Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) ****/5: Marvel's best solo superhero film since Iron Man (2008). Some elements were very predictable however and the 'Winter Soldier' was not very impressive as a villain.

Captain America: Winter Soldier is marvel’s best solo effort since Iron Man (2008). I would not necessarily call that an achievement in the grandest order but it is enough to ensure that you will not be overwhelmed by mediocrity.  The mediocrity in Marvel’s solo efforts can be seen with the release of Iron Man 2&3 (2010 &2013) and Thor 1&2 (2011 & 2013). Captain America: The first Avenger (2011) was a good effort and therefore passable.  This film supersedes its predecessor because it seems more grounded and more weight is given to key scenes and so they don’t seem like fly by, superficial moments that keep the appearance going. The Dark Knight Trilogy is still the best solo superhero effort on screen. I see a lot of elements from that trilogy in this current release. Kudos to the team for making this outdated patriotic symbol of American pride adapt to 21^st century politics. There were some predictable elements however and they should blame, to some extent, the trailers that they released. Aside from the predictability the main downside of this film was the villain or the winter soldier. He did not resonate with me and I was expecting a more effective contrast to the captain. Instead there are a lot of compromises and the conflict gets watered down.

This film is primarily about Captain America trying to adapt to life in the 21^st century but he must come to grips with the fact that SHIELD is compromised from within by unexpected forces with the winter soldier leading the charge. He must now enlist the aid of black widow/Natasha romanoff (Scarlett johannsen), the falcon/Sam  Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to combat these seedy elements and so fundamentally alter the attitude of the military apparatus by questioning how it preserves freedom for  American citizens and their allies.

Positives

The first major positive was that this film superseded its predecessor. I will say that I was disheartened at first by who the major villains were (Hydra) but it provided some level of continuity to the series itself i.e. Captain America must have his own villains to fight. This film, therefore, does make the first seem like a legitimate companion piece i.e. when you get the dvd/blu ray you can comfortably watch both back to back. This film superseded its predecessor because it is more cynical as Captain America duels with the bureaucratic structure of Shield that has been infiltrated by Hydra. Project Insight seems like another major technological boost in the surreal marvel version of the American economy where massive destroyers, akin to the one featured in The Avengers, are created threefold. This project however has a very sinister agenda behind it. Whenever a bureaucratic structure reaches its peak all sort of things tend to happen and none of them good. With reference to the sinister elements it does not make significant advances on The Dark Knight Trilogy where hydra replaces the League of Shadows. Where it does make a significant advance is in breaking down the SHIELD bureaucracy and in explaining how the truth can be a powerful weapon. Most of us exist in a world where we get by on half truths and lies instead of telling the truth. We become so buried by these  half truths and lies that when the truth comes it can either be a beacon of hope for those oppressed by various dictates which were said to be to their benefit or a tool of destruction for the one who dealt specifically in deceit in order to keep the structure together. When a entity is past its prime it must pretend that it has what it takes to remain relevant or why it must continue to dominate a particular space. Deceit is the best way to maintain power particularly if you’re past your prime.  The element that involved hydra would have seemed tacked on if weapons that were said to be associated with Hydra were not featured in The Avengers. These weapons featured in The Avengers were discovered by the captain and so there is that element of continuity and that is appreciated. It makes the Marvel  universe seem so grand just by highlighting the smaller details.  In Batman Begins Ras Al Ghul says ‘You are defending a city so corrupt that we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure.’ I suppose you can say the same of Hydra in this film. You really get a sense by the end that some radical changes will be in order come next year May when The Avengers 2: The Age of Ultron is released.

I collected the comics for a few years and the filmmakers have certainly gotten a lot right particularly when you consider Captain America in the modern day perspective.

The level of detail was highly appreciated in this film.

The action scenes were well crafted and so were the fights.

I liked the introduction of the Falcon who is black and who has featured significantly in the avengers comics when I used to collect them. His support is tied in well with his own history in the military. Hopefully he will be in the Avengers in the distant future.

The first post credit scene will make fans highly expectant for the second avengers film. Please stay for the credits. They are really making an effort to tie everything together.

One also gets the sense that Captain America in scenarios such as this is the perfect fit. Other superheroes would not do so well. In Iron Man 3 tony Stark went through some of the same ordeals when he became an outcast but it did not work as well as it does here because Tony Stark was preserving his own little world whereas the captain is challenging an institution that is said to be of national and international interest for the world according to marvel.

Negatives

The film was quite predictable in parts and I was not too surprised by some elements that were supposed to take a turn for the worse. The trailers should be blamed. Spolier alert* When Nick fury is presumed to be dead it is presented as a very dramatic scene but because of the trailer I knew that there was no sense in being dramatic about the whole episode. There are also clearly a lot of elements borrowed from The Dark Knight trilogy. This is not necessarily a bad thing because they make it their own in the world of Captain America.

I also had some issues with the villains because it seemed like too much especially as the whole past of Captain America was resurrected for the present day. So instead of Captain America addressing the issues of our time with new types of villains then it becomes very nostalgic when you bring back these old villains to fight new battles. It is similar to the notions that the Nazi’s are still with us. What they stand for may still be with us but it has taken a different form. When the film began I was imagining that the enemies would truly come from within the organization of SHIELD (don’t have time to put in the full stops) and that would make it truly horrifying. When you know it’s the captain’s old nemesis, Hydra, then you know that SHIELD will survive once you get rid of them. So for all the grand talk of the captain about preserving freedom you realize that by the end it was not necessarily about SHIELD but HYDRA. When he exposed the establishment he was merely exposing HYDRA. So SHIELD should remain intact. The film did maintain however that SHIELD does have secrets that were exposed like any other governmental organization.

This brings me to the winter soldier himself who is underwhelming. I was interested in the mystery surrounding him but when all is revealed then it does not seem so marvelous. He acts as a mere pawn for those up top. At least in Captain America: the first Avenger the Red skull was his own man but this winter soldier is just another ghost from the past and so there is not much unique about him apart from his combat abilities. Even if he was in service to the men up top he must be given some element to make him dynamic as  his own man. Not all subordinates are pawns. If they seem like pawns it is only because they feel that they are serving a greater cause being undertaken by their leader. If the leader is the primary originator of the ideal that the cause is supposed bring about or to realize then makes sense to be subordinate because the leader should have more knowledge of how the plan to fulfill a particular goal will be implemented. The winter soldier seems no more than a robot assassin. It would have been more interesting if he was a rogue assassin.

The film does tend to run out of gas towards the end even though it begins at a frenetic pace. I agree with one critic who said that it feels like a middling sort of movie in the grand Avenger universe. It will reach a point when you just can’t wait for the rudimentary action scenes to be completed so that you can get a glimpse of what is to come. It is never a surprise of who the victors will be and so on. I believe that once the HYDRA element is incorporated then you should be able to determine the outcome of the final third. Before the HYDRA element it felt like a genuine mystery. You really felt that things were topsy turvy.

They should bear in mind or emphasize that when Captain America is speaking about preserving freedom he means that he is preserving freedom for America and her crew not for those nations that are under its thumb and must do its bidding or risk sanctions. He is merely preserving American interests which is not necessarily a preservation of freedom for all. In all of this mess they still manage to portray Captain America as this saint of American values ‘Truth, Justice and the American way’.

Tired of the Stan lee cameos.