Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Big Marvel Movie Re-Watch
I'm attempting a great big Marvel movie re-watch ahead of the release of Captain America Civil War on 29th April. A summary and brief review of each of the 12 instalments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be posted each Thursday and Tuesday.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Plot Summary
Captain America is finally getting acclimated to the modern world, he meets Sam Wilson a war veteran while out jogging laps near the smithsonian. Widow picks him up to go on a SHIELD mission. They are taking out a terrorist named Batroc who is holding a SHIELD ship hostage. It becomes apparent later that the mission was compromised because Fury gave Widow a side mission while on the boat.
Cap confronts Fury, and makes it very clear that he was unimpressed with being kept out of the loop. Fury shows Cap the new style Hellicarriers and gives him a little more insight as to whats at stake with the new defence initiative. Cap disagrees as he believes the punishment comes after the crime.
Cap goes to visit a now elderly Peggy Carter in hospital and gets some words of wisdom as well as closure. She lived a happy life. Cap then goes and visits Sam's ex military support group, and finds out that Sam was in the air force. Meanwhile Fury has discovered he is locked out of the files that Widow recovered from the boat apparently on his own authority. He goes to Director Pierce, head of the war council you saw at the end of The Avengers movie. He talks them out of the new Helicarriers at least momentarily while he investigates the security issue with his files. Fury gets in contact with Maria Hill and organises her meeting him, only to be attacked by people dressed in police uniform. A car chase ensues and he winds up escaping after a run in with the Winter Soldier.
Fury shows that he trusts Cap by waiting for him at his apartment, he entrusts the pen drive to him, telling him to trust no one, and is then taken out by the Winter Soldier. It turns out that Cap's neighbour is also a SHIELD agent, keeping an eye on him for Fury. Cap follows the assassin and has a run in with the Winter Soldier himself. Fury later appears to die in hospital in front of Hill, Widow and Cap. Cap is brought back in to SHIELD HQ. The Triskelion by the head of his own unit Brock Rumlow. After lying to Pierce about what happened with Fury, SHIELD turns on Cap and he narrowly escapes. Project Insight, the Hellicarriers is put back on schedule.
Widow and Cap team up and go to investigate the pen drive, tracing it's origin to an old army barracks that Cap is familiar with, the go and find a secret SHIELD base that looks like the original one, that Peggy and Howard Stark set up after Cap went into the ice during the war. Deeper still they find a HYDRA bunker inside the SHIELD one. It turns out that Arnim Zola, from the previous film, went into SHIELD as a double agent and HYDRA has been present within the organisation from the start. Zola has stayed alive by putting his brain onto thousands of floppy disc hard drives and lives on as a computer. It turns out that Project Insight is an algorithm written by Zola to ensure humanity loses it's freedom. SHIELD bombs the complex and the pair barely escape.
They flee to Sam's house and upon looking back it appears that Sitwell, a high level agent who was on the kidnapped boat as well as Pierce himself must be HYDRA agents. Sam Wilson's past finally comes to light and he comes clean about what kind of air force he was in, and shows the pari the plans to the Falcon wing suit. The three of them capture Sitwell and he let's loose the fact that the algorithm determines who will grow up to be super heroes or significant people that will protect humanities freedom, while name dropping Stephen Strange among others. They try to use Sitwell to break into a SHIELD facility and stop it, but while en route they are attacked by HYDRA and the Winter Soldier. During the explosive fight Cap knocks off Winter Soliders' mask only to reveal that it was Bucky Barnes inside. His friend from the War, having barely aged and seemingly he survived his fall from the train mission. They loose the battle and are taken prisoner. It appears that whatever Zola did to Bucky is wearing off and he goes into a further round of conditioning.
Hill saves them all and takes them to a SHIELD safe house, revealing that Fury faked his death using a sedative that Bruce Banner designed for the Hulk. They master a plan where they need to break into a hellicarrier each and put a new chip into each command centre to change the codes from destroying every notable hero on the planet and instead destroying each other. The Hellicarriers launch into the sky as Cap, and Falcon fight their way on board. Widow sneaks in disguised as a head of the War council to get Pierce.
Cap gives a speech over the intercoms at SHIELD HQ. and rallies a lot of support, truly dividing SHIELD and HYDRA in half for a confusing yet all out finale. Winter Soldier vs. Cap, Pierce vs. Fury and Widow, and Brock now resembling more his comic book counterpart, Crossbones vs Falcon. It's all out spectacle as they barely make it in time, to take out the carriers and to out all of SHIELDs secrets, including the heroes own shady pasts. Cap goes down with a Hellicarrier only to be saved by Bucky who escapes into the world on his own for the first time since his capture and torture during the war. What kind of world does it leave you with when the heroes are questionable and against their own government, while there's no intelligence agency in place? There's lots of follow up to this film in the TV series Agents of SHIELD.
End Credits Scenes
In our first of two teasers, we see Baron Zemo has acquired the Sceptre from the Avengers film, and has used the power to create super powered people, namely the twins. Or Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch from the later released Avengers sequel.
We also get a tease at the catalyst for the next Cap film, upcoming Civil War, as Bucky goes to learn about his past by visiting the same museum Cap does and learns who he really is.
Review
This is widely regarded as one of if not, the best marvel movie to date. Rightly so, it's got everything that made the Avengers great. The large ensemble cast, where everyone get's their badass moment. The spectacle and show stopping action. The quite moments where the characters really shine through. Despite the more serious espionage style to the movie there is still the usual amount of light hearted joke quipping too. Only this time around, all origin stories are done and the story has more room to breath and be itself.
There is a real gravitas to the future movies and finale of this one. No other movie in the franchise manages to have so much at stake yet still have so much set up carry over to the next films. After such a small, hilarious and yet still, out of left field twist about the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, to find out that SHIELD itself is completely riddled from the very beginning with HYDRA, and the sheer knife twist of the "Hail HYDRA" whisper in the ear of the employees, was truly story shattering. Best twist to date.
The spectacle of the fight above the Triskelion with the three Hellicarriers and Falcon flying about is on par with the Avengers movie finale. While the quiet moments like Sam's veteran talk group and Peggy losing her mind in hospital are really tear jerking. I was quite angry at Avengers for not including Peggy as I wanted to have Cap get that dance with his best girl, but this is so much better story wise.
The start of Bucky's redemption starts here and continues for movies to come. The fall of SHIELD and the outing of HYDRA and Widow's secret KGB past being outed is just so much story potential it's insane. Falcon is a welcome addition and not just because he's a minority hero, more because he doesn't require an origin, he's a soldier with tech and he knows how to use it. It's satisfying to have a ready made hero jump head first in simply because Cap asks.
There's a lot here for comics fans too. Stark's engines, Banner's sedative, Widow's past, Name dropping Stephen Strange this is well and truly a living breathing world we are now seeing on screen. All the building blocks are now in place. This film completely breaks the mould on how many villains you can shove in. Batroc, Zola, Crossbones, Pierce, HYDRA and Zemo allot naturally and flow well throughout. Who would have though a Z list villain like Batroc the leaper could be so threatening, cool and real on screen. Maybe this was an early warning sign that a talking tree and gun toting raccoon would work so well on screen in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The tone shift breathes a breath of fresh air into the usual super hero action and the more serious spy movie works well with all the characters involved. The close up action scenes are no longer cheesy as people throw each other through buildings. More of the same stereotypical super hero story and action is only good for so long, but you run the risk of it getting too same-y or no longer been able to top yourself each time. Pirates of the Caribbean is guilty of it. My main argument of the 3rd and 4th is that it was just more of the same. It got a bit too pirate-y. Here the action has gone from cheesy to almost modern Bond/ Bourne style instead. The close up knife fight with Bucky is hostly quite jaw dropping.
Marvel Studios needs Super Hero films to stay popular and changing tones occasionally is definitely a way to keep them fresh.
I don't think I can put into words just how great this film is. I'm glad the team behind this film are behind the upcoming Civil War as well as Infinity War Avengers two parter, despite the similar Cap vs government story, more of this can only be a good thing.
Captain America The Winter Soldier Rating: 9/10
What's not to like? A change in genre from superhero to spy/ espionage, and a tone shift to be a tad more serious really helps sell this colourful fleshed out world for it's best instalment yet. See this movie now!
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| The 9th part of the saga so far. |
Plot Summary
Captain America is finally getting acclimated to the modern world, he meets Sam Wilson a war veteran while out jogging laps near the smithsonian. Widow picks him up to go on a SHIELD mission. They are taking out a terrorist named Batroc who is holding a SHIELD ship hostage. It becomes apparent later that the mission was compromised because Fury gave Widow a side mission while on the boat.
Cap confronts Fury, and makes it very clear that he was unimpressed with being kept out of the loop. Fury shows Cap the new style Hellicarriers and gives him a little more insight as to whats at stake with the new defence initiative. Cap disagrees as he believes the punishment comes after the crime.
Cap goes to visit a now elderly Peggy Carter in hospital and gets some words of wisdom as well as closure. She lived a happy life. Cap then goes and visits Sam's ex military support group, and finds out that Sam was in the air force. Meanwhile Fury has discovered he is locked out of the files that Widow recovered from the boat apparently on his own authority. He goes to Director Pierce, head of the war council you saw at the end of The Avengers movie. He talks them out of the new Helicarriers at least momentarily while he investigates the security issue with his files. Fury gets in contact with Maria Hill and organises her meeting him, only to be attacked by people dressed in police uniform. A car chase ensues and he winds up escaping after a run in with the Winter Soldier.
Fury shows that he trusts Cap by waiting for him at his apartment, he entrusts the pen drive to him, telling him to trust no one, and is then taken out by the Winter Soldier. It turns out that Cap's neighbour is also a SHIELD agent, keeping an eye on him for Fury. Cap follows the assassin and has a run in with the Winter Soldier himself. Fury later appears to die in hospital in front of Hill, Widow and Cap. Cap is brought back in to SHIELD HQ. The Triskelion by the head of his own unit Brock Rumlow. After lying to Pierce about what happened with Fury, SHIELD turns on Cap and he narrowly escapes. Project Insight, the Hellicarriers is put back on schedule.
Widow and Cap team up and go to investigate the pen drive, tracing it's origin to an old army barracks that Cap is familiar with, the go and find a secret SHIELD base that looks like the original one, that Peggy and Howard Stark set up after Cap went into the ice during the war. Deeper still they find a HYDRA bunker inside the SHIELD one. It turns out that Arnim Zola, from the previous film, went into SHIELD as a double agent and HYDRA has been present within the organisation from the start. Zola has stayed alive by putting his brain onto thousands of floppy disc hard drives and lives on as a computer. It turns out that Project Insight is an algorithm written by Zola to ensure humanity loses it's freedom. SHIELD bombs the complex and the pair barely escape.
They flee to Sam's house and upon looking back it appears that Sitwell, a high level agent who was on the kidnapped boat as well as Pierce himself must be HYDRA agents. Sam Wilson's past finally comes to light and he comes clean about what kind of air force he was in, and shows the pari the plans to the Falcon wing suit. The three of them capture Sitwell and he let's loose the fact that the algorithm determines who will grow up to be super heroes or significant people that will protect humanities freedom, while name dropping Stephen Strange among others. They try to use Sitwell to break into a SHIELD facility and stop it, but while en route they are attacked by HYDRA and the Winter Soldier. During the explosive fight Cap knocks off Winter Soliders' mask only to reveal that it was Bucky Barnes inside. His friend from the War, having barely aged and seemingly he survived his fall from the train mission. They loose the battle and are taken prisoner. It appears that whatever Zola did to Bucky is wearing off and he goes into a further round of conditioning.
Hill saves them all and takes them to a SHIELD safe house, revealing that Fury faked his death using a sedative that Bruce Banner designed for the Hulk. They master a plan where they need to break into a hellicarrier each and put a new chip into each command centre to change the codes from destroying every notable hero on the planet and instead destroying each other. The Hellicarriers launch into the sky as Cap, and Falcon fight their way on board. Widow sneaks in disguised as a head of the War council to get Pierce.
Cap gives a speech over the intercoms at SHIELD HQ. and rallies a lot of support, truly dividing SHIELD and HYDRA in half for a confusing yet all out finale. Winter Soldier vs. Cap, Pierce vs. Fury and Widow, and Brock now resembling more his comic book counterpart, Crossbones vs Falcon. It's all out spectacle as they barely make it in time, to take out the carriers and to out all of SHIELDs secrets, including the heroes own shady pasts. Cap goes down with a Hellicarrier only to be saved by Bucky who escapes into the world on his own for the first time since his capture and torture during the war. What kind of world does it leave you with when the heroes are questionable and against their own government, while there's no intelligence agency in place? There's lots of follow up to this film in the TV series Agents of SHIELD.
End Credits Scenes
In our first of two teasers, we see Baron Zemo has acquired the Sceptre from the Avengers film, and has used the power to create super powered people, namely the twins. Or Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch from the later released Avengers sequel.
We also get a tease at the catalyst for the next Cap film, upcoming Civil War, as Bucky goes to learn about his past by visiting the same museum Cap does and learns who he really is.
Review
This is widely regarded as one of if not, the best marvel movie to date. Rightly so, it's got everything that made the Avengers great. The large ensemble cast, where everyone get's their badass moment. The spectacle and show stopping action. The quite moments where the characters really shine through. Despite the more serious espionage style to the movie there is still the usual amount of light hearted joke quipping too. Only this time around, all origin stories are done and the story has more room to breath and be itself.
There is a real gravitas to the future movies and finale of this one. No other movie in the franchise manages to have so much at stake yet still have so much set up carry over to the next films. After such a small, hilarious and yet still, out of left field twist about the Mandarin in Iron Man 3, to find out that SHIELD itself is completely riddled from the very beginning with HYDRA, and the sheer knife twist of the "Hail HYDRA" whisper in the ear of the employees, was truly story shattering. Best twist to date.
The spectacle of the fight above the Triskelion with the three Hellicarriers and Falcon flying about is on par with the Avengers movie finale. While the quiet moments like Sam's veteran talk group and Peggy losing her mind in hospital are really tear jerking. I was quite angry at Avengers for not including Peggy as I wanted to have Cap get that dance with his best girl, but this is so much better story wise.
The start of Bucky's redemption starts here and continues for movies to come. The fall of SHIELD and the outing of HYDRA and Widow's secret KGB past being outed is just so much story potential it's insane. Falcon is a welcome addition and not just because he's a minority hero, more because he doesn't require an origin, he's a soldier with tech and he knows how to use it. It's satisfying to have a ready made hero jump head first in simply because Cap asks.
There's a lot here for comics fans too. Stark's engines, Banner's sedative, Widow's past, Name dropping Stephen Strange this is well and truly a living breathing world we are now seeing on screen. All the building blocks are now in place. This film completely breaks the mould on how many villains you can shove in. Batroc, Zola, Crossbones, Pierce, HYDRA and Zemo allot naturally and flow well throughout. Who would have though a Z list villain like Batroc the leaper could be so threatening, cool and real on screen. Maybe this was an early warning sign that a talking tree and gun toting raccoon would work so well on screen in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The tone shift breathes a breath of fresh air into the usual super hero action and the more serious spy movie works well with all the characters involved. The close up action scenes are no longer cheesy as people throw each other through buildings. More of the same stereotypical super hero story and action is only good for so long, but you run the risk of it getting too same-y or no longer been able to top yourself each time. Pirates of the Caribbean is guilty of it. My main argument of the 3rd and 4th is that it was just more of the same. It got a bit too pirate-y. Here the action has gone from cheesy to almost modern Bond/ Bourne style instead. The close up knife fight with Bucky is hostly quite jaw dropping.
Marvel Studios needs Super Hero films to stay popular and changing tones occasionally is definitely a way to keep them fresh.
I don't think I can put into words just how great this film is. I'm glad the team behind this film are behind the upcoming Civil War as well as Infinity War Avengers two parter, despite the similar Cap vs government story, more of this can only be a good thing.
Captain America The Winter Soldier Rating: 9/10
What's not to like? A change in genre from superhero to spy/ espionage, and a tone shift to be a tad more serious really helps sell this colourful fleshed out world for it's best instalment yet. See this movie now!
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Big Marvel Movie Re-Watch
Reviewed by Matt
on
03:06:00
Rating:
Reviewed by Matt
on
03:06:00
Rating:
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