Captain America

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – PG13

Ahh, the superhero movie – something I yearned so deeply for when I was a child, but now these things get churned out at such a feverish pace that the luster and awe of seeing your favorite heroes translate from page to screen is gone. Captain America: The Winter Soldier brought me back. We see an above-average cast navigating their way through a smart plot with some of the best action sequences that this genre has really had to offer in a long time. Cap 2 isn’t just a good superhero flick but an enjoyable film in general – high praise I haven’t given to one of these since The Dark Knight.

Cap picks up in a Post-Avengers (the film, they aren’t all dead) world where super-humans and aliens exist but relies on the actions of just a regular person to start in motion the devious plot of the film. S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated and used to conduct acts of terror and violence seemingly since the inception of the agency. In this case, this proposed violence is Operation: Insight in which ultra-advanced helicarriers are compromised and are coded to eliminate over 20 million people because they may at one point becoming an nuisance for the new world order that Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), a member of the World Security Council and a bigwig at S.H.I.E.L.D., wishes to set in motion. He claims that killing 20 million will bring order to the other 7 billion in the world. Obviously this doesn’t mesh well with Cap, Nick Fury and Co.

The plot parallels many of the issues we are dealing with as American’s right now. As we grapple with losing fundamental liberties in exchange for “security” in our own society so does Captain America. Returning screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely scribed a screenplay that actually has a little bit of grit and  isn’t afraid to comment on some of the cultural and societal issues at play here in the US of A. They also crafted a story that only Captain America fits in to – as it should be considering it is his movie. We wouldn’t see Thor or the Hulk fighting spies and attempting to divert espionage that would lead to Pierce’s proposed police state. It just makes sense and that is what makes Cap 2 work so well.

The cast also meshes so well together that you can actually let go and enjoy instead of being jarred back to reality with clunky dialogue and over the top camp. Chris Evans has grown into his role as Cap so beautifully in this third iteration of the character that I cannot think of one other actor I would want to sub in. He feels like Captain America – you’ll understand after you watch it. Samuel L. Jackson is also back as Nick Fury the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha Romanoff. We also have two welcome new comers in Robert Redford, who adds a sense of depth that only someone with his pedigree could, and Anthony Mackie (Pain and Gain) playing war-vet Sam Wilson and The Falcon who makes a perfect buddy character for Cap. Above-average acting has really really helped this film, and I suspect that this trend will continue in the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo, known for the television series Community, navigate this action film with the best of them despite never coming anywhere near the genre before this installment. They fall right into the action-style and direct the hand to hand and combat scenes with such finesse that you would assume they were veterans of the genre. This is one of the best things that Cap 2 has going for it. Even the CGI sequences seem to work better than say Thor: The Dark World or the latest Iron-Man.

Now, you may notice that any mention of The Winter Soldier is, in fact, missing. This may seem a little weird since he is a titled character, but once you start watching you’ll know why. I am not saying that his presence is unneeded, but, while at the foreground of the fighting, he is in the background of Pierce’s greater plans. Also, I ain’t spoilin’ nothin’.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is everything a superhero film should be: it has a sleek story (nothing too earthshattering), benefits heavily from good writing and acting, and also fits very nicely into its 136 minute run time – never feeling like too much is being crammed into it. Cap 2 does what the newest Thor, Iron-Man, and even The Avengers couldn’t do, and that is making an entertaining film through and through that isn’t bogged down by too many characters and bad writing (Read: The Avengers). I hope that this is the way of the Superhero genre, but judging by the sheer amount of them coming down the sewage pipe and into a theater near you – I sincerely doubt it.

7/10