Rent Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier review by Alyse Garner - Cinema Paradiso

The latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise is the epic and extremely explosive Captain America: the Winter Solider; the follow up story to the First Avenger which set up our hero Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) as the genetically engineered super solider brought out of a cryogenic sleep he had been in since 1945.

This time around Rogers is facing a mixture of both modern devils and old reliable evils in the form of the infiltration of the superhero secret agency S.H.E.I.L.D and an attempt on the life of the agency’s top dog, Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). With the beautiful, but rather wooden, Scarlett Johansson by his side the Cap finds himself facing a few familiar faces and fighting old friends.

There isn’t a great deal else that needs to be said about the plot, there’s a bit of mystery but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work it out before the film actually gets round the big reveal, and the writers have done their best to throw in a bit of romantic chemistry between Johansson’s Natasha Romanov and Rogers, but lets be honest what these films are really all about are the visuals. Whether they’re the sight of the Captain himself, all suited up and performing super-human feats or if it’s an explosion big enough to take out a small city, the CGI in this latest MCU picture is much like those of its predecessors, flawless.

It takes some real artistry and dedication to create visuals like those offered up in Captain America: the Winter Solider, and unfortunately for this particular film the plot would fall a little short without them. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t bored once, and as a bit of a fan and closet geek I couldn’t help but squirm with excitement at the sight of Bucky, the aforementioned Winter Solider, and the requisite sneak peeks offered in the film’s two post credit scenes, I just suspect that when they first imaged the film the bigwigs up at Marvel Studios didn’t see it as a stepping stone movie, but as something with a bit more clout.

I think that what this film lacked most was a little bit more soul, all the potential for some genuine characterization is there, and we know the writers have it in ‘em because they successfully pulled it off with Iron Man and in the previous Captain America feature; but here there’s a little bit too much emphasis on how they’re gonna beat the baddies than who they, and their villainous counterparts, are.

As always however, the film was a treat for the fans and that’s why I have to rate it so highly, in spite of my own occasional issues, the film has definitely whet my appetite for the next Avengers piece and I’m really intrigued to see how they follow the thread of this story line into the film’s spin off TV series Agents of SHEILD; and with brief appearances from How I Met Your Mother’s Cobie Smoulders and a wonderfully laboured attempt at acting from the man behind it all, Stan Lee, Captain America: the Winter Solider is, undoubtedly, another Marvel success.