Review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) by Diogomendes — 07 Dec 2014

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Analysis: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).

2014 has been a good year not just for movies in general, but also for super-heroes flicks. With the disappointing sequel that’s known as “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”, I also saw “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” which were pretty damn amazing, but the first super-hero film I saw this year was “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”. Holy sh*t, this movie is REALLY good. The pacing is great, the plot is great and the action scenes, oh my god… they are phenomenal. After re-watching it, I had to lower my score but you’ll know why I did that, if you read this whole review. I went to see this movie with my pal, and we were satisfied by how good this movie was. Although, there are some questionably bad elements, some other elements make up for that, and you know this movie exceed my expectations for future Marvel installments.

Steve Rogers, finding it easier to acclimate to the modern society as a soldier of SHIELD, learns that the organization has been compromised and a Soviet assassin known as The Winter Soldier will stop at nothing to kill Captain America, which leads him uncover a truth that will change everything.

First off, let’s talk about the plot. The movie’s spy-thriller plotting is so well done. I love how the filmmakers were trying to fit Steve Rogers in the new world, dealing with the pop culture he has never met before, because, if you saw the first Captain America film (which is most likely you did), you’d know that Captain slept for about 70 years. There’s one scene (curiously, it’s right in the beginning of the movie) where Steve picks his notebook to write down few things he missed when he was frozen back in the 40’s, if you look closely, you’ll see that there’s “Star Wars” written on it. Man, that will blow his mind because if you have seen Star Wars, you probably know that Samuel L. Jackson (the same actor who plays Nick Fury in this movie) is in it. I also love the fact how they constructed the whole Hydra subplot. Now, the villain. While the Winter Soldier is an appealingly badass character, there is no much depth to him. I don’t know, I just think the Hydra’s subplot too often overshadows the title’s character, NOT Captain America, but yes, The Winter Soldier. I think they should have renamed The Winter Soldier to “Captain America: The Fall of Shield”. Perhaps the title didn’t want to give an impression that Shield was going down, to not give too much away of the plot. So yeah, the antagonist was cool, there’s a fight scene where he Bucky Barnes (aka Winter Soldier) punches Cap’s shield, and that resembled the comics, when once Barnes punched Captain’s shield right in the center of the object. I didn’t read the comic, but I heard for someone else.

The dialogue is really bad. I mean, occasionally, it is very bad. Not the way that it’s written, but in the context that the dialogue is put, like for instance, when Natasha Romanoff is sitting next Rogers in the car and she starts asking this: “Was I really your first kiss since 1945?”. Jesus, is really that what were you thinking when you guys were driving towards Shield bunker in New Jersey? Yikes. One of the main reasons that the dialogue in “Iron Man” works is because the director and the studio let Robert Downey Jr. improvise his own dialogue, he hammed it up as Tony Stark. Unfortunately, it is my duty sorry to report that Steve Rogers is not Tony Stark. He’s not witty. In “The Winter Soldier”, the dialogue is rather more annoying than amusing. Luckily, one of the highlights of the film make up for that, which leads me to the next point.

The action sequences. Although the action scenes suffer from some shaky cams, the battles are well choreographed, not only in the final battle but when Agent Romanoff and Captain America are fighting the Winter Soldier in the highway. They are… amazing. My friend and I were astonished by how good they are. Sometimes they felt like warfare battles instead of an ordinary super-hero blockbuster, but then a guy with eagle-wings comes in, and yeah… you know.

The cast is outstanding. Chris Evans returns to reprise the role as Steve Rogers/Captain America and Scarlett Johansson is simply the hottest super-hero sidekick in a while. Like I said before, Samuel Jackson also returns as Nick Fury and other actors like Robert Redford (portraying Alexander Pierce, basically the villain of this movie, kind of) and Anthony Mackie are just great.

Final Score to Captain America: The Winter Soldier: 8.5/10. I’m not a huge Captain America fan, but this movie was startling, stylish and the actors’ performances were magnificent. The dialogue and the villain could use some work, but at the end of the day, this entertaining for everyone. Next MCU review: Guardians of the Galaxy.