Two things from Captain America: The Winter Soldier seem to have ignited the most conversation. The first being my dedicating the majority of the review to the question of “Where is everyone else?” considering it’s a film that deals specifically with an attack on S.H.I.E.L.D., an organization Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) have aligned themselves with and Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) actually work for.
I’ve read responses in the comments ranging from “Iron Man retired”, “Thor is doing God stuff” and “Don’t take things so literally!” I want to make something clear, I’m not saying a valid reason doesn’t exist as to why the people/heroes with the greatest ability to solve the problem at hand aren’t around. All I’m saying is these people are ignored (though, some of them mentioned) and never called on to assist, and it was something I noticed and it stuck with me throughout the entire film and I don’t think I’m alone on this. That’s all. A possible solution? Write a better script?
Now, the second issue people seem to have with the review, which is what I would actually like to discuss, comes from the review subtitle — “Just another Marvel movie, but at least a competent one” — and this final paragraph:
All of this is to say with Winter Soldier, Marvel Studios keeps the wheels of the machine turning, but I guess, at the very least, they’ve offered up a satisfying new episode. Though like pretty much all the episodes in the Marvel cinematic universe, I don’t have any need to see it again as it follows the same old pattern, it only does it in a way that’s a little more competent once you accept the fact the rest of the Superhero Rat Pack isn’t going to help out even though it’s their house burning down.
To address this I’ll cite a comment from a reader named Grissom who writes:
Having seen the film, there are a lot of elements in it that you seem to have overlooked here. There’s not too much comment on the individual characters, as well as their relationships with one another. It seems you’re just basing it off of “it’s just another Marvel film”. Which is a bit unfair.
As for the comment regarding other characters, what is there to say? I mentioned how Robert Redford “didn’t stick out like a sore thumb as I thought he would” and that’s really all there is. I guess I could have mentioned how boring the Captain America character actually is once they decide to continue to gloss over the fact he was previously frozen for about 70 years. There’s a funny joke at the beginning touching on this, but little else after that.
I also could have mentioned how Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow is a brooding nightmare, offering up small bits of “wisdom” and dating advice in damn near every scene. Wow, a lot to dissect there.
Fact of the matter is, none of this is interesting, at least not to me, and when I write a review if I don’t find it interesting or worthy of comment… I don’t.
One thing I did leave out, only because it would have spoiled the half-assed attempt at tension, is the way not only Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is shot and presumed dead (only he isn’t because no one dies in this franchise), but Black Widow receives a pretty bad bullet wound (and then does some more flips) and how Captain America survived several bullet wounds, some looking pretty bad, and a massive fall (the only one in which he didn’t have his shield or any protection) is beyond me. Then again, we all know what saved him… your money.
What is there to really enjoy about a movie franchise that basically does the same thing over and over again — bad guy wants to destroy the world, mass destruction, stop bad guy, the end — in a world where there is absolutely ZERO threat to the lead characters?
What I really loved hearing was Jackson talking about the franchise on “The Daily Show” (see video) recently where he openly admits nothing really happens in any of these movies (save the current one… naturally) saying, “I think this is the best one so far… Like I told you back stage, this one actually has a story. This one has a plot. It’s more than bad guys punching good guys, good guys punching bad guys. There’s a big ass mystery going on in here.”
I love that his comment essentially infers the rest of the films in the franchise didn’t have a story or plot, but mystery? I mean, whose jaw is dropping when the “mystery” in Winter Soldier is revealed? Are we meant to get excited when the villain from Captain America: The First Avenger shows up to explain the plot? Also, in order for a film to have a story, shouldn’t that story also have an ending? Not in a Marvel movie. In a Marvel movie the end is just the beginning as evidenced by not one, but two stingers at the end of Winter Soldier… the last of which should have been accompanied by dun, dun, dunnnnn.
So, when I say this is “just another Marvel movie”, everything above is what I’m talking about, and I haven’t even gotten into how each of these is essentially a long-form episode in a theatrical mini-series that, based on recent reports, is already planned out through 2028. But I’ve touched on that and everything else I’m saying here in some form or another over the course of what is now nine movie reviews, which is why I didn’t do it again in my Winter Soldier review.
Is it imperative that a review of a Marvel movie must be just as “rinse and repeat” as the movie itself or, whether you like the movies or not, can we just agree on what they are… Product and money-driven properties that are made just so more product and money-driven properties can be made.
All of that said, I still had some fun with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I enjoyed the opening and some of the action sequences. I liked seeing Redford in there, doing his best to pretend he was in a ’70s thriller and had the story between Captain and the Winter Soldier actually been what the movie was about then just maybe I would have even found more enjoyment in the narrative.
Maybe it was wrong of me to just label Winter Soldier as “just another Marvel movie”, but at the very least I can now reference this article going forward as I highly doubt the formula will change any time soon, though I’m praying Guardians of the Galaxy is as different as its characters.
