Alo Party Peoples.
I'm going to start by talking about that Marvel Studios special that aired a few weeks ago. Don't worry, I'll get to the movie, but they raised a point that I think is relevant here. They talked about how Captain America was a unique part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a peculiar way. Steve is the only member of the Avengers that can't go back to the realms of his first movie. Thor can always return to Asgard, and Tony Stark can always come back to Pepper Potts, but Steve Rogers can't go back to the 1940's. Time travel via glacier is a one-way trip.
And things in the United States have certainly changed since the 1940's'. We put a man on the moon, Jim Crow laws got the ax, atomic weapons forever changed international politics, and radical Islamic terrorism became an all too real threat. The film reflects this with a complete change in tone and aesthetic from First Avenger. Taking the franchise from a retro throwback WWII pulp adventure, to a modern, Bourne-esque espionage thriller. How did that work out?
As the film opens, Steve is working with Black Widow as part of Shield's special ops team, but he's feeling a little conflicted about being a walking symbol for a government that hasn't been winning many popularity contests lately. He feels especially conflicted about it when he discovers that Shield is building a fleet of weaponized helicarriers in response to Loki's invasion of New York. After an attack on Nick Fury's life by the mysterious Winter Soldier, a figure believed to be behind several history shaping asassinations, Nick gives Steve some super secret info, and he ends up on the run from the law with Natasha.
I probably don't have to spell out the paralell there. Something bad happened in New York, the US government responds with a big military boost, and the embodiment of everything good about America isn't happy about it. That isn't exactly subtle, and it isn't the only thing being paralleled. Unfortunately, saying what the other thing is would give too much away. I might do a followup after people have had a chance to see the movie, but for now let's just say that it's a game changer. As in, you won't believe they went there.
The action is a bit different from the other Marvel movies. Going from the ray guns and magic of its predecessors to mostly realistic bullets and blades. That action is very well done, and it comes with a shift in tone to a slightly more serious kind of superhero movie. It isn't as grim as DC has been recently, but this is a new direction for these movies to take and they handle it well.
The assembled cast works off eachother well. Chris Evans and Scarlet Johannsen have fantastic chemistry, Anthony Mackie as a veteran friend of Steve's with a pair of bionic wings is good, Samuel L Jackson brings real weight to Nick Fury, and Robert Redford does a good job as one of Shield's higher ups.
If there is a real problem with the movie, it's that the Winter Soldier himself isn't present a lot of the time. But that's nitpicking, and when he does show up it works really well.
In conclusion, this is probably tied with Iron Man 3 for best non-Avengers Marvel movie so far, but aside from that, it works well as an action movie on its own. It has shown that Marvel Studios has room for a more serious endeavor. Or at least as serious as a movie about Captain America can be expected to be.
Oh, and stay after the credits. This is Marvel movie #9, you know the drill by now.
Have a nice day.
Greg.B
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