CAPTAIN AMERICA-THE WINTER SOLDIER: 8/10 A terrific combination of spy thriller, Marvel Avengers canon addition and just really good action film, this sequel to the first CAPTAIN AMERICA film is easily one of the best of the Marvel films. Anchored by really good performances by Chris Evans, Robert Redford and Anthony Mackie and a bit more substantial role for Scarlett Johansson than she seems to have had in previous films, this is a bit darker in tone than your usual superhero movie. Captain America/Steve Rogers (Evans) questions the motives of SHIELD, the security agency he is a member of, after a rescue mission he leads turns out to have an even more covert side to it. After his boss, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is taken out of the picture and he is suspected of not being a team player by the government overseer of the program (Redford, who looks like he actually is enjoying himself in role for the first time in a while), he finds himself on the run with Black Widow (Johannson) and a veteran, Sam Wilson (Mackie, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite living actors), and finding out things about SHIELD and both its roots and its motivations that have him making some hard decisions, not to mention his meeting up with the other title character-the Winter Soldier, who turns out to be a major link to his past and the key to what is transpiring throughout the film, with the underlying theme of trust nobody, unless they are a true friend. I enjoyed this film immensely-one of the few 3D conversions that actually works and considering how long it is, it never SEEMED long to me. The action sequences were nicely done (the fight scene in the elevator for me was reminiscent of the train compartment scene in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE in that we didnt have to keep being told where it was taking place-it just took place there and was terrific) and the final section with the three SHIELD behemoth gunships was truly epic, with the fight between the two title characters having a great buildup, and even though you know that whole finale was CGI, it was directed well enough that I was totally caught up in it. There were two in-jokes-one involving Redford and the other Jackson, which I will not spoil here, just to let you know that they were so fleeting that I think I was the only one that got them (like what happened when I saw GREMLINS years ago) but not so heavy-handed that they were like the final curtain line from a Moore/Dalton/Brosnan Bond film. Was this film as good as THE AVENGERS? Probably not-I would probably rank this in the same group as the 3rd IRON MAN and the first THOR films: almost as good but not quite...but that is still pretty damn good, and I cannot wait to see where this storyline takes us. :-)
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 13:38:24 +0000
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