Captain America: The First Avenger, didn't exactly leave me craving more movies about the de facto leader of the Avengers. And his less than stellar appearance in The Avengers did not exactly encourage me either. So, when The Winter Soldier came out last year, I had absolutely NO interest in seeing it. And then all of my friends came up to me, screaming at me for not seeing it (the same way they would for Guardians of the Galaxy a few months later), and demanding that we go to see it. They said it was shockingly good and made them crave more about Age of Ultron than they had previously wanted. My curiosity piqued, I went to a nearby movie theater, paid my money, slaughtered some robots in the Terminator: Salvation arcade game, got a big bucket of popcorn (What? I'm fat! I need my popcorn!), and sat down to watch what I expected would be a snooze fest. It's very rare that I was dead wrong to criticize two different films in the span of six months before seeing them. Frozen had stunned me before Christmas, making me have a firm belief that Disney Animation was back and thriving once more. And now, six months later, Captain America: The Winter Soldier completely blew me away when I saw it. It wasn't exactly mind-boggling as to who The Winter Soldier was to me, but the whole film was astonishing to view and I can safely say this film is ahead of all of the MCU films besides The Avengers and Thor in my eyes. All I can say beyond that is, in the words of Darth Vader: "Impressive. Most impressive."
Plot: Set two years after the battle with Loki and the Chitauri, Steve Rogers is working full time for S.H.I.E.L.D. while also getting accustomed to the intense amount of changes in the world (such as learning about Steve Jobs and the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek). While on a mission with his partner Black Widow, he learns that he was sent there to retrieve secret data for the secret agency. When confronting Fury about this, he learns of a new group of Helicarriers being built with enough power to completely eliminate threats.
But when Fury is attacked by the likes of an assassin known as The Winter Soldier, he and Rogers are forced to come to the realization that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised and that anyone who opposes the new group in charge would likely be eliminated. Fury is gunned down by the Winter Soldier as he hands over important data to Rogers. When Rogers refuses to give information regarding Fury to anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, he is branded an enemy of the state and must go on the run, along with Black Widow. The Captain and Black Widow discover a secret base in New Jersey and learn that not only had S.H,I.E.L.D. been compromised for a long amount of time, but since it's creation after WWII by Hydra (the Nazi's from the last film) and that senior official Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), is the leader of the new neo-Nazi cult.
Teaming up with USAF pararescueman Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the trio captures a Hydra agent in the organization and learn of a plot to use the new helicarriers to sweep the earth and eliminate all threats to Hydra's reign. Before they could get more information, the Winter Soldier kills the agent. In the ensuing fight, Rogers discovers that the Winter Soldier is his old friend Bucky Barnes, who he had believed to be dead, but had instead been captured and experimented on during the war. Escaping with their lives, the group reunites with Fury, who now intends to help sabotage the helicarriers before they take off. With new resolve, the team must fight for the freedom of the country and the world while Rogers must deal with potentially killing his best friend.
What's Bad?: The same rules that applied to Iron Man 3 apply this time around as well, as in that it's surprising that none of the other Avengers show up to help out now, especially now that Thor is on Earth. My only guess is that Tony Stark was pissed that he had to save the day by himself in his own movie and that he felt Rogers deserved to fight alone.
The rest of the movie's flaws are just nitpicks like in The Avengers. You could ask a few nitpicky questions like:
1. If Tony Stark downloaded all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets in The Avengers, how did he not find out that the agency was a neo-Nazi cult from the start? And if he did find that out, how did he not tell anyone?
2. How was Howard Stark able to create S.H.I.E.L.D. with a good portion of it's members being part of Hydra? And was Obadiah Stane part of said Nazi Cult? (Sorry, but I want Jeff Bridges back damnit!)
3. How has Steve been around for two years and has yet to learn the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek but decides to go visit a museum dedicated to himself?
What's Good?: As with The Avengers, the rest of the stuff that is good in this movie is really freaking good. I will, however, touch on only a few of the best things about this movie. I have three specific things I will address.
The first is Chris Evans and the evolution of Roger's character. I was not Captain America's biggest fan in either his own movie or his other appearance, but I do have to admit this time around his character gets a big buff in the whole "Hey, I can kick ass too!" meter. He shows me that he can and will hold his own with the likes of Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, and the others in Age of Ultron.
The second is getting away from S.H.I.E.L.D. While I do like the whole "Secret Agency" thing, I think that now that The Avengers are together, the purpose of this organization was no longer as important as was the heroes. I would rather watch more kick ass action involving Thor and Captain America over espionage stuff any day of the week.
The third is the secret ending. This secret ending, where we are introduced to both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, was what got me excited for Age of Ultron. I didn't know much about the Avengers going into this MCU run, but one of the characters I did know about was Scarlet Witch and I hope that Joss Whedon does her character justice. She, along with Thor, Batman, Wolverine, Superman, and Iron Man, are my favorite super heroes.
Overall: The Winter Soldier exceeded even the loftiest expectations and truly deserves to be rated among the best Superhero Movies of all time. It had the grittiness, the determination, and the action that all MCU films deserved and I was looking forward to watching the next installment of the Avengers...
Oh yeah. I forgot about these guys...
Final Grade: 95, or A
Next: Guardians of the Galaxy
Then: The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Later: A Look into Phase III
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