MOVIE REVIEW: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER,

Steve Rogers continues his journey as the super-powered American soldier who's grasping to find his place in a modern world after being frozen in ice since WWII with this Marvel Studios sequel. Chris Evans returns to star, with Community director/producers Joe and Anthony Russo helming. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Joe Russo, Anthony Russo 

Cast: Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson

Release Date: Apr 04, 2014

Rated: PG-13 for Gunplay, Action throughout and Intense Sequences of Violence

Runtime: 2 hr. 8 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure

Review:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of Marvel’s best scripted stories thus far.  That’s not to say it doesn’t have some issues but it’s a solid attempt at trying to dig a bit deeper into some complex issues with a complicated villain.  It’s rather blunt if earnest about it’s intentions.  If this all makes it sound rather dour well it is at time occasionally turning into a plodding and somewhat joyless experience that could have been trimmed by a good 15 to 20 minutes.  Personally, I might have been more impressed if I hadn’t seen a similar story line in a certain DC animated series I was fond of but I digress.  The film, when it hits its mark, delivers some excellent action set pieces and superhero action.  Evans does his best to bring some deeper layers to the Captain and he pulls it off for the most part.  Scarlett Johansson has a larger part which doesn’t require her to runaround in her catsuit and the film’s better for it as she displays some solid chemistry with Evans.  Newcomers Anthony Mackie and Robert Redford bring varying degrees of excitement to the proceedings.  Mackie is obviously having a blast throughout while Redford’s name brings some gravitas to the whole thing but he seemed as disinterested as can be.  Sebastian Stan’s Winter Solider is in the movie title but his screen time is surprisingly small in the grand scheme of things.  It’s a game changing film that does kind of blows up a lot of the establishment from the Marvel universe so it’ll be interesting to see where they from here, hopefully they’ll remember bring a bit more fun.  

B-

Cindy Prascik's Review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dearest Blog, yesterday I chose an afternoon at the cinema over an afternoon at the office. In the common tongue, I believe that's what's known as a "gimmie." On the docket, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

Captain America finds himself at odds with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s thinking, and facing a surprising and dangerous adversary.

Well, dear Blog, first I should admit I'm not quite so much on the Marvel bandwagon as most of the world. They make good superhero movies, and I like good superhero movies, but they don't make anything that sets my world on fire like that last Batman trilogy did. A matter of personal taste, I know, but worth mentioning in the interest of full and fair disclosure.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has many positives, so we'll start with those. It's a layered story that manages to hold your attention without becoming muddled and over-complicated. The action sequences are solid, and the CGI tricks look pretty authentic. The movie is filled with familiar names and faces, and it's as comfortable as hanging with a group of old friends when they name-check other characters from the Marvel universe. Chris Evans again serves the Captain well. If he's neither as charismatic as Robert Downey, Jr. nor as interesting as Mark Ruffalo, he IS the very picture of the all-American hero, perfect for this role. For my money, though, the actor who's really worth seeing here is Sebastian Stan. I've been a fan since his work on the short-lived NBC series Kings, and am positively delighted about his jump to the big-screen blockbuster. (I'd have been more delighted with more screen time, but since I watched Black Swan for about two minutes of him, I guess I'll live.)

On the negative side: Had the action sequences been trimmed just a bit, the movie would have been sharper and better paced; as it is, it does seem to drag a bit at times. Of more concern was the reaction in my pretty-crowded cinema, almost a total flatline. No spontaneous oohs and ahhs, almost no bursts of laughter at the comic bits, no chatter or applause at the end. For a movie that's been so well received, I found that very curious, especially as the crowd seemed mostly comprised of fanboys and kids.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier runs 136 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense sequences of violence, gunplay, and action throughout."

Some folks are saying The Winter Soldier is even better than Marvel's Avengers, seemingly the current benchmark for a great superhero movie. For my money, they're about the same: fun times that perfectly fit the lighthearted summer-blockbuster mold.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Captain America: The Winter Soldier gets seven and a half.

Until next time...

 

 

Any room for me up in there?