Captain America: The Winter Soldier Movie Review

Summer has come early.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and sees Chris Evans reprise his role as "cap" for the third time, in a movie which is a sequel to the Avengers and the first movie Captain America: The First Avenger. The film follows Captain America who's trying to settle into his new life in the 21st Century, who is working various top secret missions for SHIELD. However, when an unlikely enemy threatens the security of the world, it's up to the cap and Black Widow to save the world.

The film may surprise you in that it isn't actually a comic book action flick but is rather at its strongest when it is a spy/espionage movie. The Winter Soldier is the best movie to come out this year by far and is probably the best movie within this cinematic universe which isn't the Avengers.

The fact that the writers and directors decided to make this film a little bit differently by making an espionage movie is just genius in my opinion. Not only is it new territory in a universe which continues to expand, but the plot is so dynamic and so interesting. I was so caught up in this story and when certain reveals happened which evolved the plot, I was genuinely surprised by them.

It is also probably the smartest written Avengers "set-up" movie again down to a plot which plays on the idea that Captain America should really think about what characters to trust. The film brilliantly brings in elements from the first Captain America movie, has a few small nods to the Avengers and also has a lot of plot elements which drastically change the Marvel universe.

I wanted this movie to invigorate my passion for Captain America because while I liked him, I thought that Iron Man and Hulk were the ones that really shone in the Avengers. Within 5 minutes of the film that passion was invigorated, during an incredible action sequence which sees him board a vessel full of pirates. As soon as he does, he literally kicks someone metres into the air and stealthily takes out the rest of them aboard this ship. Chris Evans, of course, kills it as Captain America.

And that ship-boarding sequence is one of many fantastic action sequences which I thought were just amazing. There's a car chase sequence, an elevator scene and of course the final action piece of the film which I thought were filmed expertly by the directors, as they really did a good job at putting you within the action as it is happening. Its a good looking movie.

I also loved what they did with the characters of Nick Fury and Black Widow, both played convincingly well by Samuel L Jackson and Scarlett Johansson. Both characters change sufficiently from the opening scene to end credits, meaning there is sufficient character development.

I won't finish the review by not talking about him; The Winter Soldier. The film sees Captain America try and adjust to modern life, development with Nick Fury and Black Widow, a plot that sees big reveals within the Marvel universe and sees numerous clever twists and turns, and on top of all that you have the Winter Soldier, the biggest badass in Marvel history. There I said it.

I loved how they used him as an important plot device because you actually do care about him. He really is one of my favourite aspects of the film.

If I have complaints then they're only minor ones. Once or twice the plot slows down from it's wicked pace and also I think that some characters were a little under used, particularly the Falcon. Anthony Mackie did a great job with him and I would love to see him in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

If I haven't already expressed how much I enjoyed and loved this movie already, I will now. The Winter Solider is fantastic, it's incredibly enjoyable and an impressively well made film. Go and see it, please:


Rating - A


1 sentence summary - Impressively filmed and cleverly written, The Winter Soldier is a great and enjoyable entry into Marvel's cinematic universe, and is probably one of the best.


Thanks for reading,
Matt