Marvel Month - Mini Review - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

May I introduce the 2 best directors in the MCU right now: The Russo Brothers

And next up is their debut in the MCU. Captain America: Winter Soldier

Released in early 2014, Captain America: Winter Soldier was very successful, earning $700m on the $177m budget and an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Does it still work? Here are my thoughts:

It’s been 2 years since the battle for New York and Steve Rogers is working as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent but isn’t comfortable with some of the secret-keeping going on. After Nick Fury is attacked and supposedly killed, he trusts Captain America to find out what’s going on. His pursuit of the truth with Black Widow leads to some devastating revelations, which to continue this summary, I have to spoil them, sorry? S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by HYDRA since Day 1, they’ve been secretly manipulating events, instigating chaos across the globe in order to manipulate humanity, and their biggest asset is the Winter Soldier, who turns out to be Bucky

Anyway, apparently the experiments he underwent when he was captured that time allowed him to survive the fall… I thought they wanted cheap labour to produced HYDRA's weapons array but I’ll buy it. But with few he can trust, and all the rest of the Avengers doing… something I’m sure, it’s up to Cap, Black and the newly introduced Falcon to end HYDRA's plot and expose them to the world.

To me, this is up there with the best movies in the MCU, they handle Cap’s character perfectly in this, they go through his man out of time phase, he kicks ass with his shield and some martial arts, he has some comedic moments and he makes an inspiring speech that basically got everyone who rallied. Captain America at his finest folks.

And yeah, it’s so easy for an attempt to inspire to sound cheesy, especially with the old-fashioned values Cap has but credit where it’s due, it sounded inspiring and not corny. Beyond that, him trying to relate to the world again, talking to friends both old and new, and trying to keep the ideology that made him who is, they do justice to Cap’s character, unlike the certain comics written by talentless hacks and SECRET EMPIRE IS THE DUMBEST BIG EVENT MARVEL HAS EVER PUBLISHED! Sorry, had to get that out there. I might actually have to do a rage review on that event at some point, it’s that bad.

So, more praises, I like Black Widow, Nick Fury’s probably at his most interesting in this movie, since he operates in some moral greys a bit more. Maria Hill actually has more of a personality in this movie. The fight scenes look fantastic, I like Cap’s costume.

OK, let’s get to my ultimate issue with the Winter Soldier, and its HYDRA. OK, maybe that’s an overstatement. Bringing HYDRA back into the modern day is fine, having them be part of S.H.I.E.L.D. through Arnim Zola and them bringing in German scientists after the war makes sense and is a legitimately good twist. But HYDRA needs a memorable face behind it, Arnim Zola is in the movie for maybe a couple of minutes and largely only serves expository purposes, Senator Pierce is boring.

It’s a problem this era in Marvel tended to have in abundance, even though there were issues with it dating back to Iron Man but Senator Pierce... I knew the moment I saw him in the trailer he was the villain, and everyone else did too. Hell, it’s not even a big reveal in the movie, Cap works it out. But beyond that he’s not really threatening, nor is he especially smart, nor is there anything personal, hell, Cap never actually fights him. Also Crossbones... That's all I have to say about Crossbones

The Winter Soldier is fine on a thematic and character level, but for a movie titled Winter Soldier, there’s surprisingly little of him in the movie. He’s badass, there’s no doubt, but large portions of the character arc aren’t actually in until Civil War, and that hurts a movie that was supposed to be about him. We don’t see him regain any real memories in the movie, he doesn’t do anything meaningful to rebel against his programming, that’s all done in Civil War.

I suppose knowing what happens in Civil War makes this look better in hindsight, and it was already a very good movie. But the villain issue does mark it down for me

Rating 80/100

Also, minor nitpick that doesn’t affect the score – why is Steven Strange one of HYDRA’s targets, given how they predict the future and potential threats, there’s no way they could’ve known he’d become the Sorcerer Supreme