Captain America: The Winter Soldier 2014

B

Maybe I was worn out on Marvel movies when this one came out or maybe I just hadn’t been that crazy about the first Captain America movie, but I never saw this when it came to the theaters. Later on I saw Captain America: Civil War and there were some tie-ins to the Winter Soldier of this movie that I didn’t understand (not that it mattered a lot). While I enjoy Marvel movies, I don’t feel like I need to own them since new ones come out all the time. However the Redbox movie rental kiosks also sell movies and they eventually lowered the price to $3.99, which is the same as renting it for two nights, so I decided I should get a few of the movies including this one, which I had never even seen. I also picked up some other movies made just after this one like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Doctor Strange and Captain America: Civil War. I decided to watch this one first and then re-watch the others which I had seen in the theaters.

This movie has a more stripped down cast of Avengers, primarily featuring Captain America, Nick Fury, and Black Widow, and introduces Falcon. That’s good because it lets the characters develop a little more. While there are still some crazy fights, all of these guys are basically just human beings so it is a little more realistic instead of some of the crazier stuff we see sometimes in these movies. I liked that. But the movie is also weighed down in fake politics, which is never good. It’s always evil scientists and politicians with Marvel. And Captain America is kind of disappointing in general. His big thing is his shield, which is kind of a lame superpower that maybe worked better in comic books than in live action. Scarlett Johansson gets a lot bigger role in this movie, which is great, but she has all this tan makeup and for being such a sex symbol, her look is pretty subdued in this movie.

It is an enjoyable movie and it has a few key moments in the whole Marvel arc, but that also makes it feel more like an installment than a standalone movie. I found the political stuff kind of ho-hum and not that realistic, but some of the big fight scenes and the intrigue are pretty good. Almost gets a B+, but not quite.

Written: 17 Jan 2018

Owned on: Blu-ray