Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Let’s just start this review with the one thing that should be on everyone’s mind after they’ve seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier– Chris Evans has achieved muscular perfection. In the first scene of the movie we have Steve Rogers out on a morning jog; once he slows down enough for us to actually see him, we get a full look at the chiseled body- a body so tight you can see his abs through his not-even-particularly tight shirt. He’s cut, yet not so overloaded with muscles that he can’t reach his own ass. He looks flexible, but strong enough to send a dude flying off a boat with one kick. Bravo, kudos, congratulations, Chris Evans! You are bound to fuel many people’s erotic dreams.

However, there’s far more to Chris Evans and Steve Rogers than muscles, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier does a great job showing that. The film takes place a couple of years after The Avengers, and in this outing Captain America has been working with Black Widow as a full time SHIELD agent. On his latest mission (during which the aforementioned boat-kicking occurs), they uncover a so-called “virus” threatening the whole agency.

Oddly enough, The Winter Soldier doesn’t necessarily feel like a superhero movie. Sure, Cap’s got crazy muscles and survives things no normal human ever could, but so does Rambo, and when you combine that with the diet political thriller plot, you get one kickass action movie that happens to star a superhero. Often people complain that it’s hard to relate to Captain America; well, not here. He and this entire movie are very down to Earth and relatable for everyone from the most obsessed of comics fans to those of us who mostly just see the movies. This relatability comes from the very real-feeling struggles each of the major characters go through. For example, Steve struggles with not being able to connect with people in this new time, his new buddy Sam Wilson (Otherwise known as The Falcon) still feels out of place since he returned from two tours overseas, and even the evercool Black Widow finds her support beams cracking when the few things she’s ever trusted start going to pieces. These kinds of issues are things most people have/can/will experience, deepening the film overall and Black Widow in particular. This is the first time we’ve really gotten a decent look at Natasha’s character, seeing past her outer layers of stoicism, ass-kicking, and nice ass-having to see the very human person underneath.

Though The Winter Soldier primarily focuses on Cap, it does a fantastic job of giving each character their own things to deal with and their own fights, making the movie more of an ensemble than most superhero flicks. Marvel is leaps and bounds ahead of any other comic book company (specifically cough DC cough) in trying to bring in diverse, interesting characters, and it makes their films exponentially better. This time around we’ve got a number of ass-kicking people of color and women, including the wizened old Peggy Carter, who is a little too busy being really old to do much ass-kicking, but whose reappearance is a nice touch for fans and a nice character moment for her and Cap.

All plot aside, The Winter Soldier features some of the finest damn action sequences you’ll ever see- especially for a PG-13 movie. We’ve got large-scale battles, thrilling chases, intimate, one-on-one fights. This flick’s got everything! One of my favorite sequences include the first full-fledged street fight between Captain America and the incredibly intimidating Winter Soldier. Even though we mostly see naught but his eyes, Sebastian Stan gives The Winter Soldier such a menacing presence that you can’t help but worry about any of our poor heroes whose sights he sets on them. My other action scene of choice pits Nick Fury in a shoot-out/car chase against a horde of well-armed bad guys; the timing and choreography of this entire sequence keeps things very tense even when, deep down, you’re pretty sure they won’t kill Nick Fury. He’s part of the Marvel franchise, and you can’t kill someone that’s part of the franchise, right?

I won’t get too deep into the plot of Captain America: The Winter Soldier so I can keep this review spoiler-free, but all you really need to know is that this superhero flick foregoes the usual cape-and-tight formula to create an ass-kicking action flick wrapped up in an easy-to-digest political thriller. This, folks, is an excellent sequel.

Action and Overall Rating: 5 Captain America Shields, out of 5!

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!