Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

“This isn't the age of spies. This is not even the age of heroes. This is the age of miracles... and there's nothing more horrifying than a miracle.”

            Superheroes stories are fantastic especially the Marvel ones. I like how they take current events and issues and place them in this incredible world of heroes and villains. The story is told in such a way that you may not even realize it based off currents events and issues. When I watch a movie I want to get away from the real world I do not want to think about life outside of my focus of the story for however long a movie runs for.

            My favorite Marvel superhero is Captain America. He is my favorite because he is what America and its people should be. You could argue Steve Rogers is the ideal American man for the 1940s but I feel he is the ideal American man for any age. Steve is a good man he does not want to be a hero he just wants to do what is right and fight all the bad guys and the injustices of the world.

            Captain America: The Winter Soldier does not pick up immediately following The First Avenger. Some time has passed. Captain Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is running early in the morning around Washington, D.C. Since he is a super soldier he literally runs laps around a fellow, much younger soldier, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). Steve is still struggling with the ways of his new world. He carries a notebook to look things up whenever he comes across something he does not know. At the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum there is an exhibit dedicated to his return and his service in the army during World War II. Everyone he served with lived to an old age and passed on except for him and his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who was one of the only Howling Commandoes to die in service. There is also a video interview with the love of his life Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) from 1953 discussing Steve and her founding of S.H.I.E.L.D. Peggy is still alive but not in good health. She talks to Steve and then quickly forgets him.

            Steve’s mindset and morals are still kind of set in the 1940s. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) shows him a warehouse of weapons that could bring down a small nation. Steve does not believe in weapons like the ones he is being shown and neither in how they are to be used. When Fury questions him about his service and use of weapons during the War Steve rightly says that that was different there was a worldwide threat that had to be stopped at all costs. The threats that S.H.I.E.L.D are fighting now are top secret no one outside of the government knows about them.

            While driving back to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, Fury is attacked. He manages to just barely get away. He goes to Steve’s apartment and covertly tells Steve that S.H.I.E.L.D has been compromised no one is to be trusted. Fury is then shot at through a window. Fury dies at the hospital. Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has been working with S.H.I.E.L.D and was close to Fury. She is upset with Steve she knows he is hiding something.

            Steve eventually tells Natasha what Fury had told him before he was shot and they partner up to find out what S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing with the enemy HYDRA. They find that the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) has been working with HYDRA and their secret weapon The Winter Soldier.

            Throughout the events of The Winter Soldier Steve Rogers fights like the brave, loyal, protective man and soldier he has always been yet he struggles with the morals of fighting immoral people and an immoral government while his 1940s mindset still sees the black and white of a gray world.

            Marvel movies have the best casted movies ever. Chris Evans cannot in any way get enough praise for playing Steve Rogers/Captain America. I believe him as Steve Rogers as this loving, kind, good hearted soldier who wants to do what is right for others. Scarlett Johansson plays Black Widow like no one else can. Black Widow is such an awesome character. When I watch her I feel like I can see she has some emotions in her and she is not all cold as ice and tough yet she still walks around and carries herself like she is cold as ice and tough. Do not know if that made any sense. I guess I could she walks around like a boss ass head bitch in charge with this great strut and look that could kill someone just staring at her yet underneath there is a smidge of a caring person underneath all that. I loved her friendship/partnership with Steve because that is exactly what their relationship was it was a friendship and a partnership there was no love/romantic feelings between them. That was so refreshing to see a male character and a female character working together and not have all the romantic feels attached. That made me so damn happy. Bravo writers. If you go back and read my review of The First Avenger you will know that I have a slight obsession with Agent Carter … ok, ok, I lied, I’m sorry. I have a HUGE obsession with Agent Carter. I LOVE the TV show Agent Carter and I love Agent Peggy Carter as a character. Along with Black Widow, the world needs more female characters like Peggy Carter in the world. Before I get on a tirade, Peggy was not in this movie too much since she was older. The scene where Steve goes to visit an old, sick Peggy was heartbreaking! God damn Hayley Atwell and her awesome acting for hurting my feels! Evans and Atwell were just killer on the feels in that scene. You can see his longing for the Peggy he knew and for a life they could have had together on Evans’s face. Ugh, I was like just, here, take my damn heart I do not need it do with it what you will. Emily Van Camp’s character Agent 13 had so much potential. She seems like she could become another bad ass awesome female character in the Marvel Universe. Anthony Mackie… total bad ass. I loved him and his character right from his first scene. I cannot wait to see more of him in the MCU.

 

            The script was fantastic. The characters remained the same as we knew them before but they were given a chance to grow. I really liked the story because it really was a good guys versus the bad guys which was black and white. The gray was all the ethical and moral issues with everything the good and bad guys did. The direction by Anthony and Joe Russo was incredible because it captured all the emotions of every single character and all those moral and ethical issues they were all struggling with or working against.

            Captain America: The Winter Soldier perfectly expands and continues Steve Rogers’s and Captain America’s wonderful, truly patriotic story. Like The First Avenger I absolutely loved The Winter Soldier and I cannot wait to watch it again.