The lukewarm critical reception
on both ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Thor: The Dark World’ have been put right as ‘Captain
America: The Winter Soldier’ marks a return to A+ form for Marvel Studios. As
the most straight-laced of the Avengers characters Captain America was ripe for
the picking, so to speak, after the events of the alien Chitauri assault on New
York in 2012’s ‘The Avengers’ movie. In that film, it was revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D,
represented by +Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury character, were not entirely
forthcoming with information that may be important in assisting The Avengers
fight the good fight.
In the aftermath of the events of
‘The Avengers’, Steve Rogers has taken a post with S.H.I.E.L.D, but he’s not
happy. He knows that he’s a man out of his own time and it’s not something he’s
getting used to with any great ease. The film’s writers, +Christopher Markus
& +Stephen McFeely, put the Captain’s circumstance to good use and establish
a dramatic tension in ‘The Winter Soldier’ that sees Rogers question the
motives of the organisation he works for and his commitment to the causes he
fights on behalf of to protect his country.
As Steve Rogers aka Captain
America, +Chris Evans is very much at ease. The character is not an easy one to
play, but the third time out proves that Evans could, if he chooses to be, a
great leading man in action-adventure movies. Movie-goers should hope that
Evans doesn’t follow through on his recent media comments about scaling-back
his acting commitments in favour of directing. It would be a shame not to see
him up on the big screen, whether as Captain America or in other roles.
In addition to Evans, +Scarlett
Johansson lands an expanded role in ‘The Winter Soldier’ and her chemistry with
Evans proves to be one of the film’s highlights. Since she first appeared in ‘Iron
Man 2’, Johansson has shown she can easily match it with her male counterparts
and in this film her character of Natasha Romanoff aka The Black Widow falls
into a relaxed non-conformist rhythm that contrasts the heroic
straight-as-an-arrow Rogers. Johansson’s performance in this film should ensure
that she gets her own head-line movie at some time in the future.
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| Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff aka 'The Black Widow' |
Joining the already established Avengers in ‘The
Winter Soldier’ is +Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon. While not
possessed of super hero powers, The Falcon becomes an invaluable ally to
Captain America in his fight against The Winter Soldier and in the Cap’s
efforts to protect S.H.I.E.L.D from a larger conspiracy. Leading up to the film’s
release, Mackie’s performance was the one that was going to be most analysed;
being the new addition to the team. It’s safe to say that Mackie has fit right
in but, as a mere mortal, has to measure heroics with real-world consequences.
Sam Wilson’s background as a returned war veteran allows him to strike an
immediate friendship with Steve Rogers on the basis of shared combat experience;
not super hero actions and it pays dividends in the film’s climax.
The brotherly directing team of
+Anthony Russo and +Joe Russo have moved from their television background to big budget
feature film without any major problems. They’re assured without being
masterful and their execution of the screenplay is far better than Alan
Taylor’s ‘Thor: The Dark World’. Some of the close-up action, unfortunately, is
too difficult for the hand-held camera work to keep up with and, as a result,
the impact of some of the fight scenes is diminished. This is especially
disappointing in the fight scenes between Steve Rogers and Sebastian Stan’s
Winter Soldier. It’s not a major spoiler given Marvel’s marketing of the film,
but the relationship between Steve and the man he once knew as Bucky Barnes is
an important part of Captain America’s character arc in the film, but the
emotional distress of having to fight Barnes as The Winter Soldier is not as
powerful as it should be because of the fast-moving hand-held camera work.
Director of Photography +Trent Opaloch has received critical praise for his
previous work on films such as ‘District 9’ and ‘Elysium’ but, such is the
frenetic pace of the storytelling; it’s hard for his camera to keep up with the
action.
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| Co-Directing Brothers Anthony & Joe Russo |
For reasons that become apparent,
it is only in the film’s final act that the relationship between Captain
America and The Winter Soldier is expanded and some level of emotional
connection between the pair is achieved. In a show of confidence in the
brothers, Marvel has already announced that the pair will return to Co-Direct
the third Captain America film that is scheduled for release in May 2016. This
will be a major test of the pair’s skill, as they will release the next instalment
up against Zack Snyder’s ‘Batman Vs Superman’ film.
Throughout the marketing of ‘Captain
America: The Winter Soldier’, the film has been referred to as part-Comic Book
movie, part-action film and part-political thriller. The casting of +Robert
Redford as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D – Alexander Pierce – is a very large tip of
the hat to the films that have helped inform the political part of ‘The Winter
Soldier’s’ story. Redford is very closely associated with this type of film
having played the lead in two of the great 1970s political thrillers, ‘All the
President’s Men’ and ‘Three Days of the Condor’. Unfortunately, the film’s
marketing has probably over-stated how much these “political thriller” movies
have informed ‘The Winter Soldier’. There is a level of intrigue involved in
each set-action piece, but there is no sustained feeling of paranoia, as the
action beats are far too frequent to allow for any form of slow-burn conspiracy
storytelling.
Samuel L. Jackson also returns as
Nick Fury, the man responsible for keeping the Avengers initiative together and
under control. In ‘The Winter Soldier’, Jackson’s Fury comes off a little worse
for wear and becomes a catalyst for Captain America to take less of a
rose-coloured view of the people he works with and the organisation for which
he works. Jackson does a good job with his scenes, as the Fury character is
placed in an unfamiliar situation and is forced to improvise without the
support of the S.H.I.E.L.D organisation. It will be interesting to see how Fury’s
new position is written into next year’s ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’, but, if you
listen to a certain piece of dialogue toward the end of the film, a clue
exists.
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| Samuel L.Jackson as Nick Fury with Chris Evans as 'Captain America' |
There is no doubt that the events
of ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ will have far-reaching implications
across the entire Avengers universe as every character is forced to reassess
their position before the end of the film. ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
is the bravest film story that Marvel have told to date and shows that they
extremely confident in their grand story-telling plan. Fans of the Marvel films
will not need to be encouraged to see ‘The Winter Soldier’, but this film works
hard to be relevant to a broader cinema-going audience and is much more
accessible than either ‘Iron Man 3’ or ‘Thor: The Dark World’. As always, the
two-post credit sequences go a long way to establishing where the audiences is
going to be taken in the next couple of years and, like the film itself, are A+
efforts that have the potential to pique the anticipation of even the most casual
movie-goer for what happens next in the Marvel film universe!
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