So let’s talk about Captain America: Winter Soldier.
I sat down in the cinema with low expectations, Captain America’s flag-waving
patriotism has always belonged in ‘golden era’ of comics in my mind, out of
touch with contemporary thinking. That being said Brubaker’s run on Cap was
exquisite, as is more or less everything the man does, and I was hoping that
Marvel would take this on board with this latest instalment in the Captain
America franchise.
This is not the Cap that your parents and
grandparents grew up reading, this is Brubaker’s Cap. A Cap out of his time
who’s come to realise that simply following orders and fighting the
government’s battles may no longer be the right thing to do. This is a Cap
shaped by the contemporary political landscape in which armies and soldiers are
no longer revered by the public but often seen of pawns at the behest of governments
that no longer have the interests of the public at the front of their mind.
The parallel between SHIELD and Hydra was well done
and did beggar the question as to whether Hydra’s use of SHIELD tech was really
any worse than its original intentions. In a world that still has Edward
Snowden, drone attacks on civilians and the misuse of the NSA still fresh in its mind how could
SHIELD’s "quantum surge in
threat analysis" not be looked upon as sinister. This look at
SHIELD as a first-world security and surveillance force that doesn’t answer to
democracy represents a bold move from Marvel, and the film contains next to
none of the patriotism that you’d expect from a Captain America film. The film
was dripping with paranoid tension and owes as much to seventies paranoia
thrillers such as Day of the Condor or
The Parallax View, as it does other
super hero films. It’s an extremely well-crafted piece of cinema with almost
perfect pacing, although the final act did flounder in places, and tension
being built up, sustained and then released expertly.
As always there was a second ending saved for after
the credits, which were absolutely stunning themself, that was well worth
sticking around for. Not only did we see the return of Loki’s lance, handed
down from Thanos himself, but we caught a glimpse of Pietro and Wanda Maximoff,
better recognised as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. I defy anybody that has
read House of M not to get chills
when seeing the finally shot of Scarlet Witch levitating and then disintegrating
building blocks. The foreshadowing is incredible and that alone has got me
hyped up for the next instalment of The Avengers.
Where the film does let itself down is more less the
fact that it’s a Marvel film and therefore it has to adhere to certain rules. Big
set pieces and long fight sequences fill up space that would have been better
used building characters and adding to the conspiracy. A lot more could have
been done with Black Widow’s past and exploring the distrust that is inherently
associated with her character. Even more could have been done with Winter
Soldier who could have been used both more often and more effectively.
The film also suffers from Marvel’s continued
inconsistency within its body of work, in this film we see Cap’s shield be
blasted away by an RPG whereas in The
Avengers it manages to withstand the full force of Mjolnir. My pet peeve
with Marvel films are the constant use of lazy one liners that crack everyone
up in the cinema but add nothing to the character or the narrative.
Overall it’s a fantastic film that represents a step
away from tradition by Marvel and a desire to not just make run of the mill
superhero films. It works brilliantly and if anything could do with a greater
emphasis on the conspiracy and character driven elements of the film instead of
the big fight sequences that look great on screen but in all honesty just
reiterate the fact the Cap has an extremely limited skillset.
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