Right well thought I would start off by saying that I've changed the look of this blog at last to a new one (a dynamic view apparently) which I think is quite good although for some reason I can't seem to get a picture up on the blog (and I have one of the Lego Batman! Not fair!).
Anyway I digress a little, so getting back to the post itself its on a fairly new film for a change and the film is the second Captain America film, The Winter Soldier. So how does it fair??? Well let's find out....
And the usual warning applies: SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
Right so a bit about the story which begins with its main protagonist, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) aka Captain America, who is adapting to life in the 21st century (after been asleep for almost 70 years as covered at the end of the first film). And the film begins with Rogers being sent on a mission with agent, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) along with S.H.I.E.L.D's counter-terrorism strike team named S.T.R.I.K.E who are lead by Agent Rumlow (Frank Grillo) to rescue hostages onboard a ship. During the mission however Rogers discovers that Natasha has a hidden agenda, which is to extract data from the ship's computers for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s director, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
After the mission is a success, Fury while on his way to rendezvous with Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), another S.H.I.E.L.D. agent is ambushed by several men lead by the mysterious assassin simply known as the Winter Soldier. Fury narrowly escapes and heads to Rogers' apartment where he warns him that SHIELD has been compromised and he hands Rogers a flash drive containing data from the ship, just before the Winter Soldier guns down Fury, afterwards Fury dies in hospital. The next day Rogers is questioned by Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) a senior figure within SHIELD (can't be bothered putting in the full stops anymore!). Rogers tells Pierce nothing of what Fury might have said to him and leaves for the elevator where he is surrounded by Pierce's men whom try to take Rogers who overpowers them and escapes the building, now branded a fugitive.
Rogers soon after meets up with Natasha again and with the flash drive that Fury gave him, they locate a secret SHIELD bunker in New Jersey, where they find a supercomputer that still holds the consciousness of the supervillain, Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) who informs them that the terrorist organisation, Hydra, has secretly worked within SHIELD. Through Zola, STRIKE locate Rogers and Natasha who narrowly avoid being killed in a missile strike. Rogers and Natasha then discover that Pierce is Hydra's leader within SHIELD.
Rogers and Natasha then recruit the help of a former pararescueman, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and get him to acquire his "Falcon" wingpack. Together they question a Hydra mole, Jasper Sitwell (Maximilliano Hernandez) who reveals that Zola created an algorithm which can locate people who would become a threat to Hydra's plans and wipe them out. Later on however, the Winter Soldier ambushes them and kills Sitwell and during the fight, Rogers discovers that the mysterious assassin is in fact, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) his friend who was captured during WWII and experimented on. Rogers and Natasha however are soon captured but enroute to be executed they are rescued by Hill and taken to a familiar figure where plans are set in place to take down Hydra and end their threat.......
THOUGHTS
As a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger, The Winter Soldier actually surpasses itself and does a great job in building on the first film as it is a gripping superhero action film with some great action scenes. The film's story was based closely on the 1970's political thriller. Three days of the condor, as the Winter Soldier's themes here are based morely on conspiracy theories rather than the war themes from the original. The film also has some nice twists and turns and it features the odd surprise here and there alongside the usual precursory post-credit scene that gives hints of what might happen in the next film.
PERFORMANCES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
Now for a change rather than make this review very, very long as usual I thought I would condense things a bit more this time around and not really quite tons of dialogue. So suffice to say the cast are all in excellent form and the performances in general are very good.
And to start off with the cast I will begin with Chris Evans who is excellent in his role as Steve Rogers, the good old fashioned war hero from WWII who was injected with a special serum to give him superhuman strength.
Evans's best moments include the scene where after Rogers meets with Pierce he makes to leave the building and he get's into the elevator but as he does and the elevator keeps going down, more and more men step in and surround him. And Rogers clearly sees something is up and he looks around he says to the men "Before we get started, does anyone want out?" and he starts to whoop their asses!
Evans other good moments include his scenes with Johannson as the two of them share a nice comraderie onscreen as Romanoff keeps trying to set up Rogers with a date. And this is especially noticeable in the scene where Rogers and Romanoff capture Sitwell and question him and Rogers threatens him up on a rooftop but Sitwell calls his bluff by saying "pushing me off a roof really isn't your style". And Rogers stops short and let's Sitwell go and says "You're right. Its not" and he looks to Romanoff saying "Its hers!" and Romanoff promptly kicks Sitwell off the roof. And the two of them carry on chatting like nothing happened as Romanoff says "Oh, wait. What about the girl from accounting, Laura, Lisa...?". And Rogers says "Lillian. Lip piercing, right?" and Romanoff says "Yeah, she's cute, right?" and Rogers says "Yeah, I'm not ready for that".
And lastly there is there is the scene where Rogers speaks to Sam Wilson (aka Falcon) as they prepare to fight against Hydra and Rogers says to him "If you're gonna fight a war, you got to wear a uniform". And in the next scene we see Rogers wearing his Captain America outfit with his indestructable American shield on his back.
Scarlett Johansson is also really good in her role as Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) a spy who works for SHIELD and develops a rapport and also the trust of Rogers throughout the film.
Scarlett also has good moments that include her opening scene where Romanoff and Rogers embark on their mission to rescue hostages. And just before they leave the plane, they share some banter regarding the possibility of Rogers dating someone working at SHIELD. And in the scene Romanoff says to Rogers "Did you do anything fun on Saturday night?" and Rogers says "Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are all dead, so no, not really!". And Romanoff tries to persue the line of questioning of him dating by saying "You know, if you ask Kirsten out, from Statistics, she'd probably say yes". And Rogers says "That's why I don't ask" prompting Romanoff to say "Too shy, or too scared?" and Rogers says "Too busy!" before jumping out of the plane.
Then there is the scene where Rogers and Romanoff try to evade Hydra's agents lead by Rumlow in a mall as they move down an escalator. And Romanoff says to Rogers "Kiss me" leaving Rogers surprised saying "What?" and Romanoff says "Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable" and Rogers says "Yes, they do" and they kiss, which aids in distracting Rumlow from finding them. And the two of them after look uncomfortable at each other and Romanoff says to him "Are you still uncomfortable" and Rogers, even more so says to her "That's not exactly the word I would use!".
And lastly there is the scene where (SPOILER) Natasha infiltrates Pierce's headquarters at Triskelion, disguised as a world security council members and she takes out Pierce's men and then unveils her disguise to him. And she aims her gun at Pierce and says to him "Oh I'm sorry, did I step on your moment?!".
Sebastian Stan is also good in his role as the Winter Soldier (aka Bucky Barnes) as the enhanced and brainwashed assassin working for Hydra. Stan, even though he doesn't much dialogue in the film, still does a fine job at showing his character's anguish as later on he starts to he feel his old memories come back to him after seeing Rogers.
Rogers handles his action scenes very well too and his best moment of dialogue in the film comes during Rogers and the Winter Soldier's climactic fight scene. And in the scene tries to reach the Winter Soldier (or Bucky) by telling him "You know me" and the Winter Soldier shouts "No, I don't!". And Rogers continues "Bucky. you've known me your entire life. Your name is James Buchanan Barnes..." but the Winter Soldier refuses to hear him and shouts "SHUT UP!" and punches Rogers. And Rogers drops his shield and says to him "I'm not gonna fight you. You're my friend" causing the Winter Soldier attack Rogers, repeatedly punching him in the face, yelling "YOU ARE MY MISSION!!!".
Anthony Mackie also does very well as Sam Wilson (aka Falcon) who befriends Rogers and ends up helping him as he utilises his wingpack to do so.
Mackie also has his good scenes that include his opening scene where Sam runs with Rogers around in Washington D.C. and Rogers because of his genetically enhanced strength outruns him easily leaving Sam exhausted (I doubt Usain Bolt could keep up with this guy either!).
Another good moment for Mackie is when Rogers and Romanoff turn up at Sam's place looking for a place to lay low after Hydra have targetted them as fugitives. And in the scene Rogers and Romanoff turn up at Sam's door and Rogers says to him "We have nowhere else to go" and Romaoff says to Sam "Everyone is trying to kill us" and Sam quickly takes compassion on them saying "Not everyone..." and invites them in.
And lastly there is the scene where during Rogers raid on the Triskelian building, Sam while running alongside Rogers says to him "Hey cap, how do we know the good guys from the bad guys?!" and Rogers simply says "If they're shooting at you, they're bad!".
Robert Redford who makes what is his debut appearance in a superhero film (as the villain!) is as good as you might expect him to be as his plays the part of the villianous Alexander Pierce very well and he manages to make his character very loathsome.
Redford also has some good scenes that include the one where Pierce shows his true nasty colours where he goes as far as to even shoot one of his own staff when she unwittingly comes back as she forgot something only to see Pierce with the Winter Soldier.
And to save time I will later mention one of Redford's good scenes where his delivers a short speech to (SPOILER!!!!!!!) Nick Fury and he says to him "Because you're the best. And the most ruthless person I ever met!". And he continues saying to Fury "Our enemies are your enemies, Nick. Disorder, war. It's just a matter of time before a dirty bomb goes off in Moscow, or an EMP fries Chicago. Diplomacy? Holding action, a band-aid. And you know where I learned that; Bogota. You didn't ask, you just did what had to be done. I can bring order to the lives of seven billion people by sacrificing twenty million. It's the next step, Nick, if you have the courage to take it!". And Fury says to him "No, I have the courage not to!".
And last of all there is Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. who has an attempt made on his life by rogue members of the organisation as Pierce is set to take over.
And obviously an actor of Sam's calibre has some good scenes and these include the one near the start where Rogers confronts Fury over his hidden agendas and how Fury is relcutant to trusy anyone. And Fury says to Rogers "Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye. Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything". And Rogers says to Fury "I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own" and Fury replies "It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets, because nobody knows them all" but Rogers protests "except you" and Fury says "You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that".
And lastly later on there is the scene where Fury (SPOILER) who survived the attempt on his life speaks to Rogers about Pierce and he holds a photo of him. And Fury says to Rogers "This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said that peace is not an achievement, but a responsibility. It's stuff like this that gives me trust issues!".
DIRECTORS AND MUSIC
As for the film's directors, the brothers', Anthony and Joseph Russo both have done an excellent job here with Winter Soldiers. And the Russo's more than confidently handle the film's action scenes and they nicely build up the suspense aswell keeping the film's pacing relatively taut and close aswell throwing in some surprise moments where the action appears out of nowhere. The Russo's will also go on to direct the follow up sequel to Winter Soldier, Civil War, which will be released later this year.
As for the music, Henry Jackman (no relation to Hugh!) composes a pretty decent score for the film and it fits the tone of the film very well and features some good moments even if the score itself isn't totally remarkable or that memorable, it is more than fit for its purpose. Jackman interestingly enough has also branched out to scoring video games and provides the score for the upcoming PS4 game, Uncharted 4, of the acclaimed Nathan Drake series.
FLAWS
As the Winter Soldier's flaws.....well I have to say I didn't pick up on too many to really nitpick about but there are still the odd niggle here and there.
And to start off the thing I would have to say about the film that is slightly bothersome is the fact that it does a feel a bit overlong and it could have actually done with being trimmed a little down to just under two hours. And with that I also felt that the film's denouement is also a little drawn out too and it maybe takes a bit too long to get to the very end.
Another thing was I felt it would have been good to have heard more dialogue from the Winter Soldier character himself as he is largely reduced to just being a silent character until his reveal later. And after this you feel that his character is also a bit reduced in terms of threat and initimidation just like Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, kind of also loses the impact and fear factor a bit when he removes his mask in the movie. And ultimately you get that the Winter Soldier (or Bucky if you like) will eventually make his own redemption sooner or later in maybe the next film (or maybe not!) as is usually the case in these sort of films!
And believe it or not that's all I have for the film in terms of flaws (and that IS short!).
SUM UP
So to sum up, The Winter Soldier is an excellent superhero film and given the abundance of superhero flicks out there just now, this one really stands apart from the others as it really scores in terms of its action, suspense aswell as its very well drawn characters. The cast are all excellent aswell and the inclusion of Robert Redford as a villain, is surprisingly effective and he makes for a pretty good one. And the end of the film nicely sets the tone for what hopefully should be a very intriguing sequel in Captain America: Civil War.
So all in all The Winter Soldier is easily one of the best Marvel superhero films out there just now and it makes up for some of the mediocre films they have produced in recent years for Marvel based characters.
And so that's it for now and I will be back again sometime with yet another post.
Till the next un, its bye from me for now.
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