CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

captain america: the winter soldier (2014) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   136 minutes

Released         |   3 April 2014

cast

Chris Evans ... Steve Rogers / Captain America
Samuel L. Jackson ... Nick Fury
Scarlett Johansson ... Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Robert Redford ... Alexander Pierce
Sebastian Stan ... Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
Anthony Mackie ... Sam Wilson / Falcon
​Cobie Smulders ... Maria Hill

director

​Anthony Russo
Joe Russo

writer

​Christopher Markus ... (screenplay by) &
Stephen McFeely ... (screenplay by)
 
Joe Simon ... (based on the Marvel comics by) and
Jack Kirby ... (based on the Marvel comics by)
 
Steve Epting ... (based on "The Winter Soldier" by) (uncredited)
Ed Brubaker ... (based on "The Winter Soldier" by) (uncredited)
Michael Lark ... (based on "The Winter Soldier" by) (uncredited)

cinematographer

​Trent Opaloch ... director of photography

music

​Henry Jackman ... (music by)

film editor

​Jeffrey Ford
Matthew Schmidt

---

box office result

Worldwide             $​​714,264,267

Australia                 $​​18,390,356

North America       $​259,766,572

---

movie minutiae

Near the beginning of the film, in an aerial shot of Washington, D.C., the camera lingers on a shot centered on the Watergate complex, where President Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (the Plumbers) broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, sparking the Watergate scandal, which led to the revelation Nixon had been using the intelligence agencies to gain political power. Robert Redford played Bob Woodward in the famous Watergate scandal movie ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976).

​Comic book writer Ed Brubaker was pleased and surprised at the adaptation of the Winter Soldier storyline, his work on the title, including the return of Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier: "I got to go out to Marvel Studios and read one of the later drafts of the script. I went out to dinner with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, and talked about the project, and gave them feedback on what I liked, or didn't like, or what parts didn't work. I mean, the script I read was fantastic. The tone of it, and the Bucky stuff is so perfect, and the way I'd want it to be, I was so thrilled to see that."

​

---

related movies

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016)

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) STORY SYNOPSIS

​After the cataclysmic events in New York with his fellow Avengers, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), lives in the nation's capital as he tries to adjust to modern times. An attack on a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague throws Rogers into a web of intrigue that places the whole world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and a new ally, the Falcon, Rogers struggles to expose an ever-widening conspiracy, but he and his team soon come up against an unexpected enemy.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 3 April 2014

​​Pop Movee Rating

The lukewarm critical reception on both IRON MAN 3 and THOR: THE DARK WORLD have been put right as CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER marks a return to A+ form for Marvel Studios. As the most straight-laced of the Avengers characters Captain America was ripe for the picking, so to speak, after the events of the alien Chitauri assault on New York in 2012’s THE AVENGERS movie. In that film, it was revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D, represented by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury character, were not entirely forthcoming with information that may be important in assisting The Avengers fight the good fight.

In the aftermath of the events of THE AVENGERS, Steve Rogers has taken a post with S.H.I.E.L.D, but he’s not happy. He knows that he’s a man out of his own time and it’s not something he’s getting used to with any great ease. The film’s writers, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, put the Captain’s circumstance to good use and establish a dramatic tension in THE WINTER SOLDIER that sees Rogers question the motives of the organisation he works for and his commitment to the causes he fights on behalf of to protect his country.

As Steve Rogers aka Captain America, Chris Evans is very much at ease. The character is not an easy one to play, but the third time out proves that Evans could, if he chooses to be, a great leading man in action-adventure movies. Movie-goers should hope that Evans doesn’t follow through on his recent media comments about scaling-back his acting commitments in favour of directing. It would be a shame not to see him up on the big screen, whether as Captain America or in other roles. 

In addition to Evans, Scarlett Johansson lands an expanded role in THE WINTER SOLDIER and her chemistry with Evans proves to be one of the film’s highlights. Since she first appeared in IRON MAN 2, Johansson has shown she can easily match it with her male counterparts and in this film her character of Natasha Romanoff aka The Black Widow falls into a relaxed non-conformist rhythm that contrasts the heroic straight-as-an-arrow Rogers. Johansson’s performance in this film should ensure that she gets her own head-line movie at some time in the future.

Joining the already established Avengers in THE WINTER SOLDIER is Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson aka The Falcon. While not possessed of super hero powers, The Falcon becomes an invaluable ally to Captain America in his fight against The Winter Soldier and in the Cap’s efforts to protect S.H.I.E.L.D from a larger conspiracy. Leading up to the film’s release, Mackie’s performance was the one that was going to be most analysed; being the new addition to the team. It’s safe to say that Mackie has fit right in but, as a mere mortal, has to measure heroics with real-world consequences. Sam Wilson’s background as a returned war veteran allows him to strike an immediate friendship with Steve Rogers on the basis of shared combat experience; not super hero actions and it pays dividends in the film’s climax.

The brotherly directing team of Anthony and Joe Russo have moved from their television background to big budget feature film without any major problems. They’re assured without being masterful and their execution of the screenplay is far better than Alan Taylor’s THOR: THE DARK WORLD. Some of the close-up action, unfortunately, is too difficult for the hand-held camera work to keep up with and, as a result, the impact of some of the fight scenes is diminished. This is especially disappointing in the fight scenes between Steve Rogers and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier. It’s not a major spoiler given Marvel’s marketing of the film, but the relationship between Steve and the man he once knew as Bucky Barnes is an important part of Captain America’s character arc in the film, but the emotional distress of having to fight Barnes as The Winter Soldier is not as powerful as it should be because of the fast-moving hand-held camera work. Director of Photography Trent Opaloch has received critical praise for his previous work on films such as DISTRICT 9 and ELYSIUM but, such is the frenetic pace of the storytelling; it’s hard for his camera to keep up with the action.

For reasons that become apparent, it is only in the film’s final act that the relationship between Captain America and The Winter Soldier is expanded and some level of emotional connection between the pair is achieved. In a show of confidence in the brothers, Marvel has already announced that the pair will return to Co-Direct the third Captain America film that is scheduled for release in May 2016. This will be a major test of the pair’s skill, as they will release the next instalment up against Zack Snyder’s BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE film.

Throughout the marketing of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, the film has been referred to as part-Comic Book movie, part-action film and part-political thriller. The casting of Robert Redford as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D – Alexander Pierce – is a very large tip of the hat to the films that have helped inform the political part of THE WINTER SOLDIER story. Redford is very closely associated with this type of film having played the lead in two of the great 1970s political thrillers, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. Unfortunately, the film’s marketing has probably over-stated how much these “political thriller” movies have informed THE WINTER SOLDIER. There is a level of intrigue involved in each set-action piece, but there is no sustained feeling of paranoia, as the action beats are far too frequent to allow for any form of slow-burn conspiracy storytelling.

Samuel L. Jackson also returns as Nick Fury, the man responsible for keeping the Avengers initiative together and under control. In THE WINTER SOLDIER, Jackson’s Fury comes off a little worse for wear and becomes a catalyst for Captain America to take less of a rose-coloured view of the people he works with and the organisation for which he works. Jackson does a good job with his scenes, as the Fury character is placed in an unfamiliar situation and is forced to improvise without the support of the S.H.I.E.L.D organisation. It will be interesting to see how Fury’s new position is written into next year’s AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, but, if you listen to a certain piece of dialogue toward the end of the film, a clue exists.

There is no doubt that the events of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER will have far-reaching implications across the entire Avengers universe as every character is forced to reassess their position before the end of the film. This is the bravest film story that Marvel have told to date and shows that they extremely confident in their grand story-telling plan. Fans of the Marvel films will not need to be encouraged to see THE WINTER SOLDIER, but this film works hard to be relevant to a broader cinema-going audience and is much more accessible than either IRON MAN 3 or THOR: THE DARK WORLD. As always, the two-post credit sequences go a long way to establishing where the audiences is going to be taken in the next couple of years and, like the film itself, are A+ efforts that have the potential to pique the anticipation of even the most casual movie-goer for what happens next in the Marvel film universe!

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER MOVIE (2014) USEFUL LINKS

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Wikipedia
​Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - IMDb
​Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - Rotten Tomatoes​

digital updates delivered

facebook

instagram