The first Captain America was the weakest entry in Phase One
of Marvel’s plan for cinematic world domination. It was a perfectly well made
film, with a likable leading man in Chris Evans and a fun, alternate history
for WW2, but it fell flat.
It suffered from being an origin movie for a character
created with a very simplistic goal. Captain America was designed to be the
pinnacle of the “American man”; patriotic, brave, just and always, always
defending the American take on freedom.
Those characteristics, while crucial to his initial appeal, are the
reason the first film fell flat and why this second effort, and to a lesser
extent The Avengers, are so much stronger.
Putting an incorruptible, borderline indestructible and, for
a modern audience (particularly outside of the U.S) unsubtly patriotic hero in
such a good vs. evil battle, where they’ve even tried to create a more
horrifying version of the Nazis in Hydra, inevitably leaves the film feeling
dull, predictable and simplistic despite the CGI pyrotechnics. It seemed
particularly dull when compared to the moral greyness of Tony Stark or the
Shakespearean clashes between Norse gods that made up the rest of the first
phase.
However put him in a modern setting, in a world where the
good guys are a lot less clearly distinguished from the villains and his clear
cut heroism becomes much more interesting.
The Winter Soldier picks up where The Avengers left the
Captain, fighting under SHEILD’s banner but increasingly uncomfortable with the
motives and methods that many of the missions involve. Early on it is revealed
by Nick Fury that SHEILD has expanded since the last film, both in its
surveillance abilities and its ability to act on what they find.
Specifically this involves a targeted death from above for
people deemed a threat, an approach that deliberately draws parallels to the
real world use of Drones and mass surveillance. The political commentary in the
film isn’t subtle or overly complex, this is a Disney/Marvel film after all,
but to make the Star Spangled Captain arguably Marvel’s most subversive hero
tickled me and makes him infinitely more interesting as a key figure in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Side note, if anyone
reading this has read a lot of the comics, is this a theme that runs through
the comics? The Captain in opposition to the moral relativism of organisations
like SHEILD?
Chris Evans also seems to be growing into the role, possibly
enjoying the greater complexity he has to work with. In the first film he is a
caricature, in The Avengers he’s comic relief as the fish out of water, but
here he’s a much more rounded character.
He’s more relatable than before, for large parts of the film
he is Steve Rogers rather than Captain America, someone struggling to figure
out where he fits in the world and what kind of person he wants to be. That
uncertainty is obviously much more engaging than his dilemma in the first film
which largely boiled down to, “should I use my super strength to stop the evil
Nazi plan to destroy America?” Spoilers, he decided he should.
The supporting cast is impressively strong with Robert
Redford adding gravitas as a senior politician within SHEILD, while Samuel L
Jackson and Cobie Smulders continue to revel in their roles as resident badass
bureaucrats Nick Fury and Maria Hill respectively.
Two performances outside Evans’ stand out, one from a
returning character in the universe, one from a new addition.
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov/Black Widow gets to
add a good amount of humanity to being a badass spy how spends a lot of time
assuming poses that seem impractical in a combat situation. Her scenes with
Steve show an entertaining chemistry that refreshingly isn’t primarily romantic
in nature. One of the biggest criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
partly due to them not having access to the X-Men, is the lack of strong female
characters and any development of Natasha as a rounded human being are very
welcome. Joss Whedon started it in The Avengers with her reaction to the Hulk
and her manipulation of Loki, but The Winter Soldier goes further by exploring
Natasha outside of being Black Widow.
Similarly, Anthony Mackie’s character is a strong addition
to the cast, because he adds humanity as well as action potential. I’ve liked
the actor since watching him in The Adjustment Bureau, and it’s good to see him
seizing the opportunity offered him with the character of Sam Wilson. Sam
offers a subtly comic touch as well as helping to make the Captain more
relatable by bringing home the idea that they are both combat veterans, haunted
by the mental scars that that entails. As the trailer shows, he’s also a
valuable sidekick for the Captain when things get rough in the form of the
Falcon and I’m glad they chose such a likeable, relatable character to stand
beside him.
The tone of the film is that of a 70s thriller, set in
Washington D.C and full of suspicious boardroom meetings and everyone other
than the Captain holding onto secrets. It moves along at an impressive pace,
tension and scale escalating constantly.
The Winter Soldier of the title, as the trailer showed,
looks like Cap’s old friend Bucky Barnes, who we last saw falling from a train
into a valley so deep we couldn’t see the bottom. He’s an interesting foe for
the captain, posing an emotional as well as physical challenge. He’s powerful,
calculating and somewhat unpredictable, accompanied by an excellent theme
whenever he arrives on screen. I won’t say anymore about him outside of the
spoiler specific section below, but he definitely works as an engaging villain.
As most of the reviews have pointed out, the film suffers
from the same “let’s blow everything in sight up”, CGI battering final showdown
that Iron Man 3 did, but the action is well done and unlike Stark’s latest
effort, felt earned by the context.
I’ve thought about it a fair amount since seeing this film
almost a month ago and my initial reaction hasn’t changed. The Winter Soldier
is my favourite of the Phase Two films. It takes more risks and develops both
the character and the wider universe much more effectively. Thor 2 and Iron Man
3, for all their many and various merits, felt like more of the same for me,
repeating what had worked previously. Perhaps it was to Captain America 2’s
advantage that the first film’s underwhelming critical and audience response
meant they felt they had to take risks rather than relying on what had proven
to work previously.
If I’m going to keep being entertained by Marvel’s cinematic
output well into the 2030’s or whenever it’s president Kevin Feige has it
planned out until, I’ll definitely need more films like The Winter Soldier.
Now, onto the spoiler section. You should know the drill by
now, don’t read past this point if you don’t want to know major plot points
from this film and possibly other Marvel films.
This is your final warning.
So this section is going to explore four aspects that it
would have been tough to discuss in any detail without risking spoiling the
plot.
Firstly, the film did make use of one of my current pet
peeves with summer blockbusters, an annoyance that I wrote about in my Star
Trek Into Darkness review. Yes, The Winter Soldier sees the return of the “I’m
not really dead” trope, in relation to a central character. Around a third of
the way through Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury appears to have been killed by the
Winter Soldier and his death is the trigger for the escalation of the plot. I
was actually beginning to think he had been killed, he’d certainly been shot
enough times that it seemed possible. It was a suitably dramatic death and
upped the emotional stakes as well as suggesting vulnerability for named cast
members. But then he pops up, slightly battered but certainly alive.
I can’t claim I was surprised he wasn’t dead, both because
he’s a super spy (fooling your enemies into believing you’re dead is a handy
trick) and because Marvel have shown a reluctance to kill off anyone important
(Loki in Thor 2 springs to mind).
As I’ve said in earlier blogs I entirely understand the
reluctance to kill these characters off, but the frequency with which this
trope is being used in big budget blockbusters means that I neither feel the
emotional hit of the death or the surprise of their return.
Secondly I found it an interesting move for them to name the
film ‘The Winter Soldier’ then have him on screen relatively little, arguably
more of a henchman than a mastermind. His story was well done, the relationship
between Captain America and him was interesting as the Captain tried to reach
out to his old friend, believing he was still in there beneath the anger and
cyber tech, but it never really felt like his film.
It feels somewhat like they were setting him up as a
character with future films in mind, particularly considering his visit to a
museum about Captain America and the Howling Commando’s exploits in WW2. It
will be interesting to see whether he plays any part in the Avengers: Age of
Ultron, or if he’s going to be kept on one side for the already confirmed third
outing for Steve Rogers. That possibility is also made more interesting by the
fact that Chris Evans seems to be somewhat disinterested in continuing to act
in big projects. I’m sure people familiar with the comics have theories on
where those two characters could go, but with all the alternate universes and
reboots I suspect even they can’t be certain.
Thirdly, in relation to the final act’s explosion heavy
action, I felt that while the action itself wasn’t particularly ground
breaking, it felt like the natural conclusion to the story rather than
explosions for the sake of it (I’m looking at you Iron Man 3). The attempted
coup by HYDRA, with SHIELD agents and HYDRA battling it out aboard three
airborne Helicarriers, justified the action and made good use of small scale
battles as well as the big picture, Imax extravagance. It was big rather than
clever perhaps, but it was entertaining and worked within the larger film.
Finally, I wanted to mention that I’m intrigued by the way
the film and Marvel’s TV show Agents Of Shield are tying in with each other.
The past few episodes of Shield have dealt with the attempted HYDRA coup and
the fall out with previously trusted allies suddenly enemies and it’s buzzed
along with a lot of momentum, especially compared to the slower, sometimes
clunky establishing episodes at the start of the season. You didn’t need to have seen Captain America
to enjoy Agents of Shield, and vice versa, but they added to the overall
experience and make for a wider sense of the universe the films and show exist
within. It’ll be interesting to see how the TV show continues, its ratings
haven’t been spectacular and the quality has been inconsistent, but there is
certainly potential there both for the show and for the way in which studios
can look to combine film and TV projects.