Review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) by Bokismovies — 17 Apr 2014

Before I get on with the review I have to mention that MCU is an abbreviation of Marvel Cinematic Universe, the universe where all the Marvel-studios movies take place. Are we on the same page? Yes? Good, let’s start the reviewing!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is the latest installment in the MCU and it is technically a sequel to both “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “The Avengers” and it follows Captain America (Chris Evans) who now works for S.H.I.E.L.D in modern time. When he discovers a conspiracy in the organisation his loyalties are trusted and old friends turns enemies. In his doubts he also encounters a new foe called the Winter Soldier (I will not say who plays him since that may spoil something for you) and secrets from the past and the present are revealed….

The cast in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” is star studded and fantastic! Chris Evans is reprising his role as Cap and he has really grown into the part. Scarlett Johanson, Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders are also back in their roles from previous MCU-movies and they are better than ever! Newcomers to the MCU includes Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford(!). All the actors are fantastic in their roles. The chemistry between, well, everyone is great. Evans and Johansson share intriguing scenes where their characters morals clash. Anthony Mackie’s character is the comic relief but his acting makes the character more than that. It is great to see Samuel L. Jackson’s, Nick Fury get some real action in this film and Robert Redford is very fun to watch.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”‘s strongest suit is probably the script, which is weird to say since this is a comic-book movie and this particular genre is not known for strong writing. Every single character is written perfectly with new characters getting enough development and already established ones are explored further. Captain America as a person was not very interesting in the previous two movies he appeared. He is however a very well written (and acted) character in this movie. One thing that was done brilliantly in the script was that the story isn’t just a “fish out of water” arc. Cap does react to his new surroundings in a very fun and cool way but the emphasis is on the S.H.I.E.L.D-and-everyone-who-works-there and Captain America relationships. The Winter Soldier is a perfect character with much depth and, well, he’s a major bad-ass! Not only the characters are written well but the plot is also great. It has, much like the characters, a lot of depth and twists and turns. It plays out very much like a political thriller in present day with the classic, but oh so fitting, “don’t trust anyone” theme.

The action in “Captain America. The Winter Soldier” is nothing short of amazing! I was literally chewing down my nails, panting and I if I wasn’t so tense I would’ve jumped out of my seat because of all the suspense. The movie was rather violent for being a Marvel-studios production and I appreciated that. It gave the movie a sense of realism and it was intense to the limit. When Cap is being punched around you really feel his pain. There are so many great action pieces and scenes with spectacular fight-choreography and jaw-dropping, in lack of a better word, action!

Directors of the movie are Anthony and Joe Russo from “Community” fame. One would not think that a director-duo mostly known for comedy would be suited for a 170 million dollar blockbuster. One would however be wrong! The Russo’s are handling the directing brilliantly. The comedy is definitely not out of hand. As of matter of fact, nothing is out of hand. Everything is balanced well, the tone is perfect for the kind of story that is being told and all the action is shot amazingly! Kudos!

This film is packed with action, has stellar performances a thick plot and solid directing.