paying attention to the fact that Robert Redford had the big speech in the middle of the original trailer for this movie, it was no surprise that he ended up being the movie's main villain who was behind the Hydra movement, the Winter Soldier, and Project: Insight. With all that, he ends up playing an effective twist villain who, while he does follow the cliche of killing an innocent person to let the audience know he's evil, he manages to have this stern, political figure-like persona especially in front of the World Security Council and manages to maintain a level head even after Hydra's secrets have been revealed. And lest we not forget the return of Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier; while I imagine most of the stunt work in the Winter Soldier's fight scenes were that of a stuntman, Stan does some excellent body acting when the Winter Soldier's mask in on, the costume looking menacing enough to spook any onlooking bystanders. He wasn't given as much facial acting this time around due to wearing the mask up until the reveal 2/3 of the way through, but Stan does manage to show very conflicted facial expressions the more he starts to remember his past as well as at the climax when Steve jogs his memory to stop him from beating him to death. That said, like any good Winter Soldier story in Marvel, I was rooting for him to come through and was pleased when he saved Steve from drowning in the river in the end.
Being a Captain America movie, this still has some of the most fantastic practical action scenes in all of the Marvel movies. Everything from the opening ship fight is both practical and kinetic, the camera shaking as Cap engages in hand-to-hand battles against the pirates, demonstrating his super strength against them by easily knocking him out with either his fists or the shield, but never going as far as killing them. His one-on-one with Batroc even incorporates the French form of kickboxing known as savate as a reference to the comics character this character is based on known as Batroc the Leaper and while I am unfamiliar with the fighting style and how it works, it adds some extra dimension to that fight that I didn't realize was there. Black Widow's action scenes are just as badass with her swiftly taking out bad guys and even utilizing her grappling cables to hang them like she has a tendency to do in these movies; that and her gunplay, especially her drawing her dual pistols, is an oddly sexy image for me to lay eyes on -- seriously, ScarJo is just to die for. While the Winter Soldier chase scene toward the start is a brief, but adrenaline-filled chase between two super soldiers, it does not compare to the absolute thrill ride and masterpiece that is the highway fight. From the start of that scene, we are suddenly propelled into the tension with the Winter Soldier throwing Sitwell out of the car and into oncoming traffic and the main cast struggling to control the car as the assassin tries to get them and they throw him off before his assailants ram them with their own truck. From there, the car is pushed around, eventually thrown into the air as Cap breaks the door open, allowing them mostly to skid across the road to safety. The cast gets separated in the commotion as the Winter Soldier hunts them down while civilians scatter, Cap and the assassin eventually get into a one-on-one that demonstrates the two's strength and agility, the latter even taking Cap's shield at one point and later being a beast with a combat knife as the two wrestle around. All this culminates in the aforementioned reveal that the Winter Soldier is Bucky with him not remembering who he is. It is arguably one of the best fight scenes in the entire MCU even today with how practical, kinetic, and adrenaline-filled it is all with little to no use of CGI -- save for the many explosions Winter Soldier creates with his grenade launcher. The finale of Cap and Falcon traversing the Helicarriers while fighting Hydra soldiers, dodging their weapons, and replacing the drive keys with their own is the most the film makes use of CGI especially with the shots of Falcon and the Helicarriers, but it's far from awful and by far the most necessary use of CG in the movie -- other than the way they digitally altered Hayley Atwell for the one scene with a 96 year old Peggy Carter. With all that this movie continues to do right, the actions sequences continue to be stand out to this day with the highway fight being my absolute favorite part of this whole movie.
I briefly touched on the music in my other MCU reviews I've done, including the first Captain America, but honestly this movie might have some of the most standout music in a Captain America movie because a lot of the time, I actually noticed it. While Alan Silvestri did not return for this sequel, he would return for later Avengers films, but for this film, Henry Jackman took the helm of composer and I'll say that he did an exceptional job. The first track on the OST, "Lemurian Star", was something that caught my attention in the bonus features menu of the DVD I own because my dad said it sounded like Call of Duty music -- and fittingly so because of how well it fits the game and Metal Gear Solid in my opinion. The horns and strings symbolize the patriotism of Cap himself along with the more subdued electronic sounds to represent the espionage stealth he's engaging in; with that taking place in the opening action sequence aboard the Lemurian Star, it naturally climaxes into a faster paced piece with more percussion. The initial credits theme, "Taking a Stand", was also one of the first tracks of an MCU film I listened to in isolation because I was trying to look up the previous song, but could not find it until recently thanks to Shazam -- seriously, what did we do without the ability to search music on the fly? For "Taking a Stand" specifically, I'd say the song represents the triumph of Cap's patriotism over the parasite of Hydra that continues to infest the world in the present day; this seems to be the main theme of the movie in the sense that the melody was interpolated into "Lemurian Star" with the strings and horns being identical and I'd say it works as the perfect theme for Cap's actions in the movie. He may have been branded a public fugitive by the very organization he worked for, but he stood his ground and did what was right in taking down the people he once worked for and the music reflects that well in the sense that it sounds more like a pyrrhic victory than anything -- the perfect trilogy midpoint if I do say so myself. Another inventive nod I didn't notice until I Shazamed it when watching the movie was in the pre-credits ending scene where "Trouble Man" by Marvin Gaye was playing; Sam mentioned to Cap at the beginning that the Trouble Man soundtrack had "everything [Cap] missed on one album" and, to my knowledge, that movie is a 70s political thriller -- a genre that clearly inspired this movie. The way it bookends everything is thematically fitting and allows for classy moviegoers to see the connection between this movie and the 70s when Trouble Man came out. With that, I will say that The Winter Soldier is not only among the best Cap movies, but it remains one of the best MCU movies to this day.
All that said, I will no doubt say that Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a near perfect movie! Between its political spy thriller plot, the way it expands not only the initial Cap trilogy, but the MCU as a whole as a sequel, the twists for casual moviegoers, the excellent acting, the practical action and action setpieces, and even the music, it excels in all the right areas and leaves things open for future movies in a brilliant way. Like The First Avenger before it, many of the criticisms it used to get are justified by future developments and even today at over 10 years later, it continues to top a lot of other MCU movies for people -- myself included. What's more, this was the beginning of Anthony and Joe Russo's tenure as and MCU directing pair and they knocked it out of the park with this one that it's no wonder they brought them back for Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. I mentioned before how some people may not think those later films are as masterful as this one, but I digress because they did their absolute best and gave way to some of the best Marvel movies that have ever been and, at this point, most likely ever will be unless we are proven otherwise by upcoming releases. If Captain America: Brave New World manages to be anywhere near as good as this movie, Civil War, and others, I'll hold my breath on whether or not the MCU and Kevin Fiege will make a comeback in this day and age. For now, I will go ahead and say that this movie alongside the Avengers movies are generally where the MCU peaked and for that, I give this movie a solid A and recommend it to fans of the first Cap, fans of the character, fans of the MCU, and fans of political thrillers.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
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