Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a film from 2014. That movie is "Captain America: The Winter Soldier".
Now for those of you who may not happen to remember, a couple of years ago, I reviewed "Captain America: The First Avenger" and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really solid origin story for Captain America's debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And since I enjoyed that movie very much, I've been really looking forward to watching it's sequel, which is what I'm gonna be covering tonight for this series. Now I should let you guys know real quick, in case you're not aware, I've already seen "Captain America: Civil War" a long time ago, so it's ineligible for this series. And I personally have no interest in ever watching it's fourth entry "Captain America: Brave New World". So as far as I'm concerned, this is the only film in the Captain America lineup that I haven't seen yet.
As for what I know about it going in, well, I already know that it involves Bucky Barnes being the Winter Soldier, and he somehow has survived from between the time from "Captain America: The First Avenger" to this one. So, as far as plot details go, I don't know much else beyond that. I'm kinda going into this one as blind as I can here. I know that people have claimed this particular movie to be the best MCU movie ever made, which I take that with a grain of salt because I'm personally sick and tired of hearing that crap every time a new movie came out within the MCU, because fanboys, at least at the time anyway, would jerk off to whatever new movie that's released and claim it as "the best Marvel movie to date". Thankfully, I don't hear very much of that anymore nowadays, seeing as how the MCU is basically just a shell of it's former self pretending to still be relevant.
But anyway, setting that aside, I really am hoping for this movie to be great. And if is, then yeah, this movie has already accomplished that feat. But I won't know for sure yet unless I shut up and I play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Captain America: The Winter Soldier".
20 minutes later
OK, I have a question here and it really doesn't have much to do with the movie itself, but I want to ask it anyway. So, Steve is watching old archived interview footage of Peggy Carter, who was Steve's love interest in the first movie. I'm also aware that she had her own miniseries called "Agent Carter". Was that show even any good? I'm only asking because, as far as I'm aware of, it really had little to no impact on the MCU as a whole. Was she even that popular of a character to warrant her own show? Again, I know it has nothing to do with the movie itself, but I'm just asking because I'm sorta curious about that.
10 minutes later
You know, I have to ask why aren't the cars that aren't police vehicles pulling over? I ask this, because there's a bunch of shady police officers in their vehicles trying to chase after Fury, and almost none of the other passerby vehicles are pulling over to the side! Normally, whenever you would see or hear police or even an ambulance coming towards you, the most logical thing you could do is pull over to the side so that they can pass by you while they're on pursuit. I'm guessing that's either just a normal thing in Washington or the people there are just rock stupid to get themselves unintentionally involved. Just my own theory, really.
11 minutes later
OK, that is a really creative way to hide something in the vending machine. How exactly Steve was able to hide it in there is anyone's guess, but still, it is a rather creative hiding spot.
8 minutes later
Well, guys, I know this is probably a moot thing to bring up, but the fact that Steve Rogers was able to take out about...ten soldiers, maybe, I wasn't really counting, all inside a single elevator is pretty fucking awesome, I gotta say.
30 seconds later
Oh, and he also just jumped out of the window from a high building while landing shield first onto the pavement. That must've fucking hurt, which I think is also a moot point to bring up, but still. That shit must've hurt like hell.
15 minutes later
So Hydra was the reason why S.H.I.E.l.D. was created in the first place to create war and fabricate history to it's own will so that people will eventually give up their freedom in exchange for security. That is honestly kinda frightening in hindsight seeing as how corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D. has been for so long. But yeah, I never would've known that about S.H.I.E.L.D. until just now.
16 minutes later
OK, that was really sorta creative in how Natasha used her phone to record her voice as a distraction for the Winter Soldier. That was really cool.
19 minutes later
You know, guys, I wasn't exactly sure if I wanted to ask this or not, but seeing as how he's on screen currently, I'm gonna go ahead and ask this. When did Falcon get his suit? I'm only asking this because I don't exactly remember if they even explained that at all. Granted, it doesn't really the ruin the film at all. In fact, it's been great so far, but I am a little curious about it because I just felt asking it is all.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Wow, um...where to even to start? Well, I mentioned earlier about how fans and fanboys of the MCU would rate this as, quite possibly, the best MCU film ever made. They've also claimed that for a lot of other MCU movies that came out afterwards until "Avengers: Endgame", which again, I take that with a grain of salt. Because I've seen movies like the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film and I personally wasn't really impressed by it. And that's me being nice about it, mind you. I could be a hell of a lot harsher towards it, but I'm not going to do that here. But anyway, this movie is one of those "best movie Marvel movie to date" movies that fans have claimed. And I am gonna say that this is one of the very few times that they're right. This movie is really great. Now mind you, I wouldn't put it above the first "Iron Man" movie because I've seen it so many times already, but I would probably put this one in my top 5 favorite films from the MCU. So at least there is that.
So anyway, why don't we actually go ahead and start this review off as usual with the writing. And the first thing I need to talk about when covering a film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is how humor is handled here. I'm willing to say that, for the most part, the humor is kept to a minimum. While there are a couple of jokes here and there that kinda suck, it doesn't put a damper on the film as a whole. What you're watching is essentially a political action thriller. And a very well written one at that, too. Everything here will keep you interested in what's going on as most of everything makes sense. At least for a movie based off a comic book anyways. Now I have never read the Winter Soldier storyline arc from the comics, but I will say that, after watching this, I'm kinda interested in checking out the comics to see how those stories pan out for themselves.
Speaking of which, I do need to apologize about something. See, earlier, when I was talking about what I knew about the movie going into it, I said I knew about Bucky Barnes being the Winter Soldier in this movie. And I need to apologize about that because that's actually a big spoiler for the movie. In fact, they don't reveal that until well over an hour into the movie. Now I know some people will probably not care about this, especially fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, who have been exposed to the internet and were spoiled about this already or they were big fans of the Captain America comics and knew what to expect going in. However, I still felt kinda bad for spoiling it here because if you're someone who's never seen the films, or have never read any of the comics, you probably wouldn't know about that kind of detail. And I feel like one of those assholes on the internet who likes to spoil movies that people were interested in watching, and they were exposed to massive spoilers, intentionally or not. So again, I feel the need to apologize about this because I accidentally spoiled it without even thinking about it first.
But yeah, setting that aside, like I said, the writing here is great. The characters in this film are very well written and likable. The relationship between Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov is very good here. They kinda hint at a romance between the two, however, nothing is pushed beyond that. Most of the film is about them being on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. Well, Hyrda acting as S.H.I.E.L.D. anyways. And of course, they're also being pursued by the Winter Soldier. Now I could obviously talk more about this, since I accidentally spoiled who he was before watching the movie, however, I'm not gonna go beyond that because I really do believe that it's better you watch the rest of the film yourself. Well, actually, I would say you go watch "Captain America: The First Avenger" first before you watch this just so you have a better idea of Captain America, as a character, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
So yeah, guys, writing here is great. It's very strong and knows what kind of genre it wants to be, which is great to see. The acting is also really good, too. Everyone was given enough material to work with to perform to the best of their abilities, which includes everyone from the main cast such as Chris Evans, Scarlet Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson. The latter in which he sounds he more subdued, though to be fair, of the few times I've seen him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it kinda fits his character, so I'm willing to let it pass. The supporting cast also does a really good job, too. So I'm pleased to see everyone turning in a great showing.
Special effects are kinda what you come to expect from a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. The CG, the pyrotechnics, and costuming, specifically on Captain America and The Winter Soldier is really good. The fight choreography is also just as good, too. All of the action feels intense and it looks like it would hit hard, as I've commented earlier with Captain America and him jumping out of a building and landing on his shield. But yeah, all of the action sequences are great. And overall, the special effects are really good.
Camerawork here is also really good. Lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mixing is top notch. The score here is also really good, too. It's nothing amazing, though, I could also say that about a lot of the MCU films with scores that feel a little bit samey. Not all the time, of course, but most of the time anyways. That said, what is here for music totally works here. So I'm not about to say that it sucks or anything.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"? Oh yes, absolutely, guys. This movie is amazing. As a sequel to the first movie, it definitely lives up to being just as good, if not better than it's predecessor. On it's own standards, it's really good, too. I would, again, recommend that you watch the first Captain America movie before watching this one. If you're already an MCU fan, chances are that you're already seen this movie. It's pretty cheap to get a copy of it, and of course it's also on Disney+, if you actually have a Disney+ account anyways. I personally don't care about Disney+, but that's just me. I'm perfectly happy with my physical copy of this movie and I'm honored to have it be added to my ever growing DVD collection. Now...since I keep mentioning the first Captain America movie from the MCU, I'm gonna go and watch that again right now, because this movie made me want to go and rewatch it again just so I can be reminded of how good the first movie was.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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