{🚨SPOILERS🚨}: Directed by the Russo Brothers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier follows Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), after the events with his fellow Avengers in New York, where he now lives in the nation’s capital as he tries to adjust to modern times, working with the organization that brought him back: S.H.I.E.L.D.. An attack on Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) throws Rogers into a web of lies and intrigue that places the whole world at risk. Joining forces with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and a new ally, Sam Wilson the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Rogers struggles to expose an ever-widening conspiracy involving a long forgotten enemy, Hydra, as well as facing a new threat in the form of a deadly assassin named the Winter Soldier.
It’s no secret that this is considered one of the top tier Marvel films, and for good reason. Not only did this film completely change the playing field for the narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also really evolved the character of Captain America in new ways that made everyone take him more seriously. This sequel is a very action packed and perfectly paced espionage thriller that offers a lot of greatly written characters and has great twists and turns along the way.
This is also perhaps the most grounded of the MCU films, going beyond just being a comic book movie and embracing a more realistic setting and relevant themes. And that’s why I think a lot of people, including myself, consider this one of the best of the early MCU films from Phase 2. Captain America: Civil War would end up topping this film in certain ways later down the line, but this still stands on solid ground with all it has to offer. Steve Rogers, while not necessarily a bad character in the past, never really clicked all that well with me and other fans, until this film came along. He was a far more compelling character in this compared to The First Avenger and The Avengers. He isn’t just some man out of time that can be played for laughs. He is a person who lost a lot in his past and had missed 70+ years of a life that he should have had.
Everything he knew was gone, to the point where he is not only adjusting to a new society, he’s also adjusting to a new battleground and serving a new government that doesn’t share his strong sense of right and wrong. Steve deals with so much that ends up conflicting with his morals, as well as with how he wishes to protect innocent lives and freedom no matter the cost. This becomes more apparent as he gets drawn into a grand conspiracy of Hydra’s design and has to place his trust in new allies like Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson and Nick Fury.
Chris Evans is really excellent in the role of Rogers, both dramatically and emotionally. This is where I feel he really cemented himself as the true Steve Rogers Cap. One of my favorite scenes in terms of emotional department involving Steve had to be when he visits a much older Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who suffers from memory loss. It’s a short scene but one that really leaves a lot of impact, and shows what Steve lost after going in the ice. On a different note, when it comes to action, Cap really kicks serious ass in the film’s action scenes, showing that he is more than just a guy with a shield.
Another character that became really compelling alongside him was Natasha Romanoff, played exceptionally well by Scarlett Johansson. She really had her time to shine, having probably the most underrated scenes in this film that really gave us our first good look at the true Black Widow, something only briefly shown to us in The Avengers. She is the definition of a true super spy, but one who’s past haunts her everywhere she goes, which becomes more apparent as she combats Hydra alongside Steve. The chemistry between her and Steve is fantastic, even though they both have their own ways of completing missions that conflict with each other sometimes.
This film introduces us to Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon. Steve starts a friendship with Sam in probably the funniest way possible, a friendship that gradually becomes an important partnership as things go sideways. Sam is introduced to us as not only a soldier like Steve, but also a good person who has lost people, but still does what he can to help those in need, including heroes like Captain America. With a great performance by Anthony Mackie, he was such a surprising addition to the MCU, one I don’t think anyone expected would end up becoming a fan favorite in future installments, including the currently ongoing series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Also his flight sequences when he wears the falcon suit are full of tension and very fun.
We also have a great performance from the legendary Samuel L. Jackson as the secretive and paranoid director of SHIELD. He remains as a badass character who is always one step ahead of both his enemies and allies. This is a special trait that Fury would continue to have throughout the MCU and I absolutely love it (with the exception of Captain Marvel, since those were his early days). But I also love the fact that he kind of ends up changing his ways a bit when he finds out how his organization SHIELD was being corrupted by Hydra, as well as when he hears Rogers’ protests against the choices Fury makes.
And this brings us to our villains, the malevolent Hydra and their deadly puppet the Winter Soldier, who is revealed to be Steve’s long lost friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Barnes was revealed to have survived his supposedly fatal fall and has been taken in, experimented on and brainwashed into becoming Hydra’s own super soldier assassin, used for years to commit horrible crimes that helped Hydra shape history in secret and eliminate any loose ends. He is a truly terrifying individual when we first meet him as the Winter Soldier. He is immediately shown as a truly skilled and powerful foe, perfect for Captain America to face off against. However, things become more complicated when Cap learns he is his old friend and therefore makes him hesitate to fight him, instead trying to reach out to him. It all leads to an emotionally driven climatic battle between them both, one so well executed in so many ways and is really a underrated scene in the entire MCU.
Hydra as a group was also much more menacing this time around, especially under the new leadership of Alexander Pierce, played incredibly well by veteran actor Robert Redford. Hydra is revealed to have been secretly corrupting SHIELD since its early beginnings, and have inserted themselves into high places in governments across the globe, thanks to resources in SHIELD. This huge twist changes everything we have known about the MCU up to this film, and would dramatically effect everything going forward. And I do mean everything, because Hydra’s exposure to the world leads to the fall of SHIELD, which in turn allows for new threats to arise in the future films and cause great change for the heroes of earth going forward.
There are seriously huge stakes that Hydra brings to the table, more than they did in the past, and it’s kinda scary how relevant it is to how some groups in our current world (ones with similar twisted views like Hydra) have corrupted governments around the world, including the US. This certainly makes them the most realistic villainous group in the MCU, lead by a man who seeks to control freedom of the world at the touch of a button. Even though the group does end up getting defeated and eventually destroyed, the damage they have dealt will forever haunt the world and the heroes of the MCU.
The narrative is perfectly paced, extremely thrilling, has a dash of natural humor here and there, has great character moments and never stops being brutal and serious in tone. The themes of intense government oversight are also handled perfectly, and would end up being a continuing theme in the next Captain America film. Perhaps the best comparison to this film I could make, in terms of tone and style, would be the Daniel Craig Bond films. This feels like a full fledge espionage thriller and conspiracy film all the way through, but with comic book characters in the mix.
The action, from the perfectly choreographed hand to hand fights to the adrenaline inducing epic sequences, are handled with such love and care, making for some of the best action across the MCU. Other MCU films certainly top this film in terms of action and stunts, but this is where it all really started, especially with some stunning cinematography to back it up. Yes, sometimes the shaky cam bits can be a bit much for people, but for me it enhances the tension and anxiety of scenes.
The practical effects and stunt work in this film deserve serious praise. There is a lot more practical effort put in this film compared to most of the MCU films, and that is something I really appreciate because it gives the film more realism, and certainly makes the action have more of an impact. Every hit feels and looks like it fucking hurts. There is CGI present in this film when it needs to be, and it looks great enough that it doesn’t take you out of the excitement in the slightest.
Henry Jackman makes his musical debut to the MCU with an extremely strong score that enhances the thrills and excitement and is fitting for the tone of the series and Captain America’s modernization. My favorite of the entire soundtrack would have to be the haunting them for the Winter Soldier. Every time that theme comes up, in this or even in some of the other MCU installments, it always brings shivers down my spine.
This film was a fantastic sequel for Captain America, hitting all the right notes that a sequel should do while also standing out amongst such a large universe. But there is one other thing that this film did that was even more important: it introduced the Russo Brothers to the world of Marvel, and after this MCU game changer they would go on to make perhaps three of the the biggest and best installments of the MCU, making history not just for Marvel but the entire film industry. I’m going to give Captain America: The Winter Soldier an A+.
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