Rating in Stars: *** (out of ****)
Cast: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Cobie Smulders
Directors: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence, gunplay and action throughout)
Running Time: 2:16
Release Date: 04/04/14
(Note: If you are one of the seven people who has not seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier yet, it is highly recommended you do so before reading this review. Of course, why are you reading it if you haven’t?)
If Captain America: The First Avenger did nothing to alleviate the problem of introductory superhero movies offering only a generic origin story and an equally generic conflict, its sequel does the opposite. We are already accustomed to Captain America, the hero whose costume adorned with stars and stripes is as unsubtle as his earnestness to protect American lives, and so, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely rather effectively apply a political undertone to the proceedings. Luckily, rather than going down the simplistic road of an obvious allegory, the politics here are entirely self-contained. They exist within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which this is the ninth film, and the stakes are higher as a result.
Here, the major villain comes from within the system to which Captain America (and, thus, Steve Rogers) belongs, and he’s not having it. HYDRA, the off-shoot club of the Nazi regime spearheaded by his old foe, has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., the government agency that paired Steve (Chris Evans in a solid performance) with the other Avengers to defend the Earth. He discovers this at his old barracks, where he was trained with the late “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan) to defend the country, when forced to go on the run by that corrupt system. In that way, the villain is not the human person very blatantly telegraphed to be a corrupt individual but an idea.
It’s a pretty neat trick to sew doubt in the minds of the heroes here and the audience who have grown to have a sizable kernel of trust in that system. It’s a slow knife between the ribs, rather than some generic conflict against which Steve must work with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), aka Black Widow, as well as a helping of allies (a returning Colbie Smulders as Maria Hill, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon, who has a nifty flight suit with wings, and Emily VanCamp as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent undercover in Steve’s apartment complex). Someone close to them is killed, the establishment around them slowly crumbles, and it’s on the run they must go.
The film does succumb to two different familiar conceits with its presentation of a trio of villains. In ascending order of uniqueness and importance, there is Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo, an intimidating presence), a seeming ally of Steve’s until a neat combat sequence in confined quarters. There is Alexander Pearce (Robert Redford), the aforementioned corrupt individual in power, who wants to continue HYDRA’s work at whatever cost (and his ultimate plan is even more radical). The third is a figure from Steve’s own past whose identity should not be revealed, but he shares the moniker of the film’s subtitle–and has a self-repairing metal arm, to boot.
The result of the familiarity is, admittedly, not of great impactfulness in the big picture. It appears in an extended action climax in which Steve and the Winter Soldier face off on a helicarrier (one of many in this case). Directors Anthony and Joe Russo stage the sequence as sleekly and efficiently as ever, but the most intriguing elements of their film are the ones that pit Captain America against the corroded ideology that helped to make him the hero he is. That is what ultimately gives Captain America: The Winter Soldier its surprising complexity and lifts it above its predecessor.
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