Ask anyone who their favorite Marvel character from the Avengers universe is and 9 times out 10, you’re going to hear them answering Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Witty, charming, and eminently quotable, Stark is the main focus of 2012’s mega hit The Avengers, gets the big heroic moment and has the most significant chunk of the screentime. But after the dud that was Iron Man 3 and the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, all that biased favoritism could be about to change: neglected amidst all this Stark love and with an arc that has been subtly and carefully charted throughout the Marvel films, Steve Rogers aka Captain America might just become the new crowd favorite.
While Iron Man proved to be an immediate slam dunk, risks abounded aplenty with Marvel’s equally ambitious plans for releasing standalone films featuring Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk. And aside from the unenviably difficult task of creating a mainstream blockbuster revolving around the ever so slightly enigmatic and difficult to relate to character of Thor, there was no riskier venture than the task of doing the same for stars and stripes wearing super soldier Captain America, a dated superhero to say the least. Now considered by many to be the weakest of the Marvel films, the approach with 2011’s Captain America was light and campy in a script full of juvenile hokiness and cheesiness. Intentionally designed for younger audiences, there’s no denying that the filmmakers succeeded in making the film they wanted to make but what remains debatable is whether or not their strange and occasionally perplexing approach made for a good movie. Which takes us to what might just be the best film of the whole bunch: Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Taking place after the events of The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens with Steve Rogers (Evans) working for SHIELD and still coping with the shock of waking up 70 years into the future into a murky world full of intrigue and deception that he struggles to find a place for himself in. Sidelined during The Avengers in favor of other characters and plot lines, the key plot point of Rogers's strong dislike for SHIELD’s methods and tactics returns here. Continuing to team up with Natasha Romanoff (Johansson) under Nick Fury (Jackson), Rogers remains uncomfortable with his role with SHIELD and holds a shaky trust in both of them. This trust is put to the ultimate test when Fury begrudgingly reveals to Rogers SHIELD’s new plan for the future: the launching of three new and improved permanently orbiting Helicarriers armed with state of the art satellite guided missiles and guns capable of targeting and eliminating millions of targets in a matter of minutes. The purpose: the ability to pre-emptively dispose of all of SHIELD’s enemies in one fell swoop if necessary. Rogers predictably baulks at these plans and finds himself in a dilemma when Fury, who has long suspected foul play within SHIELD, turns to Rogers for help after an assassination attempt on his life happens days before the planned launch. Scrambling for answers and people to trust, friends quickly turn into enemies as Rogers finds himself at odds with a number of familiar foes coming back to haunt him from his past.
The most surprising thing about this Captain America movie is how much it attempts to do and how much of it works so well. The action and effects are sublime and top-notch, the dialogue is sharp and witty and the script finds a great balance between humor and a more serious gravitas. There are a number of great and supremely entertaining set pieces here, all of which are well-executed, and the film also comes with a suitably threatening and daunting adversary. The Winter Soldier makes for a great and mysterious villain, a villain who may have more of a connection with Captain America than one would initially suspect.
Clearly, after failing to find a proper tone in the previous attempt, the filmmakers have finally found the perfect avenue for Captain America to shine. With this latest Captain America film, what were the unavoidable flaws and weaknesses of the 1940s comic book hero suddenly become his strengths. Charming in his own way as a refreshingly simple and straight up character, Rogers isn’t the morally ambivalent anti-hero that you find everywhere nowadays: he has his principles and sticks to them, no questions asked and no hesitation; his compass always points north. Rogers thus becomes our looking glass into our world, a world where things aren’t always what they seem and where everything comes in varying shades of grey. And while Rogers’s struggle with reconciling his principles with the compromises necessary in war is covered in the first movie, this struggle comes to full fruition in the sequel. Evans does a great job of channeling all of this while still also finding the integrity and earnestness that is at his character's core and Scarlett Johansson is also utilized equally well here. Introduced as perfunctory eye candy in the Iron Man 2 with no real important part to play in proceedings, she finally gets her chance to shine two Marvel appearances in. Unlike Rogers, Romanoff is a character who thrives in the dark shadows of this world, where you’re not sure who your friends and who your enemies truly are, a closed world where you can hide from your past and change your identity, where things are never fully out in the open.
And this brings us to the core theme of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Armed with what might be the best script of the Marvel movies (including The Avengers), one would probably not expect to find topical real life parallels and themes here but this film is chock full of them. From NSA scandals to cyber warfare and underground terrorism, we live in a world where the stuff of cloaks and daggers reigns supreme and where the real enemies don’t wear uniforms out there for everyone to see anymore. And through the character of Captain America, a character who proudly dons his colors and his principles on his sleeve, we get a poignant look at the problems we face in real life. With technology rapidly advancing the world ending potential destructive capabilities of those in power, interesting and pivotal questions arise. If someone had the technology available to SHIELD in this film, should they have the authority to use it? Should anyone? Who decides who has that authority? In a world full of secrets, how do we hold anyone accountable? All interesting and difficult questions to answer indeed but this film supplies those answers, utilizing Captain America as its moral center. The past shouldn’t be something to hide from or distort but should be out there in the open so that nothing can fester in the present. Multiple characters, both good and bad, have dark and ugly pasts, but the film seeks to uncover and reveal those ugly pasts to allow these characters to find their redemption. Ultimately, embedded within all those action scenes and explosions, this film asks for openness in a world that is paradoxically closing up the more globalization and technology gives us the capacity to come closer together.
Verdict: Satisfying on multiple levels, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the full package: topical and unexpectedly nuanced themes are deftly interwoven with tons of action-packed thrills and excitement. Long story short, Marvel simply gets Captain America right the second time around.
B+
Trailer:
Movie info:
Runtime:136 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Cast: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Screenplay: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Cinematography: Trent Opaloch
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