While some may be uncomfortable with the film's level of violence, it's part of what makes the film work. In fact, many times I forgot that it was a superhero movie that I was watching. However, whenever I forgot, I was quickly reminded when Steve Rogers would use his shield to dispatch somebody or when the disembodied consciousness of Armin Zola (you may remember him as the Red Skull's sidekick from the first Captain America movie) is living in a room full of ancient pre-PC (as in personal computer) super-computers. The effect is less jarring than you might think and, in many ways, it is a tribute to some of the more bizarre elements of Cap's comic book mythos. After all, it was within pages of Captain America that we first encountered M.O.D.O.K. (Mental Organism Designed Only For Killing) who is, quite possibly, the most ridiculous comic book villain of all time.
Other aspects of the film keep it firmly in the realm of super-heroic fantasy as well: in addition to the Falcon's high-tech flying gear and a small fleet of heli-carriers, the film's central MacGuffin is an 'algorithm' developed by Zola to weed out the worst of humanity before it has a chance to cause any trouble. Whenever any of the more absurd elements of the film stretch beyond the limitations of what one would expect from a Spy-Thriller, you can just remind yourself that Captain America: The Winter Soldier takes place within a universe that is also home Asgardians and aliens.
For the most part, however, the film manages to play the story pretty straight. Once again, they keep Evans out of the costume for most of the film and, even then, for the first two-thirds of the film, it is the modified SHIELD/Super-Soldier version of the costume which is a little less garish than the full on stars and stripes gear. And when Cap finally does suit up, they decide to put him in his old-school WWII threads which always seemed a bit more functional to me than the outfit he sported in Avengers.
The cast is firing on all cylinders this time out and, once again, Evans manages to do earnest without being naive; he understands why SHIELD operates the way it does, he even understands the times he came from weren't as innocent as they seem, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. In his sixth time out in the role (seventh if you count his appearance on Agents of SHIELD), Samuel L. Jackson finally gets to show us a bit more depth to his Nick Fury rather than just simply being the epitome of cool and general badassery. Meanwhile, Scarlett Johanssen steals the show and gets the best lines of the film playing the foil to Evans' uber-earnest Cap.
In the end, Captain America: The First Avenger was about a simpler, more innocent time. The good guys were good and the bad guys were bad and one couldn't be more different from the other. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is about a loss of innocence; this story exists in a time post-JFK, post-Vietnam, post-Watergate, post-9/11, where the lines between who is good and who is bad have become far more blurred. It's about how many bad things we can do for the right reasons before we start doing them for the wrong reasons. The aforementioned violence only serves to emphasize this much more brutal world that Cap finds himself in. Ultimately, Cap manages to rise above it, Black Widow questions a system that she had put her faith in and, more than anyone, Nick Fury learns that there is a price to pay when you cross one too many lines.
Decent movie. I had a few small gripes like Alexander's unnecessarily convoluted assassination attempt on Fury (I would've just sniped him while he was getting groceries or something). But there is one that is bothering me not just with Marvel, but franchises in general (Into Darkness did this, too).
ReplyDeleteDeaths have 0 emotional weight.
Not once did anyone in the theater actually believe Nick Fury was dead. And that's a big issue. Because we know that they won't kill off a popular character in order to keep the money train rolling and because every KNOWS they won't, the death scenes have absolutely no impact and almost come off as corny, especially when the other characters are trying to display an emotion that we, as an audience, just don't have. Into Darkness does this, as does Thor: The Dark World and Iron Man 3...which should have just bit the bullet and killed off Potts...but nope. Hell, the one director who had the guts to do it and kill off Coulson basically had that boldness rewarded by...Coulson coming back.
Brent,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the world of the Comic Book Fan! Characters are always dying and coming back. In fact, whenever any character wit any clout dies we know it will only be temporary (Nick Fury and Cap have both been "dead" in the comics and then came back). It's the same way with SHIELD imploding; I'm sure fans not familiar with the comics are like "How will the show continue?" but--- in the comics, SHIELD is torn down and rebuilt, like, every five years. In fact, SHIELD has actually stood for 3 or 4 different things now....