Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review

by Khandhan Nadarajan, Junior 1 Higgs, Class of 2015

Why do people like Captain America? Can he spin webs from his hands like Spiderman, or call forth the wrath of lightning and thunder like Thor? Does he have exceptional intelligence like Iron Man? Well, he has strength but he is definitely not as strong as the Incredible Hulk. No, Captain America does not specialise in any of these areas, but he has something even stronger, and that is an overwhelming sense of duty, honour and virtue. He also has something else that sets him apart which is his somewhat indestructible shield. That is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Captain America. 

Chris Evans returns as Captain America in The Winter Soldier and played the role to perfection, proving that he is ideal for the part and portraying the essence of the character. Scarlett Johansson also stars in this movie and returns as the SHIELD agent Natasha Romanoff, or as we all know her, the Black Widow. When you think of the Black Widow in contrast to Captain America, you think of her signature black leather suit, her flawless scarlet hair, unparalleled combat abilities, agile movements and wit. 

Furthermore, she is seductive and sexy yet deadly. What is really captivating about her is that she is the polar opposite of Captain America. The Black Widow lies and deceives whereas Captain America is honest and ethical. Moreover, she is modern and present in comparison to the Captain who is old-fashioned. In this movie, the Black Widow was seen more as a partner to Captain America than just a sidekick. 

Accompanied with Scarlett Johansson, we get to see some familiar faces such as Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill and Sebastian Stan as Jamestown Buchanan Barnes. New faces were also introduced such as Anthony Mackie as the Falcon(Sam Wilson) and Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter. 

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" starts with the Captain living in Washington D.C, still working with SHIELD trying to cope with modern day society. Even with Natasha Romanoff and Sam Wilson by his side, Steve’s (Captain America's civillian self) intuitions about SHIELD's misconduct still continue to loiter after the ill-fated turn of events in the Avengers. After leaving SHIELD, Steve and Natasha take off from the officials in charge and Steve wrestles with himself to settle with his morals and ideals. They then form a team and device a plan to stop the darkness that lies in SHIELD, with their false way of protecting America’s freedom. Alongside this operation, our heroes are also forced to go against a new and improved threat - The Winter Soldier.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" has received approving reviews, commending the cast, storyline, production, special effects and has been voiced as Marvel’s best movie yet. The movie also received an 8.5 out of 10 rating on IMDb, 93% from critics on the review website Rotten Tomatoes and 71 out of 100 from Metacritic. It is predicted to open at somewhere around $90 million and is on track to beating its prequel which opened at $65 million. However the film will not beat “The Avengers” or “Ironman 3” that came in at $207 million and $174 million respectively as the Marvel’s two highest debuts. "The Winter Soldier" will most likely surpass Marvels last opening, “Thor: The Dark World” that debuted at $86 million. 

Overall, I think directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo did an astounding job in portraying Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s story and the cast also did an amazing job as expected of them. The movie’s running time is 136 minutes — Marvel’s second longest movie after “The Avengers” — but is filled with action packed fight scenes, shield- throwing and adrenaline pumping explosions, because what action has no explosions. I really hope to see The Black Widow and the Falcon working with Captain America again and I highly recommend watching this movie because it truly is one of Marvel's best.

Rating: 4.7/5