Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Marvel Studios' Captain America: The Winter Soldier is not only the first big budget spectacle of 2014 that's worth caring about, it's also probably the most intense movie made off of one of their comic properties.  The secret behind the film's success is a brilliant notion - Take Captain America, a square-jawed patriot from the 1940s who still believes in the values of America and its freedoms, and place him int he middle of a 1970s-style conspiracy thriller, where he can't trust anyone, and his own government is out to destroy him. 

This is not just a great superhero movie.  It is a taut and tightly executed edge of your seat thriller that hits home, because of some eerily plausible ideas and plot elements that hit close to home.  While it stays mostly in the realm of fantasy, you can't help but feel the film's hero's unease when he learns that there is another organization within S.H.I.E.L.D. that is slowly destroying it.  Captain America, as well as his alter ego, Steve Rogers (once again played by Chris Evans), is a relic from his own time.  And as he is slowly drawn into a hidden world of corruption and controlling Americans through fear, even he begins to question just what he is fighting for.  If any of this sounds surprisingly complex for a comic book movie, it is in a rewarding way.  You have to give Marvel credit for one thing, they're not playing it safe here, and aren't afraid to shake up the rules of the superhero movie once in a while.

I'm going to be intentionally vague when it comes to recapping the plot, as I knew little about it walking in, and I would like my readers to have the same experience.  As Captain America/Steve Rogers continues to struggle to adapt to our modern society, a new threat shows up in the form of a villain known as the Winter Soldier, who keeps his identity hidden behind a mask, has a massive cybernetic arm, and seems to be designed as the perfect assassin.  The investigation that follows into the identity of the threat leads to the startling discovery that someone or something is trying to destroy the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency from within.  The ever-present Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) gives the Captain some good advice - "don't trust anyone".  This could include his fellow Avengers comrade, Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), as well as a high-ranking official by the name of Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford).  As the plot unfolds, Captain America may find himself fighting against those he once saw as his friends, with his newest ally, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), fighting by his side.

If the presence of Robert Redford as a government official doesn't automatically give you a 1970s conspiracy thriller vibe, then the expertly wound plot, which slowly lets the puzzle pieces reveal themselves, definitely will.  What impressed me most of all about Captain America: The Winter Soldier is that it actually gives its deep plot plenty of time to unfold and breathe.  While there is plenty of action and big-budget set pieces, they do not get in the way in the mounting sense of paranoia that the plot is successfully developing.  If the last movie headlining Captain America was a rousing 1940s throwback adventure, then this is a darker film that thrusts the main character into the now, and forces him to re-examine what he is fighting for.  The fact that both films were written by the team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely shows that they not only hold a wonderful understanding of multiple film genres, but also understand the character of Captain America, and know how to place him in different situations, which should make this a fascinating continuing franchise.

The real surprise here, however, is the directing team of Anthony and Joe Russo.  Having worked mainly in television and sitcoms, and their only other major film being 2006's forgettable Owen Wilson vehicle, You, Me & Dupree, they did not exactly seem like the most likely candidates to direct a big film like this.  And yet, they pull off the intense action sequences, and the even more intense conspiracy plot with an ease that rivals most experts in this genre.  They also show a great amount of knowledge of how to keep the story moving during an action scene.  This is expressed no better than in the climax, which has the action covering five different settings all at once, yet never once does it feel overly complicated or confused.  If I really must complain, a lot of the fights are edited way too fast, with a lot of close up shots.  But, it is only a small complaint, given how strongly the rest of the film works.  They expertly blend the big action we expect, with a more complicated narrative than we are anticipating.

But all the action and plot complexity wouldn't matter if we didn't give a damn about the characters inhabiting it, which fortunately we do.  Chris Evans makes for a likable Captain America, and we can feel his fear and confusion as the values he's always held close are put to the test.  Not only are the evils he's been fighting against since World War II still around, but they're right there in his own organization.  Scarlet Johansson, returning as the Black Widow, gets a bit more screen time and character building in the past, so she's not just a hot body in a black leather outfit who can kick a lot of ass this time around.  And really, it's just so much fun to see Robert Redford appearing in a movie like this, given he headlined two of the great paranoid conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s (All the President's Men and Three Days of the Condor).  Not only is it just inspired casting, but he's clearly savoring the opportunity.

As with all Marvel films, there are sequences during the end credits that hint at future installments.  Not being familiar with the comics, I didn't quite understand fully what they were hinting at, but I was more than intrigued, and wanted to see what's next.  That's really all that counts.  Captain America: The Winter Soldier is not only a vastly superior film to the earlier installment, it's probably one of the better Marvel films period.  And given some of the films we've had so far, that's saying something.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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