Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Thoughts

The first Captain America movie I watched was the 1990 release, and it was on VHS. I don’t recall it being very memorable. It’s also possible that I was too young to appreciate it. Following that, in my run up to The Avengers, I watched the 2011 release, Captain America: The First Avenger, and liked it, but felt it was weaker when compared to the other individual character movies that led up to The Avengers. So I wasn't overly thrilled or expecting much when Captain America: The Winter Soldier was announced; that said, the trailer looked pretty impressive. In this installment, Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, is a little lost, and rethinks his purpose and direction in life. Amidst that, he also questions the new plans of SHIELD, and is introduced to a new mystery villain.

If the trailer looked impressive, it’s safe to say that the movie is even more impressive. I entered the theater with modest expectations, and left the cinema hall quite satisfied. In The Winter Soldier the plot is well laid out, addressing various narrative components, each adequately satisfying the multitude of requirements that an audience base would look for. The action was visually appealing, with several gripping sequences, the plot was exciting, and maintained a sense of mystery and suspense to keep audiences enthralled. The character development was interesting, and the camaraderie between the Black Widow and Captain America ran a lot deeper this time around. If that wasn't good enough, the mammoth SHIELD facilities and the Helicarriers will blow you away, in terms of cool tech that’s drool worthy. In the final sequences of the movie, there are impressive air battles to the scale of Independence Day. The editing and camera work is also impressive, with some scenes including the initial assault on the ship being quite cool. Watch the scenes in 3D, and it’s even more fun. Captain America: The Winter Soldier clearly works at multiples levels, as even the not so inclined, non-action movie buffs found it to be entertaining. That credits goes to the well managed balance between action and tech, vs. characters and deep story. If you've asked yourself the question what exactly constitutes a solid action movie, the answer is, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Though I’m not a big fan of Chris Evans, and found his over energetic portrayal of The Torch in the Fantastic Four movies bordering obnoxious, he performs admirably as Captain America. He comes across as older, wiser, calmer, and what you’d expect of Superhero and a leader.  His performance is plausible, leaving the audiences with a character whom they can look up to. To balance his seemingly ‘all that is right’ demeanor, is Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson. She does splendidly in bringing the opposite of ‘by the book’ to the Black Widow character, and is convincing as a female action star who can seriously kick some ass. Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury has a memorable action sequence in the SHIELD Chevy SUV, though I’d expect for people to be blown away by the coolness of the smart ride. An interesting addition to the cast is Cobie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother fame; after a while on screen I was like hey, is that Robin?

I caught this one in the theater and in 3D. The visual presentation was really nice, with a large part of it being in broad daylight, looking quite brilliant. Many of the shots are wide and pretty big in terms of scale; quite reminded me of Michael Bay’s work. Sound was also about perfect, with all the action sequences just seeming amazing. Needless to say the special effects, especially the Helicarriers were just magnificent. Clearly two thumbs up for the technical elements.

My Recommendation: Kick Ass (The best rendition of Captain America to date)