Captain America : The Winter Soldier

CAPTAIN AMERICA : THE WINTER SOLDIER

Directors : Anthony & Joe Russo

Year : 2014

Genre : Superhero

Rating : ****1/2

Continuing Marvel's stranglehold over the world of multiplex cinema, 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' serves as a sequel to both 2011's 'Captain America : The First Avenger' and 2012's 'The Avengers Assemble'. Directed by the Russo brothers whose work includes 'Welcome To Collinwood' and 'You, Me & Dupree', 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' expands the characters of the 'Avengers' universe and takes the narrative of the story into much darker and thrilling places than  a large majority of it's predecessors, giving the film an edge that was greatly missed in the previous installments of the franchise. Dispensing with the CGI that the 'Avengers' movies are famed for, 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' takes it's time to develop its menagerie of characters and transforms them from one dimensional archetypes into layered and nuanced human beings who have as many values, needs and motivations as us and this makes them much more interesting and involving than many of their superhero counterparts. Much darker, more suspenseful and much more thrilling than it's disappointing 2011 original, 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' is a huge step up for the multi - billion dollar series and surpasses 'Iron Man' as the best entry in the 'Avengers' franchise to date.

After the cataclysmic events of 'The Avengers Assemble', Steve Rogers aka. Captain America has become a symbol of hope and freedom for the people of America. Willing to jump into action at a moments notice, Rogers has transformed himself into a one man barrier against terrorism and as a result, has developed a large and dedicated following of fans and admirers. However, his glory days may soon come to an end when he is faced with his most powerful enemy to date; the elusive, mysterious and deadly Winter Soldier, a metal armed Soviet warrior.

In my opinion, 'Captain America : The First Avenger' is the weakest episode of the 'Avengers' series due to it's lack of character, rushed narrative and an overuse of headache - inducing CGI. While Chris Evans took to the role of the Captain very well and Hugo Weaving proved to be a threatening and affecting villain, the film was bogged down by far too much dialogue and an inclination towards monotonous and seemingly endless action scenes. In stark contrast (see what I did there?), 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' rights all of the wrongs of it's predecessor and becomes a hugely entertaining and surprisingly suspenseful superhero film that stands heads and shoulders above a large majority of the previous films in the 'Avengers' franchise. 

The biggest improvement the movie has made is that it's characters are fully developed and the story is very involving indeed. Once again Chris Evans returns as the titular hero and he does a fantastic job of bringing both a cocky and deeply serious personification to the screen. Making the character of Captain America just as real as any of the other human characters on screen, Evans' performance is what makes the film as great as it is. The supporting cast which includes Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford is also very strong and each actor brings substance and integrity to their diversive roles but without Chris Evans central performance, the film wouldn't be half as good. Thankfully, both the acting and the screenplay written by Christopher Markus and Steven McFeeley are perfect for the tone and the energy of the movie, meaning that the film overall hits every note absolutely perfectly.

If I had a problem with the film, it is that the titular Winter Soldier is not on screen as much as say the Red Skull, Abomination, Loki or other Avengers antagonists but that is really the only criticism I have of the film. It's characters are well acted and well written, the narrative is told in broad and easily manageable strokes and the action set pieces are extremely well executed and directed, balancing perfectly with the hard hitting drama and threatening subtext. Basically, 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' does everything a great sequel should do; its expands and improves on it's original. I never thought I'd say this about an 'Avengers' film, especially a 'Captain America' film but 'Captain America : The Winter Soldier' is easily the most entertaining movie of the Spring and I am now looking forward to the next ten billion entries in this hugely popular and hugely profitable series.