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Friday, March 28, 2014

Captain America The Winter Soldier Review: See you at the end of the line.

This is an awesome movie.  Some of the fight scenes are really good.  It's still a lot of close up shaky cam fighting, but they are so brilliantly choreographed that it makes up for a few headaches.  One of my favorites was early on in the movie between Captain America and Georges Batroc.  The whole thing amounted to a cameo by UFC mega-star Georges St.-Pierre but it is a perfect example of just how skilled and physical St.-Pierre really is. 

The story itself I struggle to find a way to talk about.  Because it's one of those things that if I say too much, it will give away the whole thing.  I'm even having a hard time coming up with a witty title for this article! 

I'll try to be generic: someone wants to attack S.H.I.E.L.D. and they hired Winter Soldier to do the job.  That really is about as generic I can be without going into spoilers. 

If I had any criticism for this movie it would be that it was too much story.  This felt to me like it could've been two movies.  A lot happens.  A lot.  I wish I could talk about it, but I just can't.

But this is what I mean by a smart action movie.  Forget that it's a comic movie for a while, this movie touches on some very strong themes that need to be discussed.  For example, how far are we willing to go for security?  How far is too far?  What would we do if we ever went too far?  Could we ever go back?  These are not easy questions and should be discussed. 

Once again the acting was just brilliant.  When a minor character like Brock Rumlow makes an impact on a jaded movie freak like me, you know they did something awesome.  Rumlow is played by Frank Grillo and he was wonderful.  The only person I felt delivered a better performance was Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce.  I don't know how much of his soul he sold to have such ungodly acting talent, but it was a steal. 

Another thing I really enjoy about the Captain America films is that there's so much more attention given to the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.  We get to see a lot more of Agent Maria Hill in time.  There's also a lot of Black Widow to go around.  With movies like Iron Man or Thor, the story is usually much more centered on the hero.  With Captain America, they really go that extra mile to say that the hero isn't Captain America but instead is Steve Rogers.  Cap might be a super soldier, but he's still the same good and decent man.  He's still an every man.  It's why I like him so much.

This is a must see.

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