Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), aka Captain America, is still getting used to life in the 21st century after being awakened from his suspended animation. The Second World War he left behind was a little more cut and dried than the moral grey area inhabited by the American intelligence and military community. Ol’ Cap is having trouble deciding who the bad guys are.
When there is an assassination, it leaves a mystery for Captain America to solve. It seems that a faction of S.H.I.E.L.D known as HYDRA, led by Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) wants to use a new technology to kill 20 million people in order to use fear to keep the other billions of us in line.
Before he can save the world, assisted by the few S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives he can trust, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Falcon (Sam Wilson), Captain America will have to defeat the Winter Soldier, a Russian super-villain with a familiar face.
We say, “Marvel Comics owns the movies these days.”
TAYLOR: There is a never ending stream of comic book superhero movies these days. Still coming are more Spidermen, Wonder Women, X-Men, and Avengers, which is a franchise unto itself with possible offshoots for every hero on the role call. There’s even movies that will probably spawn more sequels, made out of comics I’ve never heard of, like the coming Guardians of the Galaxy. Sometimes these movies are a lot of fun, like the awesome ensemble piece that was 2012’s The Avengers. Sometimes I couldn’t care less about what I’m seeing, such as the new Spiderman series with Andrew Garfield as the webslinger. Captain America: The Winter Soldier falls somewhere in the middle.
HOWE: I know what you are saying to some degree. The first three quarters of the movie I was very impressed with. The opening fight scenes on the ship were very fast, frantic and exciting, yet towards the end of the film when the Captain teams up with “The Birdman,” things start to get a little ridiculous. The effects are great, the storyline intriguing and the acting very good, but I still found I was wanting more from it. I didn’t feel it was on par with this year’s earlier blockbuster Thor 2, but I guess they are laying the groundwork for The Avengers sequel. And as a side note, it was great to see Mr. Redford back on the big screen, fantastic.
TAYLOR: The Winter Soldier is a high-tech action flick. The chasing and fighting scenes make up 90 per cent of the film. It’s an extremely violent movie with all of the gore removed in order to make it kid friendly. There are about a million bullets fired, many many baddies killed. I think I saw two drops of blood in the film. So it’s a perfect, feel good, comic book killing spree complete with the obligatory social commentary on the American military industrial complex and questionable motives of their intelligence apparatus. This aspect of the film, and many films like it these days, are the most interesting part, but I think it goes over kid’s heads. Kids are going for the BAM, BOOM, POW and Captain America won’t disappoint in this department. It’s a cavalcade of expensive destruction.
– Taylor gives Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2.5 S.H.I.E.L.D. pink slips out of 5.
–Howe gives it 3.5 trips to the museum out of 5.
The film is currently showing at the Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
– Peter Howe and Brian Taylor are film reviewers based in Vernon, B.C. Their column, Reel Reviews, runs in The Morning Star Fridays and Sundays.
