The Case for Captaining America 2

The first Captain America film (well, the first one starring Chris Evans) was really a set up for the Avengers movie, showing Captain America’s origins and setting almost everything else up so that a bunch of diverse superheroes could get together to try and stop a bad man from using a macguffin to destroy the world (one way or another).

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a lot more satisfying than the first film and to my way of thinking, is much better than Thor: The Dark World (though perhaps not quite as up there as the first Thor).  Steve Rodgers may be a man out of time, but when he has the Black Widow (the amazingly cool and gorgeous Scarlett Johanson) by his side, sharing an amazingly awesome rapport while not necessarily having a huge amount of romantic tension between them) and is following in the footsteps of Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) who has an amazing amount of action in this film, then you know the character development and interaction will be brilliant.  And with acting legend Robert Redford along for the ride too, well, what is not to like?

Well, about the only thing I did not like was what appeared to be a brief cameo from a guy who won a competition to be in the movie by being an i-store employee, delivering a rather odd line about the Captain’s “attractiveness”, though the actor himself handled it quite well.  

Elsewise, the film starts with action, slows to great character interaction, and then ends with bigger action and explosions than ever, and all around… rocks.

Of course, there is not enough Cobie Smulders (can there ever be enough?) and the Winter Soldier, the super villain of the title, is actually pretty inconsequential to the main story and may come up again in later tales.  Sure, he looks like a Communist emo who spends huge amounts of time at the gym and getting himself waxed, but really he doesn’t get much to say or do… and I will leave it there for the sake of not revealing any spoilers.

Evans is great though.  I have always quite liked his attitude, and he does earnest almost as well as he does cocky (and he gets the chance to do a bit of both).  So, unlike Hemsworth in Thor: the Dark World, he doesn’t get a bit eclipsed by all the other incredible thesping going on around him, and seeing Redford’s cool demeanour alongside Jackson’s more wild eyed style is pretty amazing in itself.  

So, yeah, it was a great movie.  Not a short one, not by a long shot, and in theory some of the action scenes could be whittled down a bit.  But really, I just enjoyed the highly entertaining ride, and could probably see this on the big screen again, though it definitely does not to be seen in 3D.

Loved the gravestone too.

Verdict: Captain America: The Winter Soldier has very little to do with the Winter Soldier and everything to do with a great blockbusting action film.  Loved it, wish more were like it.  9 stars out of 10 stripes.