Reviews Film / Captain America The Winter Soldier

I actually think it's quite an interesting way to deal with political greyness. They knew what they were doing because the big tension of the film is what happens when you through someone so black and white into a messy situation and it was asking us what the 'right' thing to do would be. It put on a new twist of this sort of conspiracy and commentary because it's normally accepted as part of the premise that everything has to be grey and complicated. Captain America is the Knight in their game of chess and so he moves a little differently to everyone else and does things which would be impossible with a more normal character.

The biggest problem with Captain America in a political setting, is you can't sit on the fence so it's always going to be entering a minefield barefoot. You have to both express an opinion and then declare that that opinion is the absolute right thing to do. But I thought they chose their path quite well here and made a feasible argument for the side they took. Sure their scenario was incredibly over the top but their message was pretty broad. Most of all I thought it was about politics not having to be grey all the time, there are issues where it's better to be open and moral and take the blows than it is to expose yourself to the risk of corruption. Good people should try to do good things harder instead of doing things that are easier but morally worse.

I thought the film was split in two, but for me the divide was more about the superhero action scenes and the political drama. It seemed like they cut a lot of their more interesting ideas short so that they could fit in another (very well done) fight scene. I agree with everything about the Winter Soldier being basically just a henchman though.

The Winter Soldier was a hella well-acted henchman, though. And Sebstan has a nine-picture deal so we're probably going to get more of him.

The Winter Solider, the world's greatest emo :P He wasn't badly acted for what he had. Because I'd already made that joke to myself when he first appeared with the long straight black hair, pale skin, black clothes and brooding eyes it meant that I started laughing when he began raging at Captain America because of his dark and mysterious past but if it hadn't happened to connect to a different image in my mind I think I'd have been really impressed with what they did. If he hadn't been acted superbly then he would have seemed even more like a henchmann than he was. The guy gets like 3 lines and a couple of close ups in his eyes but he manages to make himself a major character with it

I wanted to write a review, but you said it all, and probably more briefly and more eloquently than I could have.

Cheers!

I'd actually disagree about the Winter Soldier himself being wasted because, although his role in the plot of the film is rather minor and unimportant, his significance to Steve's story is enormous. One of (if not the greatest) challenge Steve has to overcome is dealing with how the world is so different — how the things that he loves and cares about and is willing to fight for are still there, but they have radically altered and he's not sure where his place is. In some cases, they've been completely twisted into a mere a shadow of what they were/could have been. A big one, of course, is SHIELD which is actually harboring Hydra. But Bucky himself fits into this as someone Steve cared about that has been warped and rendered unrecognizable. Steve still sees something in there worth saving, though, and is willing to die for it. Bucky and Steve's story parallels, in large part, how Steve feels about the faults of the new world he's been thrust into — yes, many things are broken, but there's a lot of good there left to save.