DatNerdyKid Reviews-'Captain America: The Winter Soldier'

So I went to see 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' on Friday morning-went to the earliest session possible to avoid long queues and packed cinemas. And only NOW, two days later, I am getting to the review. So be aware of two things: a) my memory could be a tad rusty and b) as stated in the teaser this review DOES contain plenty of spoilers. So if you don't want to know what happens, don't read.

I'm going to start off by saying I think this is a really really good film, and I'll give it an 8/10. I think it definitely changes things within the MCU in a significant way and it will be interesting to see how much the world has changed by 'The Avengers: Age of Ultron'. I don't believe however it is as positively fantabulous as everyone says it is.  To make this review easier, I'm going to break things up into my positives and negatives about the film.

Positives:

1. Steve's Relationships/Interactions: I think the way Chris Evans' Steve Rogers interacts with the other core characters is spectacular. I found that his genuine 'buddy' relationship with Mackie's Sam Wilson was a very strong point in the film, and I think the 'old soldier' link between the two is responsible for the strength in that. His chemistry with Johansson's Black Widow was fantastic, walking the line of flirtation without her becoming 'just a love interest'. The somewhat ambiguous 'friendship' between Steve and Nick Fury is played perfectly in this film, for all that Fury is in it. Lastly I want to mention the bedside scene where Steve visits an Alzheimer's-addled (I think) Peggy Carter-that almost brought me to tears because it was so emotionally charged.
2. Acting: I think that for the most part, the acting in the film was superb. I felt Evans gave Steve a bit more character this time around, which was a bit harder to determine in 'The Avengers' due to 5-6 other egos being in the room. Johansson has made Black Widow truly kick-ass and portrays her character's moral murkiness very effectively in the film. Samuel L. Jackson fills the screen full of one-eyed charisma every time he walks on screen, and Robert Redford brought a vintage suave sophistication to therole of Alexander Pierce. Mackie, as the 'new boy' Falcon/Sam Wilson is able to dig deep and hint at a character who is still haunted by war and violence while maintaining fantastic chemistry with Evans. Frank Grillo does the job as a completely badass Brock Rumlow (I'll talk about that further down).
3. Fight Choreography: The way in which the hand-to-hand combat in this film is handled is...indescribably spectacular. Placing the Captain America vs. Batroc fight at the very start of the film was a strategically wise move as not only does it grab the viewer's attention and excitement but it demonstrates the talent of UFC fighter Georges St. Pierre to perfection, and despite how quickly it appeared to be over it could possibly take the place of Batman vs. Bane Round 1 from 'The Dark Knight Rises' as my favourite fight EVER. In terms of Steve's fights with the Winter Soldier (specifically the first fight on the street), again the choreography is awesome-the sheer speed and complexity of the fight is just awe-inspiring, and shows incredible directorial skill.
4. Action Setpieces/Special Effects: I am placing these together because I will essentially be talking about the same thing-the third act 'tri-Helicarrier crash'. The scale of this sequence is massive, and the effects work necessary to pull it off definitely shows. The attention to detail when the Helicarriers are crashing into each other and the Triskelion is marvelous (pardon the pun), as you see every small portion of glass and wreckage. Another brilliantly directed sequence.
5. Plot: The idea of HYDRA having infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. since its inception is both a frightening and clever ('frighteningly clever'?) one, as this is an organisation that we thought we had grown to know well over the course of the past eight films, but the writers knew exactly how to tip the world on its head. Revealing characters like Sitwell and Senator Stern as HYDRA agents through only fleeting appearances causes the viewer to rethink exactly what happened over those last 8 films-I mean, now we know Stern is HYDRA maybe there was an 'ulterior motive' to trying to strip Stark of his armour...Stark had to be laughing his ass off when Stern got arrested. 'Operation: Insight' (which I will talk further about in the next point) is another clever, if not entirely original idea that plays on a viewer's paranoia and fear for their privacy, and the magnitude of its capabilities is devastating.
6. Foreshadowing: There is a LOT of foreshadowing in this film. Winter Soldier is obviously being built up to appear in quite a few movies in the future (hmm...that 9 picture deal...) and the film ends perfectly for his character with his beginning to question his own past. Brock Rumlow is set up well to become Crossbones (I'll talk about this shortly) in future instalments, though exactly how I am uncertain. Stephen Strange being namedropped is an exciting example of foreshadowing, given recent updates about a 'Doctor Strange' film appearing in Phase 3. The first post-credits scene, which depicts Baron Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) and the 'twin miracles', Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch exctingly sets up 'The Avengers: Age of Ultron'. On that subject...I think Operation: Insight will turn out to be like an 'Ultron Mark 1', at least in terms of his programming. It makes a lot of sense.
7. Brock Rumlow: I really liked this character. I felt he served as a good side-antagonist and was definitely given an effective 'origin story', such that he would be set up as Crossbones in the future (notice the way the straps were positioned during the final fight sequence?). The question though is HOW-I mean, he got kinda burned so...yeah...not sure how that's going to work. HOWEVER I think that certain other characters prevent Rumlow from having an effective impact-I think if a bit more attention was paid to depicting his relationship with Cap prior to the latter's being made a fugitive, Rumlow's reveal as being an undercover HYDRA agent would have had more meaning. Buuuuut you take what you can get.
8. Winter Soldier: The Winter Soldier seen in this film is probably the most comic-accurate portrayal of a villain I have ever witnessed. Everything from the costume to some of the lines from the comics is captured perfectly and reverently, and the fact that he worked for HYDRA instead of Soviets suited the story much better than if Aleksander Lukin were involved.

1. Winter Soldier: Oh boy, I'm gonna get crucified for this. By the end of the film I realised a disturbing thing-like Indy in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (props to Sheldon Cooper for that one), the actual character of the 'Winter Soldier' is irrelevant to the plot. HYDRA would have used other assassins to 'shape the century'; someone else with expert training would have been able to assassinate Fury; Rumlow and his STRIKE boys would have ambushed and captured Steve and friends on the street; Cap and friends would still have made their way to the Helicarriers and been confronted by a HYDRA threat. As I said before, the character IS very accurate to the comics, but in the context of the film he just isn't good enough. However maybe if they hadn't 'focused' on this half-assed Winter Soldier more attention could be paid to developing a criminally undeveloped Rumlow-maybe if he put up a bit more of a fight in the elevator, using him in the climax to fight Cap on the last Helicarrier wouldn't be SO unbelievable. But anyway, getting back to point-Winter Soldier simply isn't in the film enough to warrant it being subtitled with his name. He appears about half an hour or so in, then near the middle towards the third act, and then is smooshed all into the climax. And I just didn't buy Stan's portrayal of the Winter Soldier's 'emotion' during his final, mutually-wounded fight with Cap-yes, another scene straight out of the comics, but I just didn't FEEL it. Maybe if they hadn't waited till that aforementioned point to the right of the film's middle to reveal he was Bucky, the film would have been more interesting-I mean why try to conceal his identity when it would have more impact to reveal it at the start? If it had come nearer to the start (i.e. Steve chasing him on the roof) we perhaps could have received a 'pursuit-while-on-the-run' story of Steve trying to track the former Bucky down while being hunted, but oh well. I just feel like if he hadn't been in the film more attention could be paid to other characters and the title would be truer to the story.
2. Alexander Pierce: Don't get me wrong, Robert Redford brought star power (though that wasn't really necessary) and great acting ability to the film. However it's the way the character was written that I don't like. I personally found him to be just a very generic and boring 'villain', who also suffered from a lack of buildup as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. in previous films. First things first, his heel turn could be seen a mile away (they pretty much spoiled it in the bloody trailer with his lines) so to me it didn't really have any impact. I just didn't feel like there was anything about Alexander Pierce that made him special-he waltzed about in a suit threatening other people in suits. Sure he had a 'personal history' with Nick Fury, but to be honest that made his ascension to head of S.H.I.E.L.D. even more baffling-in all the years he has known Pierce, wouldn't Fury suspect SOMETHING? Then there's the whole idea of him being a villain-as with the Mandarin (though that was actually successful) they have taken a name from a comic book and that character's base element (i.e. agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and completely twisted them into something they aren't. Now, this would have worked if it were revealed he wasn't actually who he said he was and the turn went somewhere-maybe he was actually the Red Skull (I didn't like this theory) or Aleksander Lukin (what I was hoping for) but instead he was left just as he was-a bastardisation of a character few would recognise anyway.
3. Baron Strucker: First of all, he wasn't bald. How much time would it have taken to shave Thomas Kretschmann's head just that little bit more so that we get a BALD Baron Strucker. Superficial factors aside I think that merely including the character in the mid credits scene was a waste. General viewers (though which general viewers stay for the extra scenes?!) have no idea who this random guy is, though they get the idea a) He has something to do with HYDRA and b) he has Loki's scepter and these two random 'miracles' in a cage. Okaaaaay. I think at least SOME buildup to his character-whether he be mentioned by name by Pierce or actually SHOW UP in the film's climax as the 'real' villain behind it all, only to escape (given my above dissatisfaction with Pierce as the primary antagonist) I think while it was worthwhile to demonstrate that HYDRA had survived and was seemingly flourishing, the character of Strucker should have been upgraded to be more important. This is even more disappointing if he really only is a minor antagonist in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', as both his screen appearances will see him criminally underused.
4. Sharon Carter: Yet another character criminally underused in the film. Introduced as the neighbour, two minutes later revealed to be 'Agent 13', shown briefly in S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, mouths off against Rumlow and then we don't really see her again. Feels like she's been shoehorned into the plot, no real resolution and no hints made to her relationship to Peggy. Daymn. I understand she is obviously being built up to appear in the future but...she had a major role in the comics for God's sakes-she deserves a bit more than three or four quick scenes.
5. Lack of Humour: A lot of fans seem to complain about the humour used in 'Iron Man 3' and 'Thor: The Dark World'-they thought it was 'too much' and unnecessary. Humour was one of the things I thoroughly enjoyed about the last two movies and the fact it was oddly absent in this film struck me as...odd. Obviously this was a serious film (I will talk about this more below) and Steve Rogers is not the most humourous of characters, but if you've set yourselves a trademark then please stick to it! Sure we had the banter between Steve and Natasha and Steve and Wilson, but I just found it made the film a very 'dry' experience for me.
6. Restraint: So this covers two glaringly different aspects of the films I will cover separately. First of all as discussed above in the 'Baron Strucker' section, I was disappointed by the fact Strucker was not used at all in the entirety of the film, and it annoyed me that HYDRA was restrained from truly revealing itself in this film. In terms of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch shown in their cages, I understand it was only meant to be a 'tease' but I think we could have benefited from a slightly clearer look at Quicksilver, especially seeing his face (I mean we got to see Wanda's)-again, this showed a restraint on the part of Marvel that irked me slightly. I was left feeling like "That's it?". With the second topic, I felt like the writers only paddled their feet in the pool when it came to examining why Steve was really fighting against Operation: Insight-this is a character predicated on fighting for free will and independence, and while the elevator conversation with Steve and Fury touched the surface a little bit I was annoyed that they chose not to go further into his ideological reasoning. Especially given the social commentary presented in Jose Padhila's 'Robocop', I was disappointed by the 'surface-level discussion' of the real issues at hand here.
7. Tone: I love myself a grounded, realistic movie. This is why I love Christopher Nolan's 'Batman' trilogy so dearly, because it puts a character who is essentially believable into a realistic, dark, gritty and grounded world, and has fun. Captain America on the other hand...not so realistic-he's a 'super soldier'. The film is not 'dark' or 'gritty' by any means, and this is not the problem I have, but the issue is with the film's level of groundedness. This is a superhuman character that you are dealing with here-while someone with merely enhanced speed and strength is more believable than Hulk for instance, the film doesn't entirely work for Mr. Rogers. This isn't the extent of my issue either-you are putting a film with level of groundedness near-on equal to 'The Dark Knight'  into a universe where Earth has experienced alien incursions and been home to highly superhuman characters. To me, it simply doesn't 'fit'-especially when you consider that the films prior to and after this both deal with out-there alieny stuff. Marvel set themselves a tone of humour, mild silliness, and characters who were superhumans, aliens and gods (or aliens humans believed to be gods due to their power but weren't actually gods...), and this film I believe is highly inconsistent with that-this tonal inconsistency resulted in my having to re-assess the film as a whole and just...'broke it' for me a bit.
8. Hype: Now I understand this is not actually a fault with the film, but it's something I have a problem with as it ultimately lead to my disappointment with the film. This film was (and still is) being compared to 'The Dark Knight' in terms of brilliance and the quintessential Winter Soldier is being compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator, with people claming he is 'terrifying' and 'up there with Loki in terms of villainy'. Yeah...no. The film is good, don't get me wrong, but it is no 'Dark Knight', and the Winter Soldier is no Terminator. At least, despite the fact they are both ruthlessly cold killing machines, the Terminator actually maintained a personality of sorts; Stan's Winter Soldier just goes from mission to mission and is truly robotic. Is he efficient, brutal and badass on screen? Yes. Is he 'terrifying'? Not by a long shot. The supposedly 'central' character simply didn't live up to the hype surrounding him and as such the film began to fall apart for me. Now is it my fault for believing in the hype? Yeah, but if you go into a film with certain expectations it is obviously not good when they aren't met.