CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) ****
out of ***** or 8 out of 10
( Steve Rogers, you look pretty good for a
dinosaur. I guess it helps that Chris
Evans is playing you...)
CAST:
Chris Evans, Scarlett Johanssen, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson,
Sebastian Stan, Cobie Smulders, Emily Van Camp.
DIRECTOR:
Anthony Russo & Joe Russo
WARNING:
Some SPOILERS and some damn good arguments to stay the hell out of
Washington D.C. - straight ahead...
IT'S LIKE THIS:
When we last saw Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE
FIRST AVENGERR, he had just been dug out of the frozen tundra of the Antarctic
after being buried in ice for the last, oh, 60-plus years. He then woke up and found himself smack-dab
in the middle of Times Square, which already can be a bit overwhelming to someone
born in the modern era - I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to
someone who was born when Calvin Coolidge was in the White House. Stevie must have shat his pants when he was
that first towering billboard advertisement.
He was probably like: "What the fuck was is a SONY?"
Anyhow, if you folks recall from the first movie,
Stevie was an 89-pound runt who joined the Army during World War II and became
part of some super-soldier top-secret program which ultimately led him to
becoming... ripped and buff as fuck.
Yup, bye-bye 89-pound runt, HE-LLO six-foot-one 220-pound stud muffin. PAR-TAY!
Not surprisingly, Steve's new look earned him the moniker "Captain
America" and he essentially became Superman, but without that red
cape. He also started a relationship
with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who loved him even when he was just that
89-pound runt. He also lost best pal Bucky
Barnes (Sebastian Stan) in the Swiss Alps while trying to defeat the evil
organization Hydra. And then, he was
buried in that aforementioned ice pit in the North Pole - and froze his fine
ass off for over half-a-century.
Flash forward to 2014, where we find Steve is
trying to adjust to life in 2014. Not
easy, considering every he grew up with is either dead or wearing Depends
undergarments. Then factor in how to use
things like the Internet, Facebook, Netflix, cell phones, and those machines in
rest rooms that dispense condoms, and you can imagine just how disoriented our
boy Steve must feel. All that, and he
also has a challenging job at SHIELD - which is like MI-6 but filled with even
more fine-ass people without DOWNTON ABBEY accents.
Fortunately, several things happen to take
Steve's mind off his fish-out-of-water travails: (1) his SHIELD mentor Nick
Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is brutally killed; (2) well, that's pretty much it -
biit isn't that bad enough? Let's just
say that Stevie may soon be wishing he was back in the square 1940s where the
worst he had to worry about was Bucky stealing a girl from him at a dance. Remember those?
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Who's behind the murder of Nick Fury? And why was he killed? Who can Steve count on to help him find
out? Natasha Romanov, AKA, Black Widow
(Scarlett Johansson)? Agent Maria Hill
(Cobie Smulders)? Sam Wilson, AKA, The
Falcon (Anthony Mackie)? Alexander
Pierce AKA Robert Redford (um, Robert Redford)?
And who is the mysterious Winter Soldier who is now terrorizing the D.C.
Metropolitan area? Hmmmmmmm?
WHAT WE LIKED ABOUT THE MOVIE: The cast is uniformly strong and the story
has a nice sense of humor to balance out the taut thriller and action aspects
of the script. Robert Redford is
especially compelling as Alexander Pierce, SHIELD's new chief.
WHAT WE COULD'VE LIVED WITHOUT: Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson AKA Falcon isn't
used as well as he should've been.
Perhaps he will be showcased better in the next AVENGERS film. Also, the script is not as gracefully
streamlined as the first CAPTAIN AMERICA film, with a few more twists and turns
and over-the-top action than is probably necessary. It's also lacking the solid emotional core
that Peggy Carter's romance with Steve provided the first movie.
AND THE "SEXIEST EYE CANDY" AWARD GOES
TO: A tie between Chris Evans and
Sebastian Stan as... The Winter Soldier.
FINAL ANALYSIS: While not as charming and emotionally-resonant as the first CAPTAIN AMERICA film, this sequel boasts a strong cast and a consistently entertaining (if also a bit over-complicated) ride. The first film was very reminiscent of old-fashioned adventures like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM - with superhero elements, and was also anchored by a sweet, surprisingly powerful "love that dare not speak its name" romance between Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, however, is
set in 2014 and plays like a modern chase thriller, which is entirely appropriate. However, as exciting as it is, this film just
doesn't have the emotional staying power of the first movie. Largely because we don't explore Steve's
inner-workings through his relationship with his love interest Peggy - as we
did in the first film. Here, Steve has
no clear love interest. At various
separate points in this movie, it seems like Steve has a simmering
something between Natasha Romanov, Agent
Maria Hill, and even his neighbor Kate (played by Emily Van Camp). However, the script is so focused on the
action that it never slows down for any of these mini-threads to blossom into
anything meaningful.
By contrast, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
was not afraid to slow the plot down to show the growing connection between
Peggy and Steve. All of this careful
build-up resulted in an emotionally-powerful climax where Peggy and Steve must
say one final good-bye over a radio as his plane crashes into the
Antarctic. In this movie, the one scene
between Steve and a now-aged Peggy that could've given the film some gravity is
rushed. As a result, we end up with a
thoroughly-entertaining thrill ride with very little heart. Fortunately, everyone in the cast (especially
Redford) is in top form, so it doesn't hurt the film as much as it coud've. Just enough to keep it from rating as high as
the first film.
