Jay Reviews "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"

  

 

Paranoia and corruption run rampant through Marvel's latest entry in their Avenger themed blockbusters, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This is the second movie featuring the star-spangled hero after his first solo effort in 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. Directed by Joe Johnston, that first movie was a wildly entertaining throwback to the golden age of comics and World War II propaganda. It reflected that era of comics perfectly, helped by the fact the Johnston had some experience in this genre, having made The Rocketeer in the early 90's. The lines between good and evil were clearly drawn then. On one side you had the Captain (Chris Evans) and his Howling Commandos - and on the other you had the demented Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) and his group, HYDRA, bent on world domination.

Having been born into world of defined morals, where everything seemed black and white, Steve Rogers finds himself in our present, unsure of how to live in a world of gray.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier picks up fairly soon after the events of 2012's The Avengers. Rogers has slipped into the role of running black ops for Shield. Under Nick Fury's (Samuel L. Jackson) command, Cap and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) along with a highly trained Shield strike team, are inserted onto a hijacked freighter. Watching Captain America quickly and quietly take down what seems like dozens of armed pirates, his famous shield bouncing off of walls and taking down foes, was jaw-dropping. The fight choreography in these opening moments, and in the entire movie for that matter, was dazzling and inventive. Making fantastic use of the shield, watching Chris Evans bash through bad guy after bad guy, the fights are original and, for lack of a better term, bad-ass.

Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America (Chris Evans) teams up with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to keep the world safe for threats everywhere. But what happens when the treat is the very organization they work for?

After catching Black Widow downloading some shady computer files, Rogers begins to doubt his role in Shield, but before he can do anything about it, Nick Fury is the target of an assassination attempt. The gripping chase sequence where Fury uses his souped up SUV to escape an viscous attack by a heavily armed strike team is edge-of-your-seat fun and it shows why this movie finally gives Samuel L. Jackson his time in the spotlight.

With Fury out of the way its up to Cap, Black Widow and new friend Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to fight the growing threat from within Shield. In their way is the mysterious Soviet assassin named the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), who may have a connection to the Captain's past.

The enigmatic Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) may prove more than a match for the star-spangled hero.

I can confidently say that this is the best of the Marvel movies so far. It succeeds in ways that set it apart from the others in the canon like Iron Man and Thor. One of these ways is that it feels much more like an action movie married to an espionage thriller than a comic book one. There is very few elements of the superhero genre here. Now, that is not what makes it better than those other pictures. They serve their purpose and feel right for their respective heroes. Comparing them is difficult, because The Winter Soldier feels like it belongs in a different world. One that seems more real and in same ways familiar. It is in this respect, depicting a world gripped in fear, and having something to say about the state of things, that it sets itself apart and, for me, elevates itself.

Brothers Anthony Russo and Joe Russo directed this film. That's surprising because the only other major feature film they have directed was 2006's You, Me and Dupree. Other than that, its been a lot of television for them, including NBC's Community and the cult favorite Arrested Development. They really knocked it out of the park, though. IT will be very tough for any other of the upcoming summer blockbusters to top this one.

There are some fine supporting performances that deserve to be mentioned, most notably Robert Redford as Shield executive, Alexander Pierce. He lends a gravitas to the movie that harkens back to some the conspiracy thrillers he made famous in the 1970's including Three Days of the Condor and the excellent All the Presidents Men. I can't help but feel he was casted to help make the connection between this movie and those epics of government paranoia.

Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) shakes Rogers' (Chris Evans) hand after another successful operation.

Chris Evans proves that he can make us forget those awful Fantastic Four movies and he embodies this character with the qualities that have made him such a stalwart in comic history. Scarlett Johansson continues to have fun with her role and proves that its time she had her won movie to shine in. Her back and forth banter with Rogers gives her more to do than she's had in any of the previous movies.

All in all, this is a movie you can't afford to miss, especially if you're a Marvel fan. I grew up reading Marvel and its awesome to see that they continue to try to make smart, fun and engaging pictures while staying true to the source material.