Movie Review: The Winter Soldier

Movie Review: The Winter Soldier

Rated PG-13

136 minutes

Directed by The Russo Brothers

Marvel's been running on fumes lately, in my opinion. Iron Man 3 didn't improve on a rewatch, and Thor: The Dark World didn't impress me in theaters, though I guess it could be claimed I was going in ready to be disappointed. So, I was kind of expecting this film to fall in place with the other recent Marvel Movies, but was also excited for it because of the cast and the great reviews that kept pouring in. And it was a good Marvel movie.

The story revolves around the Captain and Black Widow in a type of espionage thriller which takes the typical Marvel formula and spruces it up well. The main enemy is The Winter Soldier, who may be more to the Captain than initially thought. I was familiar with who The Winter Soldier was because I read a comic that featured the Winter Soldier, so that reveal wasn't shocking to me. What was shocking to me was the amount of good in this movie. There were consistently funny quips, but the highlight humor was in the mall scene, which is just incredibly funny for me. The actors have good chemistry together, as they were able to seem like friends, in the cases of the Cap, Black Widow, and The Falcon. I was genuinely surprised when the hard drive reveal came, as it just shattered expectations. I liked the cinematography, at least in the opening run sequence, as it showed off DC in a way that felt convincing, unlike the rest of the sets.

As I said before, most of the DC sets didn't seem real to me (There's Ocean in the middle of DC?), and that took me out of some of the sequences that were supposed to be tense. But, tense they were not, as they were just a bunch of quick cuts and a bit of explosions that were well seen. If they were shot better, there would've been more tension and I would've felt more love towards this film. Also, Emily Van Camp shouldn't have been in the movie, as she didn't add anything for the movie. She was in it so little. Frank Grillo was done little favors, as his whole character was just "Grr, I hate the main character. Grrrrr..."

All in all, The Winter Soldier was the Marvel film I wanted after The Avengers. It was funny and allowed me to turn my brain off for a few hours. Check it out for yourself if you like these kind of things. You won't be disappointed, except for some dodgy action and having to stay through the entire credits because of the 2 end credits scenes. 

3/5

B-/C+ 

(Note: The grade is probably more towards B-, but I gave a film with much more ambition, Noah, a C+, so moral conflict...)