Captain America: The Winter Soldier review

Captain America: The Winter Soldier finds cap defending the modern world, a world in which he is struggling to adapt to, by fighting an old foe that has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D as well as the mysterious Winter Soldier.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier wears its influences on its sleeves. It calls back to the espionage thrillers of the 70s whilst also tipping its hat to the action and siege films of the 21^st Century. It ends up as a ridiculously cool mix of Bourne-saga meets La Carre novel.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are no strangers to this post-post-modernist approach to film making. Their TV show, Community, is full of satire and pop-culture references. With Cap 2 the Russo brothers decided to change things up with the Superhero genre. When breaking Steve Rogers down you come to realise he is not like the other superheroes. He does not work alone – he is a captain, he leads a team of soldiers.  He is man whose real strengths lie in his leadership. Sure he can kick ass but he can also tactically take an enormous organisation down from the inside. But above all else cap fights for what is morally right. The perfect candidate then for the protagonist of a spy film – a professional soldier using his unique assets to take down terrorists.

The Winter Soldier sees S.H.I.E.L.D infiltrated by a foreign threat. The organisation’s leaders can no longer be trusted and cap has to go rogue. This is where we enter espionage and with it comes a darker, cooler and all-together different tone. This is the Ying to The First Avenger’s Yang. It is the opposite of its predecessor – it’s less patriotic and glorified and more critical and real in its take on terrorism and world politics.

Beyond the smart plot and sleek tone the action sequences have taken a more Bourne/The Raid approach. With quick, brutal and realistically-choreographed action sequences. The reason Captain America stands out from the rest of his super-squad is that he fights at ground level with fists and pistols (and of course, a massive shield, which itself is repeatedly used in clever and imaginative ways). He does not have a heavy arsenal like Thor, Iron Man or The Hulk but he’s not half bad in a scrap.

What’s most important here is that the Russo brothers have made Captain America cool again after the famous man had become somewhat of a dull figure in the public’s opinion. The directing brothers have also, undoubtedly with the consent of Marvel head honcho Kevin Fiege, changed Marvels cinematic world more than any other film in the franchise. The ramifications of the ending of this are immense but we’ll have to wait to Avengers 2 to find out what happens.

Luke Brookman