Captain America - The Winter Soldier (2014)

Time for Captain America to get his second solo outing. After a couple of relatively disappointing solo films following The Avengers, had the MCU lost the magic of their first 5 films? Could they recover it? In my opinion Captain America – The First Avenger, stood second only to The Avengers in terms of quality, so the expectations were high. It was going to be a challenge though, because the first film had the backdrop of the second World War, and support from characters like Peggy Carter and actors like Tommy Lee Jones. In his other appearance in the modern day, Steve had the advantage of being in an ensemble cast and having their characters to bounce off. This time he carried the film and it was set in the current age.

Captain America – The Winter Soldier was a game changer, and I rate it as the second best of the MCU films, it’s almost impossible to knock The Avengers off that perch for me.

Chris Evans saddled up as Captain America again. An aged up Hayley Atwell played a Peggy suffering tragically from dementia in a small role. The interesting decision was made to pair the boy scout persona of Steve Rogers up with the dangerous and morally conflicted Natasha Romanov wonderfully portrayed by Scarlett Johansson (I still can’t understand why she hasn’t got a movie of her own and saying that she’s the co-star of The Winter Soldier, which she is, doesn’t really cut it). Samuel Jackson returned as Nick Fury and had quite a significant part. Interestingly Sebastian Stan also came back, despite Bucky having been killed in Captain America.

Smaller roles were taken by Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill (I love Maria and wish they’d use her more), and Stan Lee once again had a cameo, this time as a security guard who finds Cap’s uniform missing from its exhibit. Jenny Agutter reprised her role as a member of the council. Powers Boothe was replaced by Alan Dale, so the Australian connection remained, although Dale is originally from NZ.

New characters on the side of good were Sam Wilson (aka The Falcon) played by Anthony Mackie and Emily Van Camp as Agent 13 (aka Sharon Carter), written in as a love interest for Steve, and how surprising she just happens to be related to Peggy!

A few bad guys returned: Toby Jones’ Zola came back in quite a surprising way, and confirmed that the Allies should have found a way to have him conveniently die in custody when they captured him. Maxmilian Hernandez’s Agent Sitwell came back and we saw his true colours as an agent of Hydra, same went for Gary Shandling’s crooked Senator Stern.

It’s a measure of how big these films now are that they could sign Hollywood royalty in the form of Robert Redford and cast him as bad guy Alexander Pierce. He was absolutely brilliant and the way he casually shoots his housemaid for seeing something she shouldn’t have is chilling. Frank Grillo played SHIELD turned Hydra operative Rumlow (readers of Marvel comics would see that Brock Rumlow would become villain Crossbones from his final scene). Another SHIELD/Hydra operative was Aussie character actor Callan Mulvey, he specialises in playing mean looking types. I appreciated seeing Georges Batroc as played by Georges St Pierre. Not sure if Batroc will return, 

but I remember him as admittedly a 2^nd rate villain, but a fun one.

The Russo brothers directed and while I hadn’t heard of them before I have to admit that they were the best directors of an MCU film since Joss Whedon helmed The Avengers.

The reintroduction of Hydra and showing how they’d insinuated themselves into every level of government and law enforcement worldwide, especially in the US, was a game changer for the MCU. It didn’t just affect this film. It reverberated through the storyline of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV show and turned it from a fairly lightweight, pedestrian affair into something else different and much better. It also came up during the 3^rd Captain America film, Civil War and will continue to run through the films going forward.

The Winter Soldier is a very different film for a superhero film. It was as much tight, action packed, modern day spy thriller as it was superhero film. There was cross and double cross, it featured spies and had secrets from the past re emerging to affect the present. It was rather like a Daniel Craig era Bond film with superheroes added.

There was great chemistry between Natasha and Steve and I’m really not sure why they didn’t follow this up, rather than trying to pair Natasha up with Bruce/Hulk and Steve with Sharon. Both pairings are extremely forced and as a result don’t come across as particularly believable.

Just like with The Avengers this was going to be hard to top and while the MCU’s next move in trying something completely different was surprising, I think it meant that they wouldn’t make the same mistakes they had made in how they tried to follow up The Avengers.

Captain America - The First Avenger (2011)

Captain America: The First Avenger, was released in 2011, the same year as Thor, and the title left everyone in no doubt as to what the film would be about and what it’s focus was. Interestingly it was titled The First Avenger, when Captain America was the last Avenger to be introduced to audiences. The reason for the seemingly incorrect title became apparent in the second sequence of the film, even before the character of Steve Rogers was introduced. It’s set in 1943.

I was a little concerned when I first heard that Captain America would be set in the ‘40’s. I know that’s when the character was first created, and the 2^nd World War forms a large part of his back story, but Iron Man, the Hulk and Thor were all created in the ‘60’s, and yet they were updated to the 

current day.

Having been owned by Disney since 2009 and having made 4 genuine hits gave Marvel the chance to play around and do expensive things. One of the most expensive types of movies to make are period pieces, and Captain America was not only a period piece, it was a period piece with modern day effects and technology behind it. I’m sure that they probably got a few things wrong, but if they did I couldn’t spot them and the film was to me, easily the most impressive thing the franchise had done to date.

Casting was again solid, with some really well known names and faces in it, along with the occasional surprised.

Chris Evans was a good choice as Captain America, he had the All American clean cut looks that the role required. He was also not a newcomer to Marvel films having played Johnny Storm, the Human Torch in the 2005 version of The Fantastic Four as well as it’s 2007 sequel. That made him the first actor to have played 2 major Marvel heroes. He played the role with the earnestness that it required. From his early appearances as the 90 pound weakling (thanks to some excellent CGI) to his post experimentation phase as the muscly, archetypal super hero. In Steve Rogers, Marvel and Evans delivered us their first genuinely good guy as a hero. Tony Stark is a self centred, obnoxious brat who no one ever said no to. Bruce Banner is a driven scientist whose hubris causes him to turn himself into a monster and while Thor grew and changed throughout the course of his movie, he began it as a spoilt, arrogant and entitled character. Steve is just a decent bloke who believes in standing up for himself and others and is prepared to sacrifice himself for the greater good if that’s what it takes.

British actress Hayley Atwell landed the role of the feisty British intelligence agent Peggy Carter. She would also became Steve’s love interest. This was the first time I felt the affair between the two leads made sense. I’ve discussed why I don’t think Pepper and Tony work, I got the same from Banner and Betsy Ross (of course that one is doomed from the start because of what Banner does to himself), and while Thor and Jane worked on one level, it seemed on screen that it was only put in there because it was required. Atwell worked out so well in the role of Peggy and was so popular with audiences that Marvel even gave her a spin off TV show called Agent Carter. It unfortunately only lasted two seasons, before ABC cancelled it due to ratings. Again, I feel that ratings were only part of it, it was by necessity a period piece and they are horrendously expensive. I may, time and personal desire permitting, do a rewatch of the TV show after I’ve finished the films.

Keeping up the Australian connection from Thor, Hugo Weaving was cast as the villain; Baron Johann Schmidt (aka The Red Skull, although I don’t think he’s ever referred to that way in the film). Weaving is one of Australia’s most decorated and in demand actors, and he’s managed to rack up credits in 3 hugely popular franchises, adding the MCU role to his parts in Lord of the Rings and the Matrix films. The Schmidt role required him to sneer and threaten a lot and he does that very well, managing to play the vicious megalomaniac very successfully.

Schmidt’s offsider Dr. Armin Zola was played by British actor Toby Jones. Jones’ lack of height makes him stand out and he’s very good at playing mad scientist types like Zola.

The veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones, with his gravelly voice and deadpan delivery is perfectly cast as the no nonsense army man Colonel Chester Phillips and he gets some of the best lines in the film, especially during Steve’s basic training phase. When he throws himself on what he believes to be a live grenade, thus ensuring that he’ll be the choice for the super soldier program and rendering Phillips’ own choice redundant, he growls, ‘He’s still skinny!’

The ever reliable Stanley Tucci played the creator of the super soldier serum that created both villain and hero, Dr. Abraham Erskine. He’s an interesting contrast to Zola, as well. Tucci’s also done his share of popular franchises, later adding Transformers and The Hunger Games to his MCU credit.

Relative newcomer Sebastian Stan landed the prize role of Steve’s best friend James Buchanan ‘Bucky’ Barnes. Barnes role was one that was significantly altered from the original one in the comics where he’s Captain America’s teenage sidekick.

Dominic Cooper was the younger version of Howard Stark in this one. It’s not a large role, but it is an important one. Stark develops an interest in Peggy, which makes Steve briefly jealous and he’s also the person who invents the iconic shield. A few words on the shield. It is introduced as a bit of a gag, meaning Steve has to test its effectiveness when an annoyed Peggy unloads a full clip of bullets into it at point blank range, stalking off, and leaving a stunned Steve and Howard in her wake with the words, ‘It works!’ However, when Howard first shows the shield to Steve he tells him that it’s a prototype he doesn’t expect will be accepted, even though it’s composed of the rare metal vibranium and he used their entire stock on it. That seemed a little odd, although it does highlight Howard’s penchant for excess.

Neil McDonough cameoed as the bowler hatted Howling Commando Timothy ‘Dum Dum’ Dugan, playing a good guy for once, Kenneth Choi, a well known face (especially for watchers of Sons of Anarchy) played Asian American soldier Jim Morita. Jenna Coleman (who would later become Dr. Who’s companion Clara Oswald) was one of Bucky’s dates in the early part of the film. Natalie Dormer, fairly fresh from playing Anne Boleyn in The Tudors, was an unnamed femme fatale who tried to lure Steve into her clutches (she would later earn fame as Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones). Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield) played a Schmidt sent assassin. Stan Lee found himself impersonating a high ranking military official. Samuel L. Jackson reprised his role as Nick Fury. Clark Gregg’s Coulson did not appear in this one.

Veteran director Joe Johnson was chosen to direct and he did a top notch job, dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s. He delivered a great product and got some excellent performances.

Captain America continued the story of the Tesseract, having it fall into the clutches of Schmidt, although how it wound up for centuries in a church in Norway I don’t know. Before Loki tried to use it, it was in Asgard and that seemed to be modern day, but we did see how Fury got his hands on it later in this film.

Steve Rogers was the final piece of the Avengers puzzle, and being the man out of time suits him perfectly.

The love story between Peggy and Steve works, from their awkward beginnings at basic training and him pointing out all the places in Brooklyn that he was beaten up, to their making a tentative date and their tearful farewell as Steve tells her that his only option is to put Schmidt’s plane down in freezing arctic waters and they’ll be unlikely to mount a rescue operation in time to save him.

There’s Bucky’s tragic end while on a dangerous mission, with Steve unable to save his best friend.

Captain America is an epic in every sense of the word and even if we didn’t have The Avengers to come this still would have stood on it’s own as an excellent example of a super hero film.

This film was also the introduction of Hydra, an organisation that would cast a big shadow over the MCU in general, but especially Steve Rogers and anyone associated with him, especially Fury and S.H.I.E.LD.

Joss Whedon at the head of The Avengers had a hard act to follow, could he do it?