After a long time, I finally got the chance to watch a movie in the cinema (while skipping a few lectures in the process. Ehehe.), and this time I'll be watching a Marvel movie. Well, not just any Marvel movie, but Captain America!... Which reminds of a song: "America, f**k yeah! Coming again to save the m*****f*****g day yeah!" XD
Nevermind.
Title: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Year: 2014
What is it about: Let me sing that song again. America, f**k yeah! Coming again to save the m*****f*****g day yeah!
Review: See, I'm actually glad that Marvel has evolved its superhero characters from the comic books to those in the live action movies. I'm not particularly a fan of Marvel, especially having watched many of the movies which always end up in a huge disappointment and an empty wallet. Captain America was no different in this. You can read all about it here. However, little did I know, Marvel actually had a hidden trick up its sleeve which is the movie The Avengers. (Sorry, I didn't write a review about it. Needless to say, its awesome.). From that point onward, Marvel seem to produce more interesting movies, most of which have a plot background from The Avengers. There are a few exceptions of course, but rest assured, Captain America 2 isn't one of them.
The first Captain America movie basically served as the veil-opening for The Avengers, hence the title The First Avenger. Most of the people watched it simply because 'Chris Evans is hot'. I'm not gonna lie, I think I couldn't disagree with that. Other than that, Captain America 1 was actually a pretty boring film as most would complain. Well, what do you expect from a superhero film which took place during World War II starring a steroid-overdose random soldier as the superhero? Then again, I actually favored Captain America over most other Marvel superheroes for certain reasons I mentioned in the previous review.
Fast-forwarding to 3 years later (and in the case of the movie timeline, 70 years later), Captain America rose again in the present times after the events of The Avengers, this time fighting a threat more than just a random villain. However, one actually had to watch the first movie as well as the Avengers in order to fully understand what is going on. As such, the story-line of Captain America 2 is much more complex than any of the previous Marvel movies. As a result, this is actually quite a long movie to watch. Do not worry though, this movie worth every bit of your time spent on it.
Captain America is now (quite literally) a super soldier. I don't know what the steroid or the icebergs did to him, but this time he seem to have extra superhuman strength. Then again, he's still more human compared to the other more overpowered superheroes, which is an attribute I like most in Captain America. He doesn't fight alone, but rely on his teammates, strategy and intelligence to battle the enemy. In Captain America 2, Captain America is joined by two other superhero-yet-completely-human allies, and they are really awesome. Not to mention Nick Fury and a few other characters in which this movie seems to gave them a much more important role.
What I liked most about this movie is the complexity of the storyline as well as the characters. For the storyline, we get to see a lot of politics in play and much inside job which gave the Captain much trust issues. This leads to a greater issue because most of the Captain's actions are based on trust. And this is basically how the plot develops to make it interesting. Then, there are some plot twists as well. Rest assured however, M. Night Shyamalan didn't write Captain America 2 :P
Just when you start to think you are feeling bored of the storyline narration, the movie does not allow that to happen by bringing all the action-packed scenes at the right time. This way, you wouldn't need to juggle between digesting the mindless actions and cracking your head on the plot. Captain America 2 balanced this very well. In terms of the character, I definitely liked the villain. I'm talking about the Winter Soldier here. Compared to the previous villain that red-faced guy (I forgot his name), the Winter Soldier is much more badass. Why is he called the Winter Soldier? Well, you'll have to watch Captain America 1 to find out. In fact, you should watch it before this one just so that you won't get too confused by the various pretty much unexplained characters in this movie. If you just couldn't be bothered to do so, well I think you will enjoy this movie just the same.
In conclusion, Captain America is definitely worth watching in a high class cinema. I'm not sure about 3D though, but I think you'll have a great time looking at shields flying on your face. This movie introduces a few new characters to the Marvel league of superheroes, but I don't think that's a bad thing as long as it's not too overcrowded. Also, it's pretty obvious that there is a sequel to this movie whether in the form of Captain America 3 or The Avengers 2. Anyhow, I gotta say that this is by far the best Marvel movie ever, which is really amazing given how crappy the first movie was.
Rating: 10/10
