That's right, I’m back, bitches, and I’m here to campaign for Marvel’s potetial groundbreaking movie of their studio history—The Winter Solider. Let it be clear that I’m a DC fan and Christopher Nolan fan who isn’t much of a fan of Marvel movies, a man who didn’t like the first Captain America movie or any other Marvel movie other than the first Iron Man movie or The Avengers, but upon first viewing the teaser trailer for Captain America: The Winter Solider, I think Marvel is in for its first adult movie of their studio history.
- A serious tone with some humor that’s not bashing you over the head. Ever since the success of Iron Man and the praise allocated to it for being the anti-Christopher Nolan superhero film capable of crafting these Saturday morning cartoon heroes as what they are with great humor, bombastic action scenes and fun and interesting characters, Marvel has tried to emulate this formula for all their superhero movies. While this strategy has worked out in Marvel’s favor by dominating the box office and making Marvel movies the must see events of the year, it has also diluted their messages to me. Marvel abandoned the heart for the laugh and it made having their characters experience any pain seem out of placed or forced. Take the first Captain America movie, it tried its best to infuse humor with heart, but the cheesiness of the script and movie made caring for the characters hard for me. Sure, Bucky died and Cappy had to say farewell to his beloved, but the time Marvel could have spent making us care for Peggy and Bucky was skipped over and replaced with a montage of Cappy doing heroic stuff accompanied by the cheesiest song I’ve ever heard in my life—The Star Spangled Man.
TWS, on the other hand, seems to be the first movie in the Post-Avengers era that isn’t afraid of dragging these time tested characters through the mud. Cappy is lonely, but he doesn’t make you feel sorry for him. He keeps his head up and his doe-eyed outlook on life going, he’s not afraid to joke about his pain, but he won’t make it into a comedy hour. His pain is serious and real, but it is well hidden behind his attempt to laugh it off. It that sense, Marvel is making Captain America more human and relatable. He’s not Ken doll dressed in the American flag, he’s a man lost in time. Which leads me to my second point…
- Character’s decisions have weighted consequences If the Winter Solider is anything like its teaser, and the outcome of the tone could change like Thor’s did, making Cappy into a three dimensional character will make his consequences matter. As we on this site all know, the Winter Solider is the codename of a ghost from Cappy’s pass. Yes, this decision was made in the first Cappy movie, but, as I’ve mentioned, when it happened, it didn’t resonate with me. This character only had a few minutes of screentime with our fearless Sentinel of Liberty and none truly explored their friendship and partnership that they have in the comics. We were asked to feel for the character because our titular character was a good guy who didn’t deserve to have bad things happen to him, but that’s not developing a character. That’s just emotional porn.
(One of the only 3 scenes these two share together.)
The Winter Solider seems to be trying to invoke the emotions we were supposed to feel when that incident occurred, and while I never felt anything, TWS seems to be challenging our patriotic Captain with the theme of betrayal. Betrayal by our government, betrayal by our friends and betrayal of our duties.
- Relevant to our time The Dark Knight was a masterpiece because it challenged our preconceptions of terrorism in a post-9/11 world where Americans were being asked to give up certain liberties for their protection. How much are we willing to give up in the name of “fighting terrorism”? That’s is what made The Dark Knight a masterpiece that transcended American pop-culture and made it accessible to different audiences—mixed with Ledger’s Joker, of course. No Marvel movie, to this point has ever done something some deep. The closest I can think of is Iron Man’s critic of American foreign policy of selling and aiding groups that then come back and bites us in the ass—Al Queada—but TWS might bring what made Marvel studios a household name back by making a movie relevant to our time.
Unless you’re dense, TWS’s true antagonist is the NSA(spoiler alert).
As the teaser clearly illustrates, the movie plans to attack the concept of “warrantless wiretaps” when it points out that treating people like criminals for the crimes they have yet to commit is fundamentally un-American. The Constitution grants Americans the right to privacy. Unless they’re under investigation for a criminal act, security officials aren’t constitutionally able to invade your privacy without being granted the okay by a judicial official. And this is where TWS looks like it may be the movie to beat in 2014. It goes back to making Cappy relatable, giving him real life problems injects him into a real life scenario where his heroics are personalized and felt in an earnest way. This could be Marvel’s best villain yet, and he isn’t your conventional flamboyant costume wearing villain. He’s a nameless bureaucrat played by the legendary Robert Redford.
-Dat cast! Whether you’ve disagreed with my opinions of Captain America: The First Avenger or not, there is one that you have to admit to—TFA had the weakest cast in Marvel studio history. Don’t get me wrong and I mean no disrespect to Chris Evans, but when Chris Evans is your top billing actor, you don’t have a great cast. And while I don’t think anyone in TFA did a terrible job in their role, great actors can make a good movie great and a great movie memorable. Getting Robert Redford to star in this most mean that Marvel has a great script on their hands.
Adding Anthony McKay, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson also doesn’t hurt, but Marvel courting actors like Redford, Hopkins and Kingsley just goes to show how much they’ve grown as a studio. Kudos on your success, Marvel.
- A BAMF of a suit. If there was one thing I loved about TFA, it was Cappy’s awesome suit. Then we got the Avengers suit, but it looks like Whedon’s terrible costume design is being put in a corner and Cap’s suit is back to being BAMF quality.
I get what Whedon was trying to do with his costume, Cap is an idealistic hero who isn’t ashamed to stand up for what he believes in…but it was still an eyesore. The Winter Solider looks to be moving the suit in the right direction as Marvel hopes their final movies of “phase 2” generate the bang the controversial Iron Man 3 and recording breaking Avengers did.