Back today with a review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted a movie review here on the site. Hell… it’s been 8 months since I posted my review of The Wold of Wall Street. That sucks. What can I say… I’m a bad blogger. But hey… at least I’m coming back to this now. That’s not to say that I’m not watching movies… far from it. It’s just that I’ve been watching primarily horror flicks which I review over at ScareTissue.com.
Anyhow. I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier WAY back in April when Pip came in for WrestleMania 30. I realize I’ve never even gotten around to writing a weekend recap. Again… I’m a bad blogger. I’m trying to make sure that every movie I see in a theater has a blog entry either here or on ScareTissue. That means when I get done with this review I’ve got a Transformers: Age of Extinction review to write as well. But I’m getting way off track here.
With the movie being damn near a year old, the fact that it made over $700 million at the box office and that it’s already out on DVD I’m guessing you’ve already seen it if you wanted to. I’m not going to bother you with a plot summary. There are a ton of them out there and they’d do a much better job that I would.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review
Honestly, I thought plot wise, this one was a mess. I’ve heard a slew of fan boys talk about how this is the best Marvel movie, how it was better than Avengers, how it stacks up against Nolen’s Dark Knight, etc. etc. etc. I’m here to tell you that I think those fan boys are fucking crazy.
The Winter Soldier was a GREAT action movie. No doubt about it. It was infinitely better than the first Captain American movie which I consider the worst of the original Avenger flicks that Marvel came out with. Cap looks awesome here and you really get a sense at what a powerful character he really is. But if you sit back and watch it you get the sense that you’re just watching your buddy play a video game. You get a few henchmen levels, a few boss fights and a puzzle toward the end where you’ve got to push this and this at the same time in order to “win” the game. Add that to the fact that the way the flick ends totally sets up the sequel and and it’s pretty unsatisfying.
I do have to give props for killing Sam Jackson’s character early in the flick. But then I’ve got to take those props right back for not sticking to their guns and keeping him dead. Fail.
My biggest bitch in the movie though is the title. I realize that this is really nitpicky, but Winter Soldier is hardly in the movie at all. As someone who’s not all that familar with the comic source material, this was sort of out of left field for me. Not only that, but with the way they changed the look of the character / actor from the first Cap movie, it was really difficult to even realize that Winter Soldier was Bucky from the first movie. In fact, when we were walking out I overheard two guys talking about the fact that they didn’t even realize it was the same character. That’s poor planning / story telling right there.
To be fair, I only saw The Winter Soldier once and I’ve heard from many folks (Pip included) that it’s way better the second time around. That said, it was such a mess the first time around (I didn’t even get into Robert Redford’s character) that I doubt I’ll give it another shot any time soon. Perhaps when the boys get old enough we’ll have an Avenger marathon.
Have you seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier? What’d you think?
Update 5.24.2015
Ran across this video the other day. Remember how I stated in my review that Winter Soldier played sort of like a video game? Seems like I wasn’t the only one that made that particular connection…
Update 6.19.2024
I’m thrilled to say that, upon reflection and an additional watch (or two or three) I was wrong about Winter Soldier. This is an outstanding film and made an appearance in my Favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe Films on Episode 51 of the podcast. What can I say… a guy can change his mind.
Ha!! I can’t believe you did a review on a movie you saw a year ago when you were buzzed. The good Captain deserves at least a re-watching. Perhaps this is one we will just end up disagreeing on, but I actually think it’s one of the smarter Marvel movies that has been made. Can’t argue your gripe with the “Winter Soldier” bit, they downplayed that in favor of the Hydra plot. If I had to guess, that will come in to play in the next Avengers movie.
More shit from the bogus Captain… Tell the Captain, Air Marshall Chewie says to fuck himself!