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| Review by Clay N Ferno |
The First Avenger is back in his blockbuster sequel, joining Iron Man and Thor for in-between The Avengers movies solo ventures. Chris Evans is back as Captain America Steve Rogers, and in contrast to the introduction of the character, the movie is set in present day, after the events in New York in The Avengers.
Flashbacks occur to move the story along, and are welcome callbacks to the WWII story of Cap and Bucky vs. Hydra, but there is much more going on with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and introducing Sam Wilson as Falcon (Anthony Mackie) as the Scooby Gang of espionage S.H.I.E.L.D. is on watch.
Former Community/Arrested Development producer and director team Anthony and Joe Russo add humor to the mix in a subtle way, but more importantly pack so much action and tension into this chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that we hope to see more from them with Cap 3.
While closest to Iron Man conceptually, the flavor of this Marvel Movie is all espionage Cap and Secret Avengers—a combination sure to make comics fans as well as Avengers fans excited, intrigued and headed to the theatre more than once for a taste of this non-stop action.
This is certainly the most meaty of stories and filled with the most Avengers since the franchise took off.
Nick Fury and Black Widow have a lot of screen time, and introduction of Stan Lee and Gene Colan’s Falcon as Captain America’s wingman makes for a great team. While this is still a superhero movie, we are taken to the world that Ed Brubaker established in his run on Cap. Throw in the main, practically unavoidable spoiler that Winter Soldier is in fact Cap’s erstwhile partner in justice Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and you have a complicated past mixed with a technologically advanced future.
The Capsicle humor is kept to a minimum, as in these past months Rogers has been catching up on the Internet, music, and even 1983’s War Games. In fact, he carries around a list of things he needs to catch up on (including Star Wars/Trek, Nirvana, I Love Lucy).
I probably don’t need to mention this but the cast is in amazing shape and looks sexy all around, making the two girls next to me titter every time Mackie was on screen as Falcon and Stan revealed himself behind his Winter Soldier mask. Yes, Evans kept the pecs from the Super Soldier serum. Are they selling that at Walgreens yet?
ScarJo, Smulders, Emily VanCamp (Agent 13) are not only knockout gorgeous but also kick ass as well, transforming these ladies from bombshells to real action heroes!
Robert Redford plays Alexander Pierce, a S.H.I.E.L.D. higher up at the head of a Helicarrier program INSIGHT, meant to keep the world safe. As they say with absolute power, he is somehow corrupted and the plans go astray.
Counting in some other notable Marvel 616 cameos are S.H.I.E.L.D. S.T.R.I.K.E. team head Jack Rollins (Callan Mulvey) as well as opening sequence bad dude Georges Batroc (Georges St. Pierre). The expert in savate, a French form of kickboxing, Batroc the Leaper gives Cap one of the coolest choreographed fight scenes we’ve seen on screen in a while (on par with TV’s Arrow) and great service to the Marvel fanbase.
Keep an eye out for Easter Eggs and clues about the other movies (no, not the post-credit sequence, but if I need to tell you to stick around you are headed to the wrong movie!). For the first time, Marvel’s goal seems to be working, to have these properties all intertwine and exist on the same plane. From Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the big screen, we have certain elements and familiar looking structures. Though we won’t likely see the Triskelion on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., you may see some agents with familiar faces, or at least uniforms.
A subtle note tying Black Widow to Hawkeye is a diamond arrow pendant around her neck. There has to be more so keep those peepers glued open for this flick, you won’t want to miss a thing!
I’ve played the game and will continue to do so. I’m pretty sure we all have. This game (in my head) ranks The Avengers at the top, and Marvel solo movies below, in order of enjoyment. Guardians will really mess up my OCD world, but I digress! Asked as soon as last weekend, Thor: The Dark World would be my top ranking Marvel solo movie. The rest of the order is boring (and were I committing this to ‘print’ I’d regret not being able to change my mind!
I do declare this: Captain America: The Winter Soldier now trumps all Marvel solo movies! Just edging out over Thor: The Dark World. My reasons for this judgment are such: while not an adaptation of Brubaker’s stories, the flavor of his pre-Marvel NOW! Cap run was captured on film, as I was attached to the series. The action was real, explosions and hand to hand combat as opposed to sci-fi or magic.
And finally, it just looked great and felt like the comic book movie we’ve been waiting for as fans since the beginning of time.
