Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Samuel L .Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Cobie Smulders, Emily Van Camp, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, Jenny Agutter, Alan Dale, Bernard White, Garry Shandling, Maximiliano Hernández, Frank Grillo, Georges St-Pierre, Callan Mulvey, Stan Lee, Gary Sinise, Ed Brubaker, Thomas Kretschmann, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
The greatest threat to us all doesn’t stand in the way of Governments but in the actions of people who place the world of order and subjugation in a higher setting than the responsibility to individuality. The way in which the chaotic nature of the universe is transplanted into the powerful suggestion that as beings with responsibility thrust upon our shoulders we should however be herded like cattle into not having free will is just too much for some and the control they seek should always be fought with more furious anger than any that should be directed at who we are told by those in charge to hate.
As the Marvel comic book machine has ever pumped onwards, best-selling title following successful film franchise, it is heartening to know there is still the ultimate hero in which to cheer on and throughout Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the sight of Steve Rodgers, the man who came back from the dead many years after the end of his fight for freedom was one in which rally round.
Perhaps topically, for there is always an enemy in which the Governments in each hemisphere want you to believe will cause the next disturbance in world peace, this was not a film in which the foe was clear cut, rather than Germany, Russia, China or some rogue state in the world, the enemy was from within. Your next door neighbour, your colleague, your brother or your brother in arms could be on the wrong side in this battle and in perhaps the greatest nod to the disturbing times that lay in American history, the almost sinful McCarthy Communist trials of the last century, the seed is planted in which to mistrust everybody.
Whilst the parameters are such in any superhero film that the action or even effects are the main star, much should be made of Chris Evans’s portrayal as the slightly disillusioned and less starry-eyed Captain America. In this film the blue eyes of hope are replaced with realisation that all he fought for before and even in the battle that raged in New York in the Avengers film has been for nothing, the same fight against freedom is being waged and just because it wears a smile and a suit rather than a mad man thundering and taking a country with him to the extremes of human depravity, doesn’t mean it should be blindly followed.
Also of huge merit in the film are the exceptional Samuel L .Jackson, who plays the head of S.H.I.E.L.D Col. Nick Fury with the same heady destruction as he did in the 1991 film Jungle Fever, the excellent Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, who surely by now should be asking for a film of her own in which to explore the complexity and fluid moral nature of The Black Widow and Anthony Mackie who brings an exceptional quality to the screen as The Falcon and makes a character that never really touches the hearts of many who read the graphic novels, seem noble, important and vital to the story and the struggle for personal individuality.
As in all films, the urge to go as soon as the credits roll is overpowering but in one of those exceptional twists that the makers of the Marvel film franchise employs to great effect, to leave before you really should would deprive you of seeing perhaps arguably one of the greatest creations in Marvel history.
You either love Comic book film adaptations or you don’t, there really is no grey area to found within but Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a winning combination of great action and thoughtful script writing that goes beyond the traditional square jaw and rippling muscles offered in some film instalments.
Ian D. Hall