Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo)

[TGM]

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

imdb

[TGM]

This movie has its moments, a few nice lines of dialogue here and there, but for the most part, it's little more than a dull, boring, uninspired shoot-em-up. The action scenes were a chore to sit through, shot in such close quarters and with so many quick cuts that it bordered real close to that nauseating shakey-cam-ish line. But where the last couple Marvel movies were filled with moments of sheer creativity, particularly in their action sequences, there was nothing of the sort to be found here, sadly, and I sat through all these action scenes just waiting, dying for something more than just more shoot shoot, bang bang to happen. Blah.

It's not terrible, though, certainly not Iron Man 2 bad at least. But yeah, it's definitely a weaker entry in these Marvel movies, and tonally is probably the least Marvel-feeling movie of the whole bunch so far. I did like the musical cues for The Winter Soldier himself, however. In fact, that was probably the best aspect of the whole entire movie for me. But as a whole, this one was a disappointment.

Also, only about 10 people actually stayed for the after credits sequence, which kinda just boggles my mind at this point. Do people really still not know to stay, or have they just quit caring?

[number8]

Best action scenes and narrative pacing since The Avengers. I almost liked it as much as Iron Man 3.

[Watashi]

Goddamn. The action in this film was amazing.

[Dukefrukem]

Got IMAX tickets for this tonight.

Somehow I was able to see through just how much of a snooze fest Thor 2 was and completely ignored it when it was in theaters.

This movie seems more inline with fun.

[number8]

Bullet points:

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- Steve's the only good guy white dude in the movie. His allies are 2 black guys and 3 women.

- The implication of this movie on the rest of the Marvel movies is immense. It retroactively affects Iron Man 2's plot, and reveals that HYDRA killed Stark's dad? I wonder if we'll see Tony reacting to that in Avengers 2. Also, Baron Strucker's involvement in Avengers 2 makes more sense now. I was wondering how he's going to fit in an Ultron story. Widow's throwaway line at the Apple store about "some kind of AI" rewriting itself is going to come into play, I think.

- Chris Evans carried this movie really well. Also, goddamn, never looked hotter. "Specimen."

- Overall, a pretty good representation of the Captain America character. He has no problems adjusting to technology, pop culture, and daily interactions, but his heart is nonetheless still stuck in the 1940s. He's not naive, but he doesn't give up on people, and when he makes a speech, you listen.

- Kinda weird that he's seen WarGames but not Star Wars.

- What makes the action scenes so good is how you feel the weight behind everything. They don't just trade blows, they keep hurling each other back and slamming into things, making a dent. When Steve gets thrown off the bridge by a missile and falls into a bus, it's not just the usual one shot of a CG body crashing into the bus, there's actually a feel of his whole weight smashing down on pedestrians. The Russos' comedy background lends real well into the action scenes. They get timing.

- I know everyone must be tired of beating the Man of Steel dead horse, but in this movie, a supposedly ruthless assassin with no superpowers gets shot while trying to evacuate citizens from the combat area. Because that is what heroes do.

- Making Falcon a VA worker works incredibly well. I love how the movie never says it outright, but it's clear that they work well together because he's acting like Cap's sponsor.

- What was the better geekout moment, the Dr. Strange namedrop or the Pulp Fiction headstone?

- I'm pretty sure Pierce's death is a shout out to the Parallax View. Awesome.

- Winter Soldier kinda get shortchanged here, so I'm glad to know that the story's being continued. Weird that the movie is subtitled after him, but then I realized that it's similar to what Iron Man 3 did: make you focus on one villain when actually the story's bigger than that.

- I smiled so wide at the shout-out to how Bucky died in the comics, that shot of Cap falling into water as Bucky, one arm stuck, explodes on a ship above him. It has always been a beautifully tragic image, and I was very disappointed at its omission in the first movie. Great way to rectify it.

- With all the groundwork they're laying for Crossbones, Agent 13, and Bucky, I am about 80% convinced now that the third movie is going to be based on the death of Cap.

- lol what is Agents of SHIELD gonna do? I giggled that Black Widow just releases all of SHIELD's secrets on the internet, which is like a major plot point on the show that they went back and forth on. Talk about insignificant.

]

[Fezzik]

This might be my favorite of the Marvel Bunch. They have become so confident in what they have that they don't step lightly around any of their elements.

The Russos did some amazing work here. I thought the hand to hand action scenes were pretty amazingly choreographed, and I love how Steve really does seem like an old-school best generation Patriot trapped in the body of a dudebro gym rat.

With every outing, Evans shows his ability to carry a film more and more, though he did have a lot of help here. Johansson was used very well, as was Mackie. Redford was just a great addition to this thing. I loved the hell out of it.

And 8...a couple of thoughts about your bullet points:

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"Kinda weird that he's seen WarGames but not Star Wars."

I think he HAS seen Star Wars - it looks like it was crossed off his list at the beginning of the film. Additionally, I saw a lot of parallels with Cap/Bucky and Luke/Vader. "I wont fight you" to begin with, as well as that great shot of Bucky repeatedly punching Cap in the face as he lie on the walkway of the helicarrier. It was very reminicent of the scene in Jedi where Luke is wailing on Vader's limp, useless saber-wielding hand on a very similar catwalk.

"What was the better geekout moment, the Dr. Strange namedrop or the Pulp Fiction headstone?"

In my theater, definitely the Dr Strange name drop. The headstone got a clap and a laugh, but hearing Strange being mentioned just caused the entire theater to collectively GASP.


"I smiled so wide at the shout-out to how Bucky died in the comics, that shot of Cap falling into water as Bucky, one arm stuck, explodes on a ship above him. It has always been a beautifully tragic image, and I was very disappointed at its omission in the first movie. Great way to rectify it."

THANK YOU for pointing this out. I was wondering why that shot seemed so familiar. You nailed it. Such a beautiful moment.

]

[Morris Schæffer]

Echoing what everyone else here said about the action scenes. They're great. Sorry TGM, it's a frenetic movie allright, but lo and behold the framing is tight, powerful, visceral, but nearly always coherent. These Russo chaps, i was way wrong about them, but they did make me, you and dupree so not my fault. Perhaps you were letdown by some of the action as so much is footed in reality. Chases and shootouts feel more like Michael Mann than what a comicbook flick should serve up, but that's what I loved about that first huge chase scene. Henry Jackman's score, rather than going for big heroic cues, serves up the sinister motif at the beginning of it. That said, i was somewhat reminded about Ebert's paragraph in his review for the league of extraord. Gentlemen in that the villains seem to shoot a lot, but hit very little, if anything at all. Bad guys never fire at the captains feet or legs, but always his shield and these are dudes who probably know the target they're chasing. Great Fx by ILM. Even when the movie goes huuuuge, every explosion, crash and collision registers. A bit letdown by the villains ultimate plan which, once more, comes down to [

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kill millions to wipe the slate clean and start over which admittedly carries over from Hydra's plans

] but which felt like more of an excuse to end big and oooh climactic rather than inspired.

[Sxottlan]

So so good. The best thing I've seen so far this year.

And brutal. [

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I actually gasped at that wide shot of a room full of SHIELD agents opening fire on each other.

]

[number8]

I love the shit out of that scene. Captain America inspiring some helpless techie to willingly get shot in the head, Sharon Carter standing up for him. A lot of moments in the film gave me an idealism boner, and that's exactly how I want a Captain America story to be.

[Sxottlan]

I love the shit out of that scene. Captain America inspiring some helpless techie to willingly get shot in the head...

Agreed. I liked how everyone was suddenly looking to this nameless tech to decide whether they're all going to go along with this or not.

[Skitch]

I've been reading Vol 4 of Essential Cap...combined with the posts in this thread...I'm fucking drooling to see this flick.

[number8]

I thought this was a goof at first. [

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Zola said that Black Widow was born in 1984, which means that she was 7 years old when the KGB disbanded. So how can she be an ex-KGB agent? Then I realized that in The Avengers she did tell Banner that she started as an agent when she was a little kid.

] The continuity is pretty impressive.

[Dukefrukem]

Great. I dont know which I like better, IM3 or this. The choreography is incredible with the hand to hand fighting; just superb. I loved the opening stealth mission on the boat.

Scarlett Johansson had voice fry throughout the entire movie; so distracting.

Did anyone catch Cap's full to do list?

[

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I love Lucky
Moon Landing
Berlin Wall (Up and Down)
Steve Jobs
Pisco
Thai Food
Star Wars & Trek
Nirvana
Rocky (Rocky II?)
Troubleman

]

[Morris Schæffer]

What was [

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fury's role again in the hijacking of the ship'

]. They keep referring to it. The opening boat mission was good, but i must be missing a link to what transpires after so to me it felt a little like a solid james bond pre-credits sequence and not as exciting as all the rest.

[Sxottlan]

What was [

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fury's role again in the hijacking of the ship'

]. They keep referring to it. The opening boat mission was good, but i must be missing a link to what transpires after so to me it felt a little like a solid james bond pre-credits sequence and not as exciting as all the rest.

[

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Fury really did hire the pirates to hijack the ship. I thought it was a lie by Pierce until Romanoff offhandedly confirmed it to Rogers at the hospital. Fury knew the personnel wouldn't be in any serious danger with Rogers rescuing them while Romanoff went after the program about the satellite targeting program.

]

[Morris Schæffer]

[

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Fury really did hire the pirates to hijack the ship. I thought it was a lie by Pierce until Romanoff offhandedly confirmed it to Rogers at the hospital. Fury knew the personnel wouldn't be in any serious danger with Rogers rescuing them while Romanoff went after the program about the satellite targeting program.

]

But then it stands to reason Fury [

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told the pirates to go easy on the personnel also I suppose because it's kinda a stretch to believe Fury would believe that the Captain would be infallible.

]

[number8]

$96 million opening. Broke April box office record.

[Pop Trash]

Maybe I'm just too old for this shit, but I was pretty bored by the time the second half ticked down. Also, must all these movies be over two hours now?

I did like all the Illuminati/They Live style paranoia with the true SHIELD peeps getting all WikiLeaks on dat HYDRA azz.

[Rowland]

Did anyone else find Black Widow's monologue during the car ride to the base ("Who do you want me to be?") consistent with the thematic content of Johansson's recent projects (Her, Under the Skin, Don Jon)?

[number8]

So they spoiled the [

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Hydra infiltration and Fury dying

] thing on Agents of SHIELD last night. Color me really surprised. Seems like a bold move to assume everyone saw the movie opening weekend.

[Sven]

So they spoiled the [

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Hydra infiltration and Fury dying

] thing on Agents of SHIELD last night. Color me really surprised. Seems like a bold move to assume everyone saw the movie opening weekend.

I think what they were actually assuming is that nobody watching would believe Fury's death in the first place. Cuz why would you?

[Kurosawa Fan]

I think what they were actually assuming is that nobody watching would believe Fury's death in the first place. Cuz why would you?

Exactly. Just one of many reasons this film wasn't very good.

[number8]

What's spoiled wasn't the fact that he's alive, but that he was attacked and "died." Regardless of whether or not you think his death was going to stick (which is a moot point in superhero stories so I don't see why that should affect the quality of the story one way or another), it's a pretty major plot point in the movie that the show casually revealed.

[Watashi]

Yeah, no one ever "dies" in a superhero film/comic book. It's hard to fault the film for staying true to its roots.