Viewed in
2014
Formats
Movie theater.
Premise
In the sequel, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and battles a new threat from old history: the Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier.
Liked
Charming cast/interactions, political thriller vibe.
Disliked
Not delivering on said thriller vibe.
Hated
Bad computer technology plot line.
Thoughts
Kind of a slow burn, but ultimately enjoyable superhero movie.
My favorite part was the funny chemistry between Captain America and his sidekicks. Similar to Thor, Cap by himself isn't very compelling (for slightly different reasons). But his interactions/head-butting with ball-busting Black Widow, funny Falcon, and morally-ambiguous Nick Fury help define the humor and ethics of Cap's character.
Mackie as Falcon was super-likable, making me super-giddy at the possibility of a The Hurt Locker reunion in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I didn't expect Samuel L. Jackson to have such a big part as Fury, playing the shadow to Cap's moral light. After this movie, I'm now way in favor of a Black Widow spinoff movie, thanks to the funny dialog and Scarlett Johansson's badass performance.
The pacing definitely reminded me of old school political thrillers, with a touch of paranoia, moral debate, and atmosphere. Having the legendary Robert Redford with his All the Presidents Men baggage definitely helped with that vibe. It also made for a more relatable character/world compared to the first Captain America movie, as we see some clash of national security principles between Cap and Fury.
Speaking of the first movie, I felt like it was very close to being essential viewing before enjoying The Winter Soldier, as ghosts of Steve Rogers' past keep getting all up in his grill. Having said that, it did a decent job of reminding the audience previous events without much obligatory flashback.
Two other flaws bugged me. First one had to do with the silly portrayal of computer security. You've got an aerial battleship designed for war, but with servers so insecure you can easily pull computer chips out single-handedly?
Secondly, while I enjoyed some of the political thriller aspects of the story, it was ultimately kind of underwhelming. While there were some interesting morality arguments about freedom versus security, the movie itself didn't really integrate those themes into the plot and Captain America's character arc. They helped define some characters, but for all the cool talk, that's all it was, and now it's time to blow stuff up.
Warts aside, in the end, I liked Captain America: The Winter Soldier a lot, thanks to the fun chemistry between Evans, Johansson, Mackie, and Jackson, sprinkled with some creeping 1970's vibe.
Random
Maybe I'm Room 237'ing it, but did I spy an Ultron/Henry Pym throwaway line?
