Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Review

The first Captain America came out in 2011, but I only managed to watch it yesterday. This is probably for the best, as the newly-released sequel The Winter Soldier heavily references the original, but also does a good job of explaining aspects to anybody unfamiliar with the first.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier takes place after the events of The Avengers, and follows Captain Steven Rogers (Chris Evans) as he faces a modern threat with numerous ties to old antagonists. Rather than having a stereotypical 'save-the-world' plot however, this sequel decides to take the story in a much more interesting and enjoyable direction involving treachery, deception and back-stabbing. 

Captain America / Steven Rogers (Chris Evans)

The Winter Soldier occasionally feels more like a single chapter in a larger story, with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackon) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson) featuring heavily, but this is no bad thing. Although the main focus is often the Captain, the inclusion of these characters makes the plot feel much more connected to the Avengers storyline, which makes the wait for Age of Ultron in 2015 all the more agonising. 

Despite the film being named after him, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) rarely appears in comparison to some of the other characters. At first this may seem like a bit of a let-down, as he is such a menacing character thanks to his metallic arm and obscured face, but this absence means any on-screen time he does receive is well-worth the wait. The action-scenes in particular are incredibly well-done and enjoyable, and feature fully rather than the previous movie which used a montage-structure to present some of the coolest fights. The best moments in the film by far were those where Captain America fought the Winter Soldier, although these don't entirely outshine the surprisingly dramatic moments littered throughout. 

The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan)

The only main gripe I had with the film was the heavy use of shaky-cam when presenting some of the fighting, which seems to be commonplace for numerous recent action movies. I really don't see the point of it, as it makes it incredibly hard to see what's going on more than anything, but thankfully the camera calms down slightly towards the end. Unfortunately, I couldn't always focus on the movie as an incredibly obnoxious family were also present in the cinema, but this is no fault of the film of course. 

Verdict
Captain America: The Winter Soldier feels far less like an advert for other Marvel films (which the first did), and is instead an incredibly enjoyable film for fans of action and superheroes alike. The villain of the Winter Soldier may be slightly under-used, but this isn't quite as noticeable thanks to the engrossing and unique storyline. I'd easily recommend this to anybody, just make sure to stay behind until the credits finish rolling...

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. 

The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier"