Oh I've done a blog entry.

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.