Captain America: The Winter Soldier

An action packed comic book film adaptation, only bettered in the last five years by' The Avengers: Assemble'.

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Certificate: 12A

Running time: Two hours and sixteen minutes

While their content can be quite limited, I generally love comic book films and 'The Avengers' was the best one I have seen since Spider Man 2, it stood for everything that going to the cinema should be. But I honestly found the first Captain America to be rather boring and timid, so I'm glad to write that the sequel is better and far more interesting.

Set two years after the events of the battle of New York in 'The Avengers', Steve Rodgers/Captain America (Chris Evans) is still working for intelligence agency S.H.I.EL.D, while at the same time he is struggling to adapt to contemporary life in Washington DC. S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) returns along with Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.

The premise of the film is centred around 'Project Insight', a fleet of air carriers which use satellites and spy technology created by S.H.I.E.L.D to eliminate potential threats and targets. The situation is made worse when the agency is compromised, which means it's up to Captain America to stop its launch and those who are perpetrating it.

Even with the film's attempts at building a story about the shadowy power of intelligence agencies and the importance of civil liberties. The action scenes are what make it so good, which let's be honest, is primarily what comic books are about. Fun and enjoyable action set pieces.
And there are plenty of them in this film, and the action is far more physical which fits well with Captain America's superpowers (which is basically his super strength and the iconic shield). They are also choreographed perfectly, there are no flashy quick camera edits here which plague so many modern action films, everything you see hits home with the right impact and appears believable.

The special effects are as good as anything I have seen before, while not mind blowing, they serve their purpose perfectly when needed. Another positive is that the central villain was more than a match for the hero, the battles between Captain America and The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) are impressive and once again choreographed well without being overblown. Although he doesn't have an abundance of screen time Robert Redford is effective as the snarly S.H.I.E.L.D director Alexander Pierce. 

In a post Assange/Snowden world it's good that a comic book film is trying something more than just another good guy versus bad guy, the film (vaguely) eludes to the idea of power being given to people with the wrong intentions, and the growing fear about the uncertain world we seem to be living in, and what role the government plays in this. So credit where credit is due.

But the film does have a few weaknesses, the narrative is very contrived, certain plot devices are unimaginative and seem to be just leading the audience on with very little surprise, one particular supporting character suddenly plays a prominent role within the last third of the film without too much character development. And the film could have perhaps had fifteen or twenty minutes shaved off of its running time.      

   

But the positives far outweigh the few minor negatives, 'The Winter Soldier' is a perfect way to lead into the next Avengers film and the second phase of the Marvel Universe.

And stay around for two post credit scenes, one halfway through the credits, and the other when they are finished.

Verdict- 4/5