There’s a moment in Avengers
Assemble where Tony Stark/Iron Man and Steve Rogers/Captain America are
arguing, and Stark says ‘It’s not really my style.’, to which Rogers replies
snidely ‘…and you’re all about style, aren’t you?’. In a way, this one line
encapsulates the difference between the different strands of the Marvel
cinematic universe. After the high-octane thrill rides that were Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World brought the style, Captain America: The Winter Soldier brings the substance.
The latest instalment in the Marvel franchise follows Steve
Rogers (Chris Evans) in the months following Avengers Assemble, adjusting to life in the 21st century
and helping S.H.I.E.L.D, led by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) track down and
eliminate threats, with the help of an elite commando unit led by Black Widow
(Scarlett Johansson). Upon returning from a successful mission with some key
enemy information, the tables are turned and a nefarious unit within
S.H.I.E.L.D make it their mission to track down Captain America, who goes
undercover with Black Widow to discover the truth.
Whilst the two previous films felt more like
action-adventure romps, The Winter
Soldier feels more like a cold-war espionage era thriller that just happens
to have a couple of great big special effects sequences in it. Whilst Iron Man 3 – which I really liked – felt
somewhat all over the place in terms of pacing, this feels much more coherent
and sticks to a much tighter narrative structure, which works very well. Even
when the plot twists do make themselves known – and I can assure you that you
won’t expect them – the story remains coherent and ordered. Much like the first
hour or so of Avengers, this film
takes it’s time to give proper, fleshed-out character development, in such a
way that even the audience who just turned up to see things explode won’t find
it dull. It’s all offset with the reliable Marvel humour and a visual style
that is cleaned to a mirror-shine, the fantastic digital cinematography really
bringing out the colour in the costumes and the polished surfaces of the
S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters.
The leads all give very fine performances; Evans retains his
role of trying to keep things morally straight, Johansson continues her
alluringly deadly facade but conflicted under the surface. Samuel L. Jackson is
always reliably grumpy as Fury and new-comer to the franchise Robert Redford is
very good as a morally suspect S.H.I.E.L.D executive. When the action sequences
do turn up, they’re a well-balanced mix of in-camera effects and CGI, the
hand-to-hand fights packing a real punch in terms of visuals and thumping sound
effects, and the great big computer-generated effects still carry enough weight
to be believable.
The only issues with the film are that it stretches the mark
in terms of running time, and doesn’t have the fun-factor that felt much more
prevalent in the former Marvel films, plus it has little to contribute to the
Marvel cinematic universe as a whole (save for a very brief post-credits
scene). Captain America: The Winter
Soldier is still a worthy addition to the canon, making its mark with an
intriguing story, well-developed characters and some extremely well put
together action sequences. Roll on, Avengers
2.
4 Stars
4 Stars
