Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review (Part 2)

...continued from May 6

Action!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier's action is fantastic. From elaborate military operations to car chases to massive explosions and the expected “boss battle,” the film goes all out. You could even argue that the scale of battle compares with that of The Avengers.

Action in CA2 is well thought out and spatially aware. I greatly appreciate it when action uses the environment to enhance the scene. There are many examples of this in CA2. The first is a memorable scene where Steve has to battle over ten men in a small elevator. The next sees Captain America and company attacked by the Winter Soldier while in their car on a highway overpass, only to have the action descend on to the street below. I like these sequences because they don’t cop out and let the particular special abilities of the characters dominate how the action plays out. If you wonder what I mean, this was a problem in Iron Man 2. At the end of that film, Stark is surrounded by several automatons that he must take down with the help of Col. Rhodes. The action that follows is boring and just simply a highlight reel of what makes Iron Man cool: powerful lasers, good armor, some guns firing, and that’s it. There is no real danger and the situation is not unique. This scene, which was supposed to be climactic, was no more enthralling to me than when Iron Man blew up a tank in his first movie. However, these particular moments in CA2 go against that tendency. The elevator scene is especially well done because it is exactly the opposite of a situation where a large shield would be useful. The action is intense and I actually felt a bit on edge. And yet, occasionally, you’ve got to be cool too. The scene that sees Captain America take down a S.H.I.E.L.D. gunship from a motorcycle still gives me chills.

A Great Villain...

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy will go down as one of the greatest movie trilogies ever made. Many factors contribute to this, but one of the best things Nolan did in making that series was to write and cast a memorable villain. In a superhero movie, it makes sense that the villain should be larger than life, especially if he is to challenge someone like the protagonist and give the audience a true sense of peril. While Batman Begins didn’t have the best of villains, Liam Neeson’s portrayal of a determined Ras al’ Ghul set a precedent. What followed in the next two films were bad guys of the highest caliber. Probably no villain, except for Darth Vader, has become more iconic in pop culture than Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight. And Tom Hardy’s brilliant performance as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises cannot be overlooked either. Both of these villains made these movies. Take away any part of their performance and the movie would just not be the same.

The Winter Soldier had a killer introduction.

Unfortunately, Marvel has not been able to follow suit in most of its movies but for one major exception – Loki. Although seemingly impossible to topple the Joker in villain stardom, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was perfect for the story Joss Whedon and Marvel established in The Avengers. Witty, over-confident and cunning, Loki made that film. Just like Nolan’s trilogy, The Avengers would not have been the same without a memorable bad guy.

In The Winter Soldier, I wanted this trend to continue. The film is named after the villain, for goodness sake, so I wanted the villain to be a lot better than the Red Skull from The First Avenger. I got what I wanted and, just like in Nolan’s films, the Winter Soldier got two excellent introductions – one to Nick Fury and one to Captain America. The first time the audience sees the Winter Soldier is after Nick Fury narrowly escapes a dangerous assassination attempt. Just when I started to breathe again, the Winter Soldier arrives, standing alone and silent and with one shot destroys Fury’s vehicle and nearly kills Fury himself had it not been for a cheap screenwriting cop-out that let Fury burn his way through the asphalt to escape below the street. Very soon afterward, Fury makes his way to Rogers’ apartment only to be shot through the window by the Winter Soldier. Rogers gives chase and it ends in the most brilliant villain introduction Marvel has done yet. In an action that exactly mirrors the plot of the film, Captain America throws his shield at the Winter Soldier only to have him catch it without difficulty and hurl it back at Steve, sending him skidding backwards. This scene is so perfectly executed and telling of what the entire plot would be that now, after seeing the film, I would say it almost made the whole movie for me.

In addition to The Winter Soldier, I thought the crew did an excellent job in the casting of Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce. I enjoyed Redford tremendously in Spy Game alongside Brad Pitt, and ever since then he has been brilliant in roles that have him “explain the way things work.” He can be warm and inviting but also rough around the edges in just the right way and when he flips the switch from questionable to contemptible, the result is haunting. Because it is easy to hate the strong brutal bad guy, Redford’s role as a white-collar mastermind gives the antagonists balance. I found I was in more fear of Redford’s character at times precisely because of his gentle demeanor. A bad guy who acts good can be the most dangerous of all.  

... But A Villain We Know Nothing About

Okay, I’ve been giving a lot of praise, so I guess I have to say something bad about the film. The Winter Soldier was marred by several lost opportunities, or at least some elements that I think would have made the story more captivating.

Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce

The first and most obvious missed opportunity is CA2’s failure to provide a compelling back-story on the Winter Soldier. When your film is named after your primary villain, maybe we should know a few things about him, such as what kind of things Hydra did to break his mind, how he was able to survive the fall, etc. There’s a line in the movie where Black Widow says that the Winter Soldier has been behind assassinations and political espionage for over 50 years. Yet Bucky doesn’t look a day older. I buy that Hydra can keep his mind set to what they want it to be, but I can’t buy that Bucky has been doing missions for 50 years and doesn’t at least look a little aged.

Everything about the Winter Soldier is only briefly mentioned or skimmed over in some side note and not extrapolated on. Even when the film tries to dive into the emotional bond Rogers has with Bucky, it cuts it short. Suddenly we’re seeing a scene that flashes back to the 1930s as Bucky and younger (pre-serum) Rogers make a commitment to each other. But this scene is so rushed and confusing that it loses all emotional impact. And when Rogers refers to this memory later in a final confrontation with Bucky, its impact falls flat because there was no foundation for me to feel moved by this encounter. For all the great things about the presence of the Winter Soldier, such as in his introductions to Fury and Captain America, the character or even the nature of the Winter Soldier is extremely lacking. And that’s disappointing. This movie should have been called Captain America: The Enemy Within or something, because as much as the name sounds cool, The Winter Soldier is not really about Bucky. He’s just a pawn that has great action scenes. I really figure all the raw, gritty emotion from the Winter Soldier finding out who he is will come in Captain America 3. Maybe that one should have been called The Winter Soldier and not this one.

Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier

Physics and Cop Outs

Another glaring problem with The Winter Soldier is the inconsistency in just how capable Captain America is. It seemed to me that in the first Captain America movie, it was established that Steve Rogers was stronger, faster and more qualified in combat than most people, but he certainly didn’t seem to acquire any “superpower” of any kind. His shield lets him match up against stronger foes, but ultimately he is vulnerable to someone slightly stronger than him without it. This is displayed perfectly in The Avengers, where the only way Steve can really compete with Iron Man and Thor in their “friendly” feud is to whip out the shield. I guess this is a comic book character, so I should relax about the consistency right?

And yet, am I really supposed to believe that Steve can survive a fall from over 20 stories up onto a concrete floor simply by putting his shield under him to brace his fall? And am I also supposed to believe that he can lift a beam that weighs several tons after being beat up, stabbed and shot over three times? Am I also supposed to believe that Steve can survive a grenade going off in his face that sends him over a highway overpass and through a bus? I mean, if he had fallen off the overpass and fell on the bus it would have been one thing (like the grenade in The Avengers that sends him flying out of a building onto a car), but this thing sends him flying so violently that he bounces like a ragdoll. Then he gets up, relatively unshaken, and runs out of the bus as literally MILLIONS of bullets are flying by from three automatic rifles and a Gatling gun. Am I really supposed to believe that one bullet didn’t hit him? And who are these morons who fight with the Winter Soldier that shoot at Captain America’s shield? I mean, I’m no villain, but at least I would know to shoot at the guy’s feet. Or at least flank him. I mean, Call of Duty taught me that! Come on people. Oh, and Falcon could not survive the fall he takes either. A parachute will not stop your fall if it opens only a second before you hit the ground…

For all the clever action scenes in this movie, there are also a lot of cheap cop-outs too. I already mentioned that Fury inexplicably escapes the Winter Soldier’s first appearance by DRILLING A HOLE THROUGH THE ASPHALT with a torch of some kind. Like, where did he go? Is there a sewer under there? Did he just keep going until he got to China? And what kind of handheld stick could do that? Even Qui-Gon’s lightsaber took more than a minute to get through the blast doors in The Phantom Menace. Yet Nick Fury took all of ten seconds to drill a hole big enough to fit through and long enough to escape through. Come on, screenwriters. Give me a break. Oh but wait! They do it AGAIN! And this time it is even more hilarious because they drill the hole in a truck WHILE ITS MOVING. That got more than a chuckle from me in the theatre.

The Showdowns that Could Have Been Better

Halfway through CA2, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff discover that Hydra has been secretly growing within S.H.I.E.L.D., using its resources to expand and quietly gain control over the world through strategic initiatives. This realization catapults Rogers and his team toward a multi-pronged showdown that has huge implications. Fury and Romanoff have to stop Alexander Pierce from succeeding in his plan, all while Captain America and Falcon must take down the heli-carriers that are essential to it. But in one of the best moments of the film, Rogers delivers a message through the PA system at S.H.I.E.L.D., informing employees that Hydra has duped them. What follows is an intense standoff, as Captain America-loyal agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. take a stand against the now-revealed Hydra operatives in the same building.

An especially exciting scene takes place as a computer operator refuses an order given by a Hydra soldier. The soldier threatens the operator’s life and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent steps in, leading to a frantic battle. While a few more of these moments are briefly shown, this whole important part of the climax to CA2 is left out in the cold. The opportunity for more intense and thrilling moments as employees come to realizations and turn on each other is fantastic for a movie chalked full of attempted depth. But just like the moment between Captain America and the Winter Soldier I mentioned earlier, this is cut short. Again I found myself jumping on board to the idea initially but then ended up feeling disappointed.

And strangely this is exactly how I felt about most of the final confrontations in this film. Sam Wilson alludes to the idea that Rogers might be faced with the difficult choice of killing Bucky or sparing him. And yet this moment doesn’t really happen. Rogers fights and cripples Bucky briefly but there is no key moment where he decides that he will spare Bucky instead of killing him. All the potential and buildup to that moment is lost. In fact, the climax ends up being the opposite – Bucky decides to spare Rogers, which is even more confusing because just a minute before he was shooting at him. Was I supposed to gather that Bucky all of a sudden remembered? But didn’t they wipe his memory before this battle? Is the line that Steve says to Bucky as he is being choked the one from the flashback? Oh, I guess it is.  So Bucky did remember. But… but why, screenwriters?! There was so much more potential here!!

Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon

Right when that is happening, a great fight between Falcon and Hydra’s Agent Rumlow begins with an awesome start. But then we barely see the fight when it is cut short by the special effects department who decided that a massive ship crashing into the building was more exciting. Again, so much potential, but no delivery!

Conclusion

CA2’s story has a particular poetry to it. Rogers begins as a fish out of water – new to the modern world and confused as to where his path is leading him. But unlike in The Avengers, this more personal journey takes him from confusion to betrayal to, finally, confidence. Probably the most important line for Steve is after he discovers that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been a Hydra front all along. He says, “I guess I just like to know who I’m fighting.” Afterwards he dons the original Captain America outfit, a symbol of his clear conscience and resolve.

Why didn't we get more information on the Winter Soldier?

And yet, once again, the whole story seems to be merely a setup for the next film. I am disappointed that I will have to wait until probably Captain America 3 to see anything more on the Winter Soldier. For a movie that was supposed to be about him, I was disappointed that all we saw of the Winter Soldier was a brief moment of clarity (when he recognizes Steve) followed only by a ton of fight scenes between the two. Additionally, Rogers may have developed as a character, but so much more could have been done with him once he realized that he was fighting Bucky. This realization should have instilled more doubt in Steve’s mind, but this is not built upon very much at all. Then the story weakly crashes Steve and Bucky together in an action-packed climax that left me with more questions than answers. Did Steve actually reach Bucky at the end? Is the Winter Soldier a good guy now? Why is Fury suddenly okay with S.H.I.E.L.D. being gone? If it was such a big deal that Black Widow put her “dirty secrets” online, then why does she not seem to be worried about it? And while I’m fine with questions being left open for another film to answer, these questions were vital to the climax of this one. The confrontation between Steve and Bucky was supposed to be big and it wasn’t. Fury’s resignation to the destruction of S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to be dramatic, but it wasn’t. Black Widow’s past was supposed to be a difficult thing to expose but it doesn’t seem to have been. Everything is wrapped up in a nice neat little bow. For all the individual moments of depth and loss that were done so well in this movie (such as the scene with Peggy, Fury’s "death" and the revelation that Pierce is a monster), an ending with a little more edge I think would have been fine. But instead the film concludes in lukewarm mire, unsure of its own demeanor – triumphant or anticipatory?

 

This scene, where Captain America takes down a gunship from his motorcycle, was just fantastic.

All deeper thoughts aside, I had a blast at this movie. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was just plain fun. It had a menacing villain, a more vulnerable hero, great action and actors that put it all together quite well. Seeing it in IMAX, I enjoyed myself a ton and walked out of the theatre thinking I liked it even more than The Avengers. I can probably chalk that assessment up to my low expectations going in and my initial reactions are always just that: initial. But sometimes I’m spot on. I liked Gravity after the first time and that still holds true two hundred viewings later. I would recommend this film to anyone who just wants to have a fun time at the movies… or anyone who wants to get caught up on Marvel’s universe before Avengers: Age of Ultron comes out.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – a 7.5 out of 10.