REVIEW | Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

The Story:  Two years after “The Avengers” the first of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is working for S.H.I.E.L.D and is confronted with a Russian Super Soldier that is just as powerful as him, if not more so. This is the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to feature Captain America and his second solo film following “Captain America: The First Avenger”

The Facts: The movie is Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and stars Chris Evans as Captain America/Steve Rogers, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier(Link Contains Spoilers), Anthony Mackie as Falcon/Sam Wilson, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce.

My Overall Take on the Movie: This is Captain America's first time to fully shine on his own without being held back by either his origin story or any of the other members of The Avengers. Not to say that Cap is alone in this film. There are a number of others helping him but unlike in The Avengers Captain America is the undisputed star of this group. This film was 100% better than “The First Avenger.” The writing was better, the action was better, the stakes were higher and it actually felt like a movie that Marvel wanted to make and not just something that was made as a stepping-stone toward “The Avengers”. This film was also a great political thriller. With this phase of the MCU Marvel is blending different genres and this particular film is pretty much an espionage/superhero movie. Some have said that this is the best non-avenger solo film that Marvel has made so far, and while I’m not saying I dispute that, Captain America is my least favorite of The Avengers so my personal ranking of Phase 2 would have to be Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Cap 2.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Things I liked: I really enjoyed the character of The Winter Soldier even though I knew who he was from the comics but the reveal didn’t really take away from the film at all. I enjoyed the dynamic between Cap and Falcon and I’m really hoping he comes back for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Black widow was actually a good and useful character in this film as opposed to iron man 2 and the avengers versions of her character. The humor was good and was dispersed in just the right amount for this type of movie (which marvel movies all do very well.) This movie is also full of social commentary of our own government.

Things I Didn’t Like:  There’s really only one thing I can think of that is the overt product placement. I don’t necessarily mind product placement in films but as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews I absolutely hate when it takes me out of the movie. For instance almost every vehicle shown in the film is a Chevy, which isn’t too bad, but there’s one scene where Cap and Black Widow go to a mall specifically so they can go to an Apple Store while the MacBook pro logo was proudly displayed across the screen.

         Final Verdict: See it in theaters and buy it on Blu-Ray!!!

My Favorite Scene: The fight between Captain America and The Winter Soldier in the streets with Black Widow and Falcon just because of how well done and realistic it looked and also because Winter Soldier is a badass with the knife.