CAPTAIN AMERICA THE WINTER SOLDIER has a lot of excitement built up around it. But there are a few things that this film MUST have in it’s story.
1) A friendship we care about-
The friendship between Steve and Bucky MUST be more prominently displayed. After my first viewing of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, my number one issue with the film was that I did not feel they handled Bucky’s death very well. Before Ed Brubaker brought Bucky back from death as The Winter Soldier, in the comics, Bucky’s death was the greatest tragedy and failure of Cap’s life. It haunted him more than anything. The story was told countless times and it is what drove Cap for many years.
When I watched CATFA I did not feel the impact of Bucky’s death. It did not tear at my heart strings like it should have. In fact, in my opinion, Bucky did not receive enough screen time in order for us to really care for him. I’m not saying that Bucky didn’t have a good story or anything like that in the film; I actually like every scene that Bucky was in. I just feel like they could have done more to make us care about Bucky. One could even argue that if the film makers would have taken the time to stretch out the World War 2 Hydra missions then this would have given us the time we needed to see Cap and Bucky truly become brothers in arms.
CATWS is going to give Marvel the chance to make up for this mistake. Any flashbacks that we are shown should be used to show how close Bucky and Steve were. While they attempted to show us that Steve and Bucky were best friends in the first movie, the sequel should fix their shortcomings and show us how strong their friendship truly is. If we do not care about the Steve and Bucky friendship then CATWS will not work, story wise. We will not care that Steve’s best friend is brainwashed. We will not care that he has to go on a manhunt and stop him. When the two of them are at each others throats we must care about them and remember that they were once best friends.
2) Cap and Falcon’s friendship must fly high!
Just as Bucky was Steve’s best friend in World War 2 we need to see Sam Wilson aka The Falcon become Steve’s new best friend and crime fighting partner. Captain America has almost always had a crime fighting partner by his side. Bucky, Rick Jones, Falcon, Nomad, Diamondback. All of these characters served as Cap’s partner at one point. Having someone by his side has always given him a chance to show off his leadership capabilities, even though he treated almost all of them as his equals in crime fighting. Besides Bucky, Falcon is the most prominent and well known partner of Cap’s and this history can not be ignored in the film.
Falcon will definitely have an updated origin but one thing that must stay in tact is that he and Cap become best friends. Marvel has to find a way for this to happen at some point in this film, even though Steve will be looking for his childhood best friend. A bond needs to form between the two that is different than Steve and Bucky’s relationship. Sam, along with Sharon, needs to be the ones who introduces Steve to the modern world.
There needs to be a contrast between Bucky and Falcon. Let Bucky be Cap’s tie to the past and Falcon be his tie to the present. Steve needs to go through something where he has to choose between his past and the friends he’s made in the present. He needs to realize that he needs both of them, because they both make up who he has become.
3) A solid romance-
We must care more about Sharon Carter than we did Peggy Carter. One of the things that people loved most about CATFA (especially the female audience) was the love story between Peggy and Steve. It was one of the main highlights of the movie and many argue that it is the most well done romance in any of the Marvel films. Trying to make us fall in love with a new leading lady is going to be one of the most difficult things for the film makers to do.
Marvel is also going to have to make it where it isn’t creepy that Steve falls in love with his ex-girlfriends GREAT niece. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is go the way that the comics did. Keep Sharon’s identity a secret from Steve. Nick Fury must have some reason for not wanting to give away Sharon’s name to Steve. So he could refer to her as ‘Agent 13’ for the majority of the movie. Let Steve fall in love with her and THEN at the end of the film let him discover that she is related to Peggy.
Going this route will give us a chance to see Steve letting go of the past(Peggy) and move on with his new life(Sharon). This could also lead to a final scene where Steve gets to say goodbye to Peggy. Perhaps let Peggy be the one who tells Steve that he has to find new people worth living for. She could tell Steve that she doesn’t want him to spend his life mourning over her. She wants him to have a full life and that it’s okay to move on.
Whichever way the directors decide to go it is going to be a difficult romance to develop.
4) A villain to remember
Crossbones has to be the biggest badass in the Marvel universe. Crossbones is almost like Christopher Nolan’s version of Bane. He’s big, fearless, and he can beat up the hero without having any special abilities. The only difference is that Crossbones loves killing others. It’s what makes him twisted. He relishes in the death of others. He has a twisted sense of humor and isn’t afraid to go up against anyone.
When Crossbones comes on screen we need to be afraid of what he is going to do. We need to fear for our heroes. He needs to be the villain that we all thought Mickey Rourke was going to be in Iron Man 2. He needs to be dangerous and we need to feel that he is capable of taking down Captain America.
If Crossbones does come back in Avengers 2 and joins a group of super villains then he is going to need to pull his own weight, especially if he is standing beside someone like The Abomination. That is why he must be established as being just as dangerous as any of the other villains that we’ve seen in the previous Marvel films.
5) Staying focused on the Super Soldier!
Steve Rogers needs to be the focus of the movie. That’s right, the Super Soldier must be more memorable than the Winter Soldier. My main concern with this movie is that it is going to become too cluttered with other members of the Avengers films and turn out something like Iron Man 2. In Cap 2 we need to establish Sharon Carter, The Falcon, Crossbones(along with any other potential villains) and most importantly, Steve Rogers adapting to the modern day world. These things are enough in themselves to give plenty of story arcs in a Cap sequel but then when I heard that they were going to be doing ‘The Winter Soldier’ story that kind of blows the roof off of everything that they have to put into this film. I haven’t even brought up the fact that Black Widow, Arnim Zola, Batroc, and other SHIELD agents will also be appearing in the film.
While ‘The Winter Soldier’ is a great story and very interesting we have to remember that this movie must focus on Steve Rogers. We need to see him adapting to the modern world. We need to see that he’s continuing to work almost as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The supporting characters must all impact him in some way on an emotional level. Steve Rogers needs the most screen time and he MUST NOT be overshadowed by any other character in the film.
Those are the things that I feel the film needs the most. What about you? What’s the number one thing YOU want to see in the movie? Be sure to follow me on twitter @Wing_Head to hear more thoughts about what Captain America: The Winter Soldier will need to be a great film.