Review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) by Cole W — 21 Jan 2018

Captain America First Avenger was one of the better movies in Phase 1 so I was very excited for this movie because I thought it would save the fairly mediocre Phase 2 which thankfully it did. This movie does not disappoint.

It is not just a superhero movie but also a political thriller in some aspects. The stakes are very high as S.H.I.E.L.D. is being torn apart by Hydra. The action is great especially the hand to hand combat.

The opening tells you that this movie will be great. Before this movie I thought Captain America was alright but he was not great. This movie made me say that he is one of the best Avengers. In this movie he is a complete bad a**.

He also is struggling with life in this time period which I am so glad they showed. When he goes to his old training ground and you see the skinny Steve Rogers again you think about how far he has come.

It is great little moments like that that make this movie. Black Widow has a bigger role than ever. She has not had the best career in the MCU. She was shoehorned in Iron Man 2 and she was good in The Avengers but I was focusing more on the super powered members of the team.

Here she had her time to shine and she definitely did. It shows how bad a** she is while also showing her relationship with Nick Fury. Anthony Mackie joins the MCU cast in this movie as Falcon and he is great.

The Winter Soldier himself is my favourite character. Bucky is back! In the First Avenger I never thought that Bucky was any good. He was alright then but this movie makes him amazing. I was rooting for him for the whole movie and he is even the villain.

His character development and his reaction with Rogers is fantastic. He is easily the best MCU villain besides Loki. The other villain in this movie did not fare as well. Robert Redford is Alexander Pierce.

The acting is good and his backstory is good but he is just not very menacing. He is the third best MCU villain but that is also not saying much. Sam Jackson is still great as Nick Fury and I felt something as he died but then Marvel had to ruin it by making him come back to life like every other character that dies in these movies other than Frega but she is not that important to bring back.

Frankly it would have been better if Nick Fury had just died. Peggy Carter comes back with amazing makeup to make her look old. She is only in one scene but it really shows the humanity of Captain America.

Emily van Camp's character is fine but she sort of feels shoehorned in. Hopefully as the MCU progresses she will have more backstory. Overall it is an amazing movie and did not disappoint one bit.

It is still not as good as The Avengers but I doubt any MCU will top that movie. Thumbs up.