Eastern Carolina Style

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Rated PG-13

for intense sequences of violence, gunplay and action throughout

Captain America: The Winter Soldier lived up to my expectations, almost completely. As I look back on the movie, there are only a couple of minor things that I would have liked to have seen done better.

In general, sequels often have a hard time living up the standards established by “part ones”, forget about being better. In my opinion, Cap 2 has done an excellent job of building on the successes of the previous film and correcting the flaws at the same time. The cool is cooler and the dull is gone.

In regards to the story and plot, we should all be in tune with the way Marvel like to turn its movies in to episodes instead of all-encompassing stories by now. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is no different, as soon as the movie is over you are ready for the next one. The story that is told sets up at least two more sequels and GREATLY impacts The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the small screen.

If you were to try and categorize The Winter Soldier, I think you would have to put in with spy mysteries. The story is ripe with espionage and shifting alliances with very little being as it seems. Some of the good guys do some very bad guy like things and vice versa. You are in a position of wondering who is good and who is bad for a large part of the movie. Some of the assumptions that you go in with are proved to be horribly off from the real story by the time it is over, all with an eye for the future.

As you would expect, the characters are the driving force behind this movie. As with any comic book inspired film, the story is interchangeable as long as the fans accept the character as a whole. If you screw up a character, like Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the fans will destroy the whole movie without prejudice. Making sure to not “screw anyone up” was obviously a point of emphasis for the creative team.

The characters that we have seen before that are back for another round are all more dynamic, as compared to their previous portrayals:

Captain America – Chris Evans

He is still the guy trying to adapt to waking up to a world he knows nothing about, but he doesn’t feel as lost. Humor and wit are inserted into the character so that he doesn’t seem to be quite as moody. More emphasis was put on him being a highly trained fighter and tactician this time around too.

Nick Fury – Samuel L Jackson

FINALLY! We get to see him in do more than walk around and jibber-jabber like a bureaucrat.

Black Widow – Scarlett Johansson

The writers and director made a great decision in actually letting her have some personality this time around. She is still the ass-kicking redhead from the previous movies, but now we get to see her as a human being too.

The new characters that are introduced mostly met my expectations as well:

The Winter Soldier – Sebastian Stan

If you know the history of this character from the comics, you will be happy with the big-screen adaptation. If you know nothing about him, you will be impressed with him as well. He is portrayed as Cap’s equal in almost every way. In any area where he is not Cap’s equal, he is better. He is very much like Bane, but thankfully nowhere near as chatty.

The Falcon – Anthony Mackie

This is where things could have been just a little better. Not enough time was spent on developing Falcon. I do not want to say that he was just dropped into the scene with no development, but it was still lacking. He is very much Cap’s sidekick. To the movie’s credit, any scene of him in action was given as much attention as would have been given to Iron Man.

Alexander Pierce – Robert Redford

Pierce is another character that can be a bit confusing or even misunderstood. To avoid spoiling the story, all I will say is that he is portrayed as a figurehead, or personification, for the underlying story instead of Nick Fury’s friend and ally since “the old days.” As the story unfolds Pierce becomes less and less important which mitigates my issues.

Another aspect to the Marvel movies that adds to the excitement is the use of Easter Eggs and credit scenes. This movie has a plenty of Easter Eggs and two credit scenes that are intriguing. There is a good bit of foreshadowing to other projects and characters as well: Doctor Strange for one and Moonstone as another.

A couple of words of caution:

If you are a fan of The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and are behind in watching the most recent episodes, get that done first! The story told in this movie is the resolution to part of the story on the TV show. If you watch the movie before catching up the whole “hunt for the clairvoyant” is going to be less than fulfilling to say the least. If you are like me, and make that mistake, you might jump to the same question I did, “so are they cancelling the show now?”

This weekend make the time to get out of the house and go see this movie. It is not going to let you down.

LET THE SUMMER BLOCKBUSTER SEASON BEGIN!!!